Academy of Finland grants Academy Project funding for 59 research projects in social sciences and humanities

The Academy of Finland’s Research Council for Culture and Society today granted nearly 31 million euros in funding for 59 new Academy Projects. The funded projects consist of a total of 78 subprojects.

The Academy Project funding scheme is the most important funding instrument of the Research Council for Culture and Society for promoting the impact and regeneration of research. In addition to the high scientific quality of the research plan, the Research Council pays special attention to projects that combine high quality with strong academic and societal impact and scientific renewal. The funding is granted based on the results of international peer review.

Professor Petri Karonen, Chair of the Research Council, said: “The funded projects represent a wide range of research fields and trends within the social sciences and humanities. The projects are scientifically top-tier, and they present innovative research hypotheses and methods that can contribute to creating new science. Many of them also contain an exceptionally strong societal impact dimension.”

The application success rate in this round rose to over 16 per cent. Karonen said: “We want this welcome development to continue in future calls, because despite everything and due to the great number of applications, many promising and scientifically robust projects were left without funding.”

Academy Project funding is intended for hiring a research team and for other research costs. The funding is granted to a Finnish university or research organisation that manages the use of funding on behalf of the Academy Project. Academy Project funding is granted for four years. The Academy of Finland monitors the impact of Academy-funded research.