Academy Programme for Sport Science and Physical Activity 2024

Background

The strategic objective of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture is to base its decision-making more firmly on research data. The Ministry examines sport science research as part of knowledge-based management.

The Ministry provides funding for sport science research, the dissemination of research data and other activities promoting the knowledge-based management of physical activity in accordance with its Strategy for Knowledge-Based Management of Physical Activity (PDF) (in Finnish only, summary available in English).

Responsibility for the government grant process for sport science was transferred from the Ministry to the Research Council of Finland with an amendment to the Act on the Promotion of Sports and Physical Activity, which entered into force in February 2023. For this purpose, the Research Council is launching the Academy Programme for Sport Science and Physical Activity. The Research Council and the Ministry will continue to cooperate in funding sport science research within the framework of the programme.

Objectives

The aim of the programme is to advance the quality, renewal and impact of research on physical activity and sports. The programme will generate new knowledge to promote physical activity by directing funding to high-quality and innovative sport science research. The programme also aims to promote international and national research and stakeholder cooperation as well as communication.

The research-based knowledge created through the programme will contribute to increasing understanding and creating solutions to societal and public health challenges related to physical activity and sports. The research knowledge can contribute to promoting conditions for a physically active lifestyle and for equality as well as for increasing participation in physical activity and sports and improving results and responsibility in performance sports.

In targeting research funding, attention will be paid to the relevance of the research projects in supporting sport policy. The funding aims to strengthen accountability, inclusion, community, equality and nondiscrimination in sport science research, targeting different population groups and different forms of sport, both at amateur and competitive level. With the aim of strengthening the societal impact of sport science research, the programme gives priority to research projects with a high applicability.

Themes

The thematic areas of the programme are based on the impact objectives set for the sports sector. The Ministry has outlined the following themes as a basis for targeting funding:

• promoting a physically active lifestyle
• ensuring equal access to physical activity
• increasing participation in sports and physical activity
• achieving results and responsibility in performance sports.

Eligible research projects are to address one or more of these research themes. Applicants must justify the theme of the research and describe what new knowledge the project will generate to promote the theme. The aim is to support research projects across a variety of disciplines. Collaboration between different research fields in sport science is considered an advantage.

The application should also take into account future agents of change in line with the principles of sustainable development, and consider the opportunities or threats these may pose to achieving the project’s objectives. These agents of change may by societal, technological, economic, ecological or political.

In making the funding decisions, attention will also be paid to the broader societal impact of the projects and their relevance for sport policy. Applicants should therefore pay particular attention to the description of societal impact and its objectives, methods, target groups and manifestation.

The funding may be applied for by individual research teams or consortia composed of two or more research teams. The consortium parties may represent one or several research organisations.

A consortium application is an application built around a joint research plan, where each party to the consortium applies for funding. The Research Council of Finland treats a consortium application as a single application, although the funding is granted to each subproject separately. Consortium compositions cannot be changed after the call deadline. Read the guidelines for consortium applications.

In addition to a doctoral degree, the principal investigator (PI) of the proposed project must also have other significant scientific merits. Usually the PI is a researcher at the professor or docent (adjunct professor) level. These criteria also apply to subproject PIs in consortia. In addition, the applicant must have a close connection with Finland to support the implementation of a multi-year project. This connection must be evident from the application.

The PI of the application cannot be changed while the application is being processed (after the call has closed but before the decision). The only exception to this is if the PI dies.

Special terms and restrictions

In this call, we will consider (process) only one application per applicant (incl. consortium subproject).

A research project cannot receive simultaneous funding for the same purpose from two separate funding schemes of the Research Council of Finland. Nevertheless, if you apply for funding for different parts of a large-scale project simultaneously from both the Academy Programme for Sport Science and Physical Activity and another Research Council funding scheme, you must submit the applications to both calls and with different research plans.

If you submit more than one application to the programme call, or two identical applications to two different calls in the winter call 2024, only the first application to arrive will be considered (processed).

If you are the principal investigator of an ongoing, Ministry-funded sport science research project, we will not consider (process) your application to this Academy Programme.

You must immediately notify us if you receive funding from other sources for the same purpose after you have submitted your application to us.

We will not consider (process) an application by a person who has participated in the planning of the Academy Programme to an extent likely to give them a comparative advantage over other applicants This condition also applies to members of preparation or steering groups or permanent experts for the programme concerned.

Applications by members of the Research Council of Finland’s Board and scientific councils and members of the Strategic Research Council will not be processed during their terms.

We will not process an application if the applicant has been found guilty of research misconduct in the three years preceding the year of the call.

If the application includes cooperation with Russia or Belarus, you must take into account our policies on the matter.

If you have not submitted a final report on a completed or ongoing Research Council-funded project by the set deadline, we may decide not to consider (process) your application.

An application will not be considered (processed) if the applicant or the application does not meet the competence requirements or other key requirements, or if there are otherwise no conditions for processing the case.

A scientific council or another decision-making body may decide not to fund an application based on science policy objectives, or if it is apparent for some other reason that the applicant cannot receive funding with the submitted application.

Read more about the circumstances that may cause us not to process or review an application.

The Research Council of Finland’s funding budget for this call within the programme comes to a maximum of 2.45 million euros. The funding comes to up to 450,000 euros for an individual research project, and up to 650,000 euros for a consortium for a period of 36 months The funding period is 1 September 2024–31 August 2027.

The funding is primarily intended towards the salaries of researchers who work full-time on the project and for other project costs.

The funding to be distributed through this call depends on the Finnish Parliament’s decision to allocate the necessary funds to the Research Council of Finland in the 2024 state budget.

The funding is granted to a Finnish site of research (usually a university or research institute) through which the funding is paid.

The PI of the funded project must have a close connection with Finland to support the implementation of a multi-year project. The funded researchers may, however, spend time working abroad during their funding period.

Funding plan

In the application, provide a cost estimate including an estimate of the annual amount of funding needed, itemised by type of expenditure. Also include a funding plan that shows all funding granted for the project as well as funding that will be provided by the site of research if the project is launched.

Before submitting the application, you must agree with the administration at your organisation on the contribution of the site of research to the funding of the project. Only costs that pass through the books of the site of the research must be included in the total costs. You must check with your organisation whether the funding planned as the own funding contribution suits this purpose.

The funding applied for from the Research Council of Finland must not exceed 70% of the total project costs. The cost estimate must be realistic.

The most significant research costs to be funded are justified by type of expenditure in the free-text field on the tab ‘Funding for the project’.

You can apply for funding to cover, for example, the following direct research costs:

• research team salaries
• PI’s salary costs (under certain limitations)
• salaries of researchers returning to Finland
• essential implementation costs
• travel expenses
• collaboration and mobility in Finland
• international collaboration and mobility
• preparation of international projects.

Our funding cannot be used for economic activity. Read more about the eligibility of economic operators.

Only for compelling reasons can government grants be awarded to cover salary costs in cases where the applicant has obstacles related to illegal employment, as referred to in section 7(2) of the Finnish Act on Discretionary Government Transfers.

Research team salaries

As a rule, staff hired with Research Council research funding must have an employment relationship. We recommend that they be hired for a period of employment no shorter than the funding period, unless a shorter contract is necessary for special reasons dictated by the implementation of the research project.

Short-term research, studies or other assignments (max. duration six months) may also be carried out in the form of outsourced services.

The salaries to be covered with the funding must be determined according to the usual salary level of the site of research.

Salary costs of principal investigator

The PI’s salary costs may only under certain limitations and on justifiable grounds be incorporated into the total project costs for project management, supervision of theses and research work. The PI’s salary is entered under ‘Salary of principal investigator’ in the online services. In order for the salary costs to be eligible, the PI’s tasks must be clearly specified.

The salary costs must not be significant in relation to the project’s total costs. The PI’s salary costs, including indirect employee costs and overheads, may not exceed half of the funding applied for from the Research Council of Finland.

If the PI does not have an employment relationship with, for example, a university or research institute for the duration of the funding period, they must explain how their salary will be covered during the funding period on the tab ‘Salary of principal investigator’ in the online services.

Retired researchers can be granted funding on the same grounds as other researchers.

Mobility aid in research projects

The mobility aid is applied for as research costs related to the implementation of the research plan. The aid is applied for in accordance with the practices of the site of research. In order to obtain further information, you should contact the personnel and financial administration of the site of research.

In the online services, the aid is applied for on the tab ‘Funding for the project’ under ‘Travel expenses’. The mobility aid must be justified. Read more about the mobility aid in the funding terms and conditions.

What is required from the site of research?

We require that the site of research (e.g. a university, research institute or research organisation; see guidelines for sites of research) provides the research project with all necessary basic facilities. These are determined based on the nature of the research and are the same as those available to other research staff at the site: office and laboratory premises, equipment (incl. computer equipment), and telecommunications, telephone, mailing, copying and library services.

When accepting the funding, the site of research is responsible for ensuring that necessary statements and permits from ethics committees have been obtained before the start of the project.

The costs of ensuring immediate open access to peer-reviewed articles are included in the overheads of the site of research and are thus part of the basic facilities provided by the site. The costs associated with storing and sharing research data are regarded as overheads for the project’s site of research. Only exceptionally and for justified reasons can they be accepted as research costs to be covered by Research Council research funding.

The site of research also commits to ensuring that the data management plan can be implemented at the site of research, and that the measures to be taken comply with good data management practice. After a positive funding decision, the site of research will also approve the data management plan of the project.

Read more on the commitment by the site of research.

The application must also include the overheads percentage, indirect employee costs and coefficient for effective working hours of the site of research. The site of research will see to that this information is kept up to date in the online services. The information is provided as percentages.

When the site of research is a university or a research institute, as a rule, the funding must be applied for VAT included. Consult the financial administration at the site of research for more information. Our funding may also cover VAT costs, but only on certain conditions (see VAT and read more in our funding terms and conditions).

How to submit and supplement the application

The non-negotiable call deadline also applies to consortia. We will not consider (process) an application that has not been submitted by deadline. The deadline for applications is 17 January 2024 at 16.15 Finnish time.

The joint consortium application is submitted by the consortium PI. The PI can submit the consortium application only after all subproject PIs have tagged their applications as complete.

Make sure to submit the application in good time before the deadline. The system will only accept applications that contain all obligatory information. The applicant is responsible for ensuring that the content of the application appendices is correct.

You can edit and supplement the application until the deadline. You can make changes to a submitted application (e.g. change appendices), but you must make them before the deadline.

If you notice that your application lacks important information after the deadline, immediately get in touch with us via our helpdesk, so that the application can be reopened for supplementation. We will consider the supplemented information if it is possible in view of the review and decision-making process.

We may ask you to supplement the application. The request for supplementation will be sent to you by email. If you do not supplement the application by the given deadline, or if the application is substantially incomplete even after a request for supplementary information, we may decide to dismiss it (i.e. it will not be processed). You must make sure that your contact details (email address) are up to date.

How the application becomes pending

According to section 17 of the Finnish Administrative Procedure Act and section 8 of the Act on Electronic Services and Communication in the Public Sector, the sender is responsible for the application arriving by the set deadline.

An application becomes pending when the online application and the obligatory appendices have been submitted in the online services. The system will confirm a successful submission by sending an email to the address you have provided.

If you fail to submit a final report on a completed or ongoing project according to our guidelines, we may decide not to process your new application.

An application will not be processed if the applicant or the application does not meet the competence requirements or other key requirements, or if the application otherwise does not qualify for processing.

A scientific council or another decision-making body may decide not to fund an application based on science policy objectives, or if it is apparent for some other reason that the applicant cannot receive funding with the submitted application.

Read more about the circumstances that may cause us not to process or review an application.

Publicity and data protection

Except for the research plan, plan of intent, abstract and progress report, which are primarily confidential, the application and its appendices are public documents. For example, the CV is a public document and as such must not include any confidential information. This publicity is based on the Finnish Act on the Openness of Government Activities.

The Research Council of Finland is committed to following regulations on data protection. The applicant is responsible for the disclosure of the personal data contained in the application and, where appropriate, for requesting the consent of the parties concerned.

The GDPR-compliant privacy notice concerning the research funding process is available on our website under Data protection.

The application consists of forms completed in the online services and PDF appendices. As an applicant, you have the right to submit your application in Finnish or Swedish, but we ask that you to submit it in English to facilitate the international review.

Most of the links below take you to the A–Z index of application guidelines and our website.

Personal data

• Personal details
• Degrees (most recent one first); parental leaves etc. may be filled in under ‘Additional information’
• Titles of docent and professorships

General information

• Details on the site of research
• Title of research project in English and Finnish/Swedish
• Research fields (at least one, no more than five). See the research field classification.
• Keywords in English and Finnish/Swedish

Consortium parties (if applicable)

• Details on each party (name, email address, organisation and country)
• Read the guidelines for consortium applications.

Themes

• Indicate which theme/themes of the programme the project will address.

Abstract

• Maximum length 2,500 characters including spaces
• Brief overview of scientific and societal objectives, research methods and data as well as expected research results and impact
• See guidelines on the abstract.

Public project description

• Maximum length 1,000 characters including spaces
• Popular and reader-friendly description of the research project in English and Finnish/Swedish
• We will use the project description in our communications on the funded research project. It is important that the public description is written for a general audience. The project description is also stored at fi, a service that makes available information on research conducted in Finland.
• Read the guidelines on the public project description.

Funding for the project

• The project’s funding follows the full cost model. The Research Council of Finland’s funding contribution to the research costs comes to no more than 70%.
• Before you can fill in the cost estimate, you must first select the site of research on the tab ‘General information’.
• The site of research maintains the following percentages: effective working hours, indirect employee costs, overheads percentage and VAT. The information is provided as percentages.
• Enter the funding period.
• Enter salaries and other costs.
• If you are applying for funding for your own salary, select ‘Principal investigator’ from the drop-down menu. Please note that the salary requested for project management and supervision of theses must be entered on separate rows.
• Enter other funding sources and their funding contributions. You must immediately notify us if you receive funding from other sources for the same purpose after you have submitted your application to us.
• Justify the funding to be applied for by type of expenditure. The cost estimate must be realistic.
• Consult the administration at your site of research when filling in budget details. Read more about the funding in the call text under ‘Funding to be applied for and funding period’.
• The commitment of the site of research is a requirement for the granting of funding. Make sure you have a commitment from your site of research (usually a university or research institute) to supporting the project. Read more on the commitment by the site of research.

Salary of principal investigator

• Justifications, if salary costs for PI are included in the funding plan
• The PI’s salary costs may, under certain limitations, be incorporated into the total project costs: for project management and/or supervision of theses and/or research.
• If the PI does not have a permanent employment relationship for the duration of the funding period, include a salary plan for the PI covering the entire funding period
• Read more in the call text under ‘Funding to be applied for and funding period’.

Collaborators

• Project collaborators, itemised by collaborator (name, organisation, country).
• Describe the collaborators’ roles and project-relevant key merits and provide justifications for choosing them in section 3.2 of the research plan.
• We recommend that applicants append a letter of collaboration to the application. Read more about the letter. Letters of collaboration must be appended before the call deadline. After the call deadline, we will consider supplemented information if it is possible in view of the review and decision-making process.
• As applications are reviewed by international experts, we recommended that you write the letters of collaboration in English.

Mobility

• Describe planned national and international mobility within the project, itemised by person.
• See more information on mobility.
• We recommend that applicants append a letter of collaboration to the application. Read more about the letter.
• As applications are reviewed by international experts, we recommended that you write the letters of collaboration in English.

Affiliations

• Use of research infrastructure: Indicate what kinds of equipment, resources or data reserves provided by national or international research infrastructures the project plans to use. The menu includes infrastructures included in Finland’s national roadmap and/or ESFRI’s roadmap. Other possible infrastructures are entered in a free-text field. Learn more about research infrastructures.
• Part of a Finnish Centre of Excellence. Select from the options provided if the application is affiliated with an ongoing Centre of Excellence funded by the Research Council of Finland. Read more about Centres of Excellence.
• Part of a Finnish Flagship. Select from the options provided if the application is affiliated with the Research Council of Finland’s Finnish Flagship Programme. Read more about the Finnish Flagship Programme.

Research ethics

• Preliminary ethical review for project and/or animal testing permit (select yes/no)
• Found guilty of research misconduct (select yes/no). We will not process a funding application if the applicant has been found guilty of research misconduct in the three years preceding the year of the call.
• Guilty of illegal employment within the meaning referred to in section 7(2) of the Act on Discretionary Government Transfers (select yes/no)
• The research ethics description is entered under section 4 (Responsible science) of the research plan. Read more about research ethics.

Progress report

• If you have ongoing funding from us or completed projects for which a final report has not yet been submitted, you must prepare a progress report. This does not apply to applicants acting as the responsible person for an ongoing project in funding schemes where the funding recipient is an organisation or to applicants who are PIs for ongoing subprojects in consortia.
• This tab shows the projects to be reported on.
• Maximum length per project is 1,500 characters including spaces.
• Describe the progress and/or key achievements of the project and how the project is related to the funding being applied for.
• Read more about drafting the report.
• Also see the How-to guides for the online services.

Most relevant publications and other key outputs

• The PI/consortium PI enters up to ten of their own/the consortium’s own most important project-relevant publications and up to ten of their own/the consortium’s own research outputs, with justifications.
• You can retrieve publication details from the VIRTA publication information service. Also see our how-to guide for the online services.
• There are separate fields for selected publications and other research outputs. If the desired output type is not listed, select ‘Other, what?’ and enter the name of the output.
• Details on publications may also be entered manually. Obligatory information: author(s), title, year of publication, name of series/journal, type of publication (the type will not show in the PDF version of the application).
• Do not enter journal-based metrics on publications and research outputs. Read more about responsible researcher evaluation.
• The information is used to assess the competence of the applicant or consortium to carry out the project.

CV

• Maximum length three pages
• Write the CV on our template and append it as a PDF appendix on the dedicated tab in the online services.

Research plan

• Maximum length twelve pages, 15 pages for consortium projects
• Write the research plan on our template and append it as a PDF appendix on the dedicated tab in the online services.
• See the guidelines on the structure of the research plan. You must follow the given structure. Please use the headings provided.
• The application cannot be submitted if the system detects an error in the page configuration or the structure.
• See the how-to guides for the online services.

Other appendices

Appendices must be PDF files.

Obligatory appendices:

• Complete list of publications. Read the guidelines on the structure of the list of publications.

Case-specific appendices:

• Letter of collaboration. Read more about the letter. As applications are reviewed by international experts, we recommended that you write the letters of collaboration in English. Do not enter bibliometrics (e.g. h-index) for the collaborator. Letters of collaboration must be appended before the call deadline. After the call deadline, we will consider supplemented information if it is possible in view of the review and decision-making process.

Submit application

• You can submit the application when you have filled in or attached all the necessary information.
• The joint consortium application is submitted by the consortium PI. The PI can submit the consortium application only after all subprojects have tagged their applications as complete.
• A red warning triangle on the tab tells you that some information is missing.
• You can supplement and edit the application until the deadline. Resaving will replace the earlier version.
• If you want to supplement the application after the deadline, please get in touch with our contact persons listed in the call text.

Authorisation

• You can authorise another person to supplement or view your application.
• You cannot authorise more than one person at a time to edit a field in your application, and you cannot edit that same field while the authorisation is active. Do not authorise yourself.
• Start by entering the person’s name in the field. If the person has an account in the online services (SARA), they can be selected from the list.
• The person must have an account in our online services (SARA).
• See technical instructions on the authorisation process in the how-to guides for the online services.

Research Council of Finland funding is granted based on peer review. We mainly use foreign experts as reviewers, and they make up the review panels.

The review of applications follows a two-stage process. In the first stage, experts are asked to give at least two individual reviews on the application. Applications with an overall rating of 4, 5 or 6 from at least one expert will proceed to the panel review stage. The review panel will also rank the highest-rated applications.

The fundamental principles of the review are transparency, integrity, equity, competence and diversity. Read more about responsible researcher evaluation.

Review panel

In the winter call 2024, applications for funding from the Academy Programme for Sport Science and Physical Activity will be reviewed in panel number 34. You do not have to select the panel, as your application will automatically be directed to that panel.

Review criteria

• suitability of the proposed research in terms of the objectives of the programme (incl. societal impact)
• scientific quality, innovativeness and novelty value of the research as well as its impact within the scientific community
• feasibility of research plan (incl. responsible science)
• competence of applicant/research team in terms of project implementation, possible researcher training
• quality of research environment and collaboration networks (incl. researcher mobility)

See the rating scale and the review questions that will be used in the review: review form and review guidelines for Academy Programme for Sport Science and Physical Activity. The review guidelines and forms are only available in English.

After the scientific review, the steering group of the Academy Programme will examine the results of the review and prepare a proposal on projects to be funded. The final funding decisions are made by the programme’s subcommittee, which consists of representatives from the scientific councils of the Research Council of Finland and the Strategic Research Council who serve on the programme’s steering group.

The funding decisions will be made in June 2024 at the latest.

The projects to be funded shall:

• address one or several themes of the programme
• meet the programme’s objectives, particularly in terms of
  • demonstrating the wide-ranging societal impact of the research
  • demonstrating the relevance and applicability of the research project to support sport policy.

You will receive an email notification after the funding decision has been made. After receiving the email, you can log in to the online services with your user ID to view the decision and its justifications. In the online services, you will also have access to the review report(s), which may include the panel ranking (panels rank the best applications).

How to receive the funding

A positive funding decision is accompanied by the funding terms and conditions. If the funding is subject to conditions that differ from or specify the Research Council’s funding terms and conditions, these are indicated in the specific conditions of the decision notification.

Make sure to check the decision, read the funding terms and conditions and accept the funding in the online services without delay. This must be done within eight weeks of the decision date, unless otherwise stated in the special conditions of the decision notice.

If necessary, update the popular project description before you accept the funding. If a project is granted funding, we will publish a description of the project on our website. It is important that the public description is written for a general audience.

Make changes to the annual instalments, if necessary (see the instructions in our funding terms and conditions), and append the full data management plan (in consortium applications only consortium PIs do this).

Once you have accepted the funding, the system will send a notification to the commitment issuer at the site of research. That person must also accept the granted funding. See the how-to guide: Decision notification, review reports and accepting funding.

The funds can be paid only after the applicant and the representative of the site of research have accepted them. The system will then notify the funding to the finance administration of the site of research, whereupon the funds will be ready to use.

• Contact us primarily by email or via the helpdesk (direct message to Division of Biosciences, Health and Environmental Research)
• Also use the helpdesk (contact Division of Information Management) if you encounter technical issues in the online services.
• Our telephone number (switchboard) is +358 295 335 000.
• Our email addresses are in the format firstname.lastname(at)aka.fi.
• Sara Illman, Senior Science Adviser
• Rita Rinnankoski-Tuikka, Science Adviser