Competitive funding to strengthen university research profiles, PROFI 6 call 2020

The aim of the Competitive funding to strengthen university research profiles is to support and speed up the strategic profiling of Finnish universities in order to improve the quality of research. The funding is fixed-term and may be granted to support research areas chosen by Finnish universities based on their strategy. The funding aims to promote these areas. In their applications, universities are asked to provide an overall picture of their plans for profiling and distribution of work, both from the university’s perspective and in relation to other universities, if applicable.

Another aim is to contribute to intensifying strategic cooperation between Finnish universities and with universities of applied sciences, research institutes, hospital districts and other relevant actors, and to clarifying the responsibilities between these actors. The regional and thematic competitive clusters formed via such collaboration and distribution of work may also include actors from the private and nonprofit sectors.

Based on their own strategies, the universities will set out concrete plans for how they intend to improve the quality and impact of their research. In the plans, the universities describe how they intend to promote strengths, thematic research modules and/or emerging research fields, and provide a clear schedule for these measures. The applications should also include a description of how the universities intend to distribute work between and collaborate with other Finnish universities, universities of applied sciences, research institutes, hospital districts and other relevant actors. The applications must also include cost estimates.

In preparing and making the funding decisions, the Academy will consider the relationship between the funding applied for, the planned profiling measures and the universities research funding as a whole. It will also take into account the universities’ interim and final reports on previously funded profiling measures.

Funding can be applied for in one or several profiling areas. The university can choose the desired profiling area freely. The area can continue the previously planned development of a profiling area, be completely new or combine old profiling areas. 

Key concepts

A profiling area is a research area or a thematic research module that a university intends to develop according to its strategy. It is a carefully chosen part of the research conducted at the university.

Profiling areas can be:

• existing high-quality research areas or thematic research modules
• emerging fields or thematic research modules with potential to reach top level research
• new fields or thematic research modules with a great deal of potential.

A profiling measure is an action that a university aims to carry out to develop a chosen profiling area. Universities may start several measures to advance the same area.

Funding will be granted for a fixed term. The funding is applied for by universities, each university with its own application. Consortium applications will not be accepted.

The university names the person responsible for the application. They must begin filling in the application and submit it in the Academy’s online services.

The person responsible can authorise one or several persons to read or edit an incomplete application in the online services. You can authorise a person in the online services under Authorisation. Please note, that the authorisation is valid only when the call is open.

The Academy is prepared to fund measures supporting the research-related profiling of Finnish universities in the PROFI 6 call with 100 million euros.

The funding period will start on 1 January 2021 at the earliest and end no later than 31 December 2026.

The call is implemented following the full cost model. The Academy of Finland’s funding contribution comes to 100 per cent, covering the costs in full. The universities will not be required to contribute to the Academy’s funding.

Discretionary government transfers cannot overlap. The funding of an initiated profiling measure and/or area may, however, be continued with another PROFI funding decision.

Costs related to research infrastructures will be funded only if the infrastructure concerned is a ‘local infrastructure’ primarily operated by the university itself. The key instrument with which the Academy funds national and international research infrastructures is the funding provided by the Finnish Research Infrastructure Committee (FIRI). The Academy will not grant overlapping funding for research infrastructures.

The funding is granted to support the profiling measures specified in the action plan included in the application. The Academy will not make advance payments on the funding.

The funding must be used in accordance with detailed, annually revised funding terms and conditions.

Competent representatives of the applicant universities will submit the funding applications using the Academy of Finland’s online services. In the online services, the representatives will also issue a commitment on behalf of the site of research. Applications can be submitted as of 7 May 2020. The call closes on 16 June 2020 at 16.15 local Finnish time.

How to submit and supplement the application

Make sure to submit the application in good time before the deadline. The system will only accept applications that contain all obligatory information. You can edit and supplement the application until the deadline expires. If you notice that your application lacks important information after the deadline has expired, immediately get in touch with the call’s contact person, so that the application can be reopened for your supplementary additions. Make sure to re-submit the application after you have supplemented it. We will consider the additions insofar as it is possible in view of the review and decision-making process.

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 at the Academy 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 provided by the applicant.

Publicity and data protection

Under the Finnish Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999), an application and its appendices become public documents after the funding decisions are made. The Academy is committed to following regulations on data protection. The GDPR-compliant privacy statement concerning the research funding process is available on our website under Data protection.

The application consists of forms completed in the Academy’s online services. The action plan may be no longer than 30 pages. 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.

The online application consists of the following parts:

Personal data

• Personal details

Site of research

• Site of research
• Site of research, if other
• Website of site of research

Funding for the project – Following the Full cost model 100%

• Funding period, effective working hours, indirect employee costs, overheads percentage and VAT.
• Salaries and other costs. Use only one line for each salary category. For example, salaries for all the professors will be combined together.
• Commitment by site of research.

Summary

• Executive summary of this application
• An estimate of funding for the profiling areas.

*Previous PROFI funding from the Academy of Finland, relevant to this application
**University's own funding = core funding and own funds
***Other funding =  external funding except for PROFI funding

Action Plan

1. Brief description of the university’s strategy relevant for research
2. Description of each profiling area for which funding will be applied, following the structure below

   Name of profiling area:

   A) Justification for selection as a strategic profiling area

• On what grounds has the area been selected as a strategic profiling area and how is it linked to the university’s strategy?
• How is the area associated with the university’s other profiling areas?

   B) Measures, resources, schedule, follow-up, risk management

• Description of the profiling measures and justification for the amount of funding for which funding is sought.
• A short description of how the university will monitor the increase in research quality as well as the progress and impact of the profiling measures
• Description of the implementation risks and risk management

   C) Level of research

• What is the current international level of research in the profiling area at the university?
• Current strengths
• Core expertise of key personnel in the profiling area
• What is the aspired international level of research in the profiling area?
• Compared to the premise, how significant will the change be?
• How will the university ensure a sufficient level of research renewal?

   D) National and international collaboration

• Research environment including national and international collaboration
• Reasons and research related added value of the existing and the planned national and international strategic collaborations in the profiling area.

   E) Societal impact

• What is the relevance and significance of the measures as regards to promote knowledge transfer, competence-based growth and other needs in society?

Authorisation

• You can authorise another person to edit or view your application.
• Start authorisation by entering the person’s name in the field.
• The person must have set up an account in the Academy’s online services (SARA).
• 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.
• Technical instructions on the authorisation process are available in the How-to guides for the online services.

Submit application

• You can submit the application when you have filled in or attached all the necessary information. 
• A red warning triangle on the tab tells you that information is missing.
• You can supplement the application until the deadline expires. Resaving will replace the earlier version.
• If you want to supplement the application after the deadline has expired, please get in touch with the Academy’s contact person listed in the call text.

Academy of Finland funding is granted based on peer review. PROFI 6 applications will be reviewed by an international review panel in autumn 2020.

Representatives of university management will be called in to be interviewed by the panel. The review focuses both on a university’s overall action plan and on how significant, concrete and realistic each individual profiling area and measure is. The review report is based on the application and the interview. In addition to the review report, the panel will give an overall rating for the application and a rating for each profiling area. The review panel will also rank the applications.

Funding to strengthen university research profiles is granted based on the following review criteria:

• how the plan is linked to the university’s strategy and strategic development measures
• feasibility, credibility and follow-up of the proposed plan
• international level of research in the profiling area and plans for reaching or maintaining the international level of research in the profiling areas
• ensuring the creation of new, profiling-based initiatives and seeing to their resources
• the university’s overall commitment to profiling and developing the quality of research
• the significance and national added value of collaboration with other universities, research institutes and society at large (incl. infrastructure collaboration)
• the plan’s significance for promoting diverse societal impact

After the panel has given its review report, the Academy will send them to the universities for potential comments. This stage enables the correction of any factual mistakes or misunderstandings in the review report. The applicants have one week to correct any mistakes they identify (no more than two pages). Both the review reports and the universities’ comments are in use while the General Subcommittee appointed by the Academy Board makes the funding decisions.

The General Subcommittee will make the funding decisions during late 2020 and early 2021.

In preparing and making the funding decisions, the Academy will consider the relationship between the funding applied for, the planned profiling measures and the universities research funding as a whole. It will also take into account the universities’ interim and final reports on previously funded profiling measures.

How to receive the funding

After being granted funding, the person must check and accept it in the online services without delay. The system will then send a notification to the commitment issuer at the site of research. That person must also accept the granted funding.

The funds can be paid only after both the person responsible for the application and the representative of the site of research have accepted them as received. The system will then notify the funding to the finance administration of the site of research, whereupon the funds will be ready to use.

• The PROFI 6 call session materials from 28 January 2020 will be posted on the Academy’s website after the session. (link)
• You can ask questions about PROFI 6 on Twitter by using the tag #profi6
• Blog  (only in Finnish)