Finnish Flagship Programme 2020

The aim of the Academy of Finland’s Flagship Programme is to pool together expertise from different fields in Finland to form high-level research and impact clusters that will further contribute to increasing the quality and impact of Finnish research. A Flagship is an effective mix of cutting-edge research, impact in support of economic growth and/or society, close connections to the business sector and society at large, adaptability, and a strong commitment from host organisations to meeting the set targets.

Flagships are high-quality, high-impact competence clusters that work in flexible ways, simultaneously running several research projects and other activities. During the flagship term, the clusters will make ongoing progress and systematically improve and expand their activities.

This third call of the Flagship Programme targets funding towards competence clusters operating in a strong innovation-oriented environment and having active collaborations with the business sector and possibly with other sectors of society. The new Flagships to be selected will support the building of internationally competitive competence centres and ecosystems in Finland.

According to the National Roadmap for Research, Development and Innovation, the building blocks of Finland’s competitiveness and wellbeing are strong competence, research and innovation. Finland’s rise from the emergency caused by the pandemic and success in global competition require the generation of new knowledge, innovations that bring social benefits and added value, and a high level of competence.

To strengthen, broaden and increase the effectiveness of the competence spearhead, research and the networks that utilise it must be grouped into larger competence centres and ecosystems. Supported by the Finnish Government’s fourth supplementary budget for 2020, the Academy of Finland will advance this goal with its Finnish Flagship Programme and through its research infrastructure funding and funding for partnership networks.

Representatives of the applicant organisations will submit the 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 11 August 2020. The call closes on 2 September 2020 at 16.15 Finnish time. The non-negotiable call deadline also applies to consortia.

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. 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 the call’s contact person, so that they can reopen the application for you. 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. We may ask you to supplement the application. If you do not supplement the application by the given deadline, we may decide not to process it. 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 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 you have provided.

Publicity and data protection

Except for the research plan, plan of intent, abstract and interim 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 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.

To facilitate the review of applications, applicants are invited to provide the Academy with a non-binding notification of the thematic area of their Flagship application under preparation via email at flagship@aka.fi by 10 August 2020. The notification should include a preliminary title, the director’s/directors’ name/s and a few descriptive sentences about the thematic area.

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 on our website.

The online application contains the following parts

Personal data

• Personal details of the applicant/the organisation’s responsible person

Consortium parties

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

General information

• Details on the site of research
• Title of 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

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
• Read more about the abstract.

Most relevant publications

• Up to 20 of the most important project-relevant publications
• You can retrieve publication details from the VIRTA publication information service. See the how-to guides for the online services.
• Details on publications may also be entered manually. Obligatory information: author(s), title, year of publication, name of series/journal, type of publication (will not show in the PDF version of the application)

Affiliations

• Research infrastructures: 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. Read more about research infrastructures.
• Centres of Excellence in Research: Read more about Centres of Excellence.
• Finnish Flagships: Read more about the Finnish Flagship Programme.

Research ethics

• Ethical permission for project (yes/no)
• Found guilty of research misconduct (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.
• The research ethics description is entered under section 4 of the research and impact plan.
• See the ethical guidelines.

Funding for the project – 100% full cost model

• Funding period, effective working hours, indirect employee costs, overheads percentage and VAT. Note that funding is applied for the years 2020–2024 (see ‘Funding to be applied for and funding period’ for more details.
• Because of the terms stated in the fourth supplementary budget for 2020, applicants must draft their cost estimates as follows: about 12% of the total project costs must be realised in 2020, whereas about 22% of the total project costs must be realised on a yearly basis during 2021–2024.
• 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. Make sure you have a commitment from your site of research to supporting the project. Read more in the guidelines on the Commitment by site of research.

Public project description

• Maximum length 1,000 characters including spaces
• Popular and reader-friendly description of the research project in English and Finnish/Swedish
• The public description helps the Academy to disseminate information on the research project. The project description is also stored at fi, which makes available information on research conducted in Finland.
• Read the guidelines on the public project description.

Research and impact plan

• Maximum length 20 pages
• See the guidelines on the structure of the research and impact plan.
• See the how-to guides for the online services.

Appendices

Append only the requested appendices to the application and make sure to draft them in line with our guidelines. Also make sure not to exceed the maximum lengths indicated in the guidelines. Draft the appendices in English and append them to the application in PDF format.

Obligatory appendices

• Resource table following the structure in given in the template (4 pages + 1 page per partner). Describe the resources of the flagship candidate for the years 2018–2024. The figures are given with an accuracy of 0.1 million euro. In addition to the table, give a short textual explanation of the intended use of the funding. For each of the rows in the table, give a short explanation of the principles used in producing the figures in the table. Also include a short explanation of monitoring the resources allocated, together with a risk assessment related to the expected budget growth.

Case-specific appendices

• Letter of commitment: See the guidelines on the letter of commitment.

Authorisation

• You can authorise another person to supplement or view your application.
• Start by entering the person’s name in the field.
• The person must have 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.
• See technical instructions on the authorisation process 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 some information is missing.
• You can supplement 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 the contact persons listed in the call text.

• Resource table template (4 pages + 1 page per partner) to be appended to the application in PDF format.
• Frequently asked questions (in Finnish) (PDF)

The funding can be applied for by Finnish higher education institutions and government research institutes. Consortium applications are accepted. If you are applying as a consortium, see the guidelines for consortium applications on our website.

The research organisation names the person responsible for the application. This person must begin filling in the application and submit it in the Academy’s online services. Management representatives of the research organisation issue the commitment of the site of research 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.

Special terms and restrictions

Members of the Board, research councils and the Strategic Research Council of the Academy of Finland will not be granted Academy funding during their terms.

Funding cannot be granted to a person who has participated in the planning of the call to an extent likely to give them a comparative advantage over other applicants.

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.

The overall funding period is 1 July 2020–31 December 2024 (starts retroactively). The funding is granted with two separate fixed-term funding decisions. In 2020, the Academy of Finland is prepared to fund the selected Flagships with a total of approximately 25 million euros. In 2022, the Academy is expecting to grant an additional 20 million euros to the selected Flagships. The funding periods of the first and the second decision are 1 July 2020–30 November 2022 and 1 May 2022–31 December 2024, respectively.

The funding to be distributed through this call depends on the Finnish Parliament’s decision to allocate the necessary funds to the Academy.

Funding will not be granted to the currently ongoing Finnish Flagships.

The funding is granted to be used for the actions described in the research and impact plan.

Host organisations must be prepared to make a significant, steadily increasing investment in establishing and supporting the Flagships. Allocating funding not to individual research teams but to organisations that have a strong commitment to the Flagship Programme is a way to support the long-term development of competence clusters and their high-quality research and broad impact.

The resources planned for the Flagship and their development during the flagship term are described in a separate table to be appended to the application (see ‘Application parts and guidelines’ for more details).

Funding may be granted for economic activity only if it can be granted in keeping with the EU’s state aid rules in the form of de minimis aid.

Funding plan

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

Because of the terms stated in the fourth supplementary budget for 2020, applicants must draft their cost estimates as follows: about 12% of the total project costs must be realised in 2020, whereas about 22% of the total project costs must be realised on a yearly basis during 2021–2024.

Exceptionally, research-related costs can be accepted from 1 July 2020 onwards. The costs incurred before the funding decision may be invoiced if the applicant can demonstrate that the start-up or implementation of the project or activity in question requires that the recipient receive funding from a state aid authority.

The first payment of the funding has been brought forward and the related payment request must be submitted to the Academy by 14 December 2020. The last payment request concerning the funding must be submitted by 31 December 2024.

Advance payments are justified in cases where the start-up or implementation of the project or activity in question, according to the schedule and scope referred to in the decision, requires that the recipient receives funding from a state aid authority. For more details on advance payments, see our funding terms and conditions. Exceptionally, the one-off advance may account for up to 40% of the Academy’s funding contribution, and the advance payment must be requested by the site of research by 14 December 2020.

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.

What is required from the site of research?

We require that the site of research (e.g. university) 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 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. Read more in the guidelines on the commitment by 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 maintains these percentages in the online services under the site’s details.

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. The Academy’s funding may also cover VAT costs, but only on certain conditions (see Value added tax and read more in the funding terms and conditions).

Academy of Finland funding is granted based on peer review. We mainly use foreign experts as reviewers.

The review of applications will be carried out by a panel of experts. The panel will be supported by reviews requested from external reviewers, who will not participate in the panel. The panel will assess the applications assigned to them and prepare a written review report on each application.

The review reports by the panel and the external reviewers will be forwarded to the director and vice director of the flagship in autumn 2020. They will have one week to respond if they wish to do so. At this stage, the director and/or vice director have the possibility to comment on (max. 2 pages) the reviews in order to address factual, and only factual, inaccuracies. These comments will be considered by the decision-making body (see ‘Funding decisions’).

The applications will be reviewed paying close attention to the Flagship Programme’s objectives concerning internationally top-level research, impact in support of economic growth and society, and the role and participation of collaborators. Particular emphasis will be placed on the innovation orientation of the Flagship environment and active collaborations with the business sector and possibly with other sectors of society. Support provided by the Flagship for the building of internationally competitive competence centres and ecosystems in Finland, together with the principles of responsible science, will also play a role in the review.

Review criteria:

• Demonstrated scientific excellence and impact in support of economic growth and/or innovation ecosystem(s) and society
• Plan for promoting scientific excellence and impact in support of economic growth and/or innovation ecosystem(s) and society
• Ecosystem and organisation of candidate flagship

Read the review questions that will be used in the review: review form, review guidelines for panel and review guidelines for external reviewers. The Academy’s review guidelines and forms are only available in English.

The review panel will rank the applications that have received a rating of 5 or 6.

The funding decisions will be made by the Academy’s Flagship Programme Subcommittee based on the aims of the Flagship Programme, review reports of both the external reviewers and the review panel, comments received, and the significance and growth potential of the host organisation’s commitment.

The Flagship Programme Subcommittee will make the funding decisions by the end of 2020. The Subcommittee reserves the possibility to call the flagship candidate representatives for an interview before funding decisions are made.

The names and project titles of the funding recipients will be posted on the Academy of Finland’s website.

You will receive an email notification after the funding decision has been made. After receiving this message, you can log in to the online services with your user ID to view the decision and its justifications. You can also read the funding conditions, if the decision has been favourable. In addition, you will have access to read the expert reviews on your application.

How to receive the funding

After being granted funding, the responsible 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. This must be done via the Academy’s online services within eight weeks of the decision date, unless otherwise stated in the special conditions of the decision notification.

Before you accept the funding, update the popular project description (if necessary), make changes to the annual instalments (if necessary) and attach the data management plan (drafted according to the guidelines). 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.

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.