FIRI: Research infrastructures as collaborative platforms

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. 

In order 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, research infrastructure funding and funding for RDI partnership networks.

The Finnish Research Infrastructure Committee at the Academy of Finland has drafted a Strategy for National Research Infrastructures in Finland 2020–2030 (PDF). The stated vision is that high-class research infrastructure services increase the impact and international attraction of the Finnish research, education and innovation system. The objective of the strategy is to promote the quality, competitiveness and renewal of research, to strengthen the broad-based impact of research environments and to increase national and international cooperation.

The aim of the present call (Research infrastructures as collaborative platforms) is to strengthen and develop the wide and diverse usability of research infrastructures and to support the establishment of competence centres. Through the call, the Academy of Finland seeks to support the development of research infrastructures, carried out in cooperation with the business sector, with the aim of creating a platform where research, education and innovation can intersect and evolve.

Prior and demonstrated cooperation between the applicant and at least one business partner is a requirement for being granted funding. The cooperation may also involve other actors.

Key concepts

Research infrastructure

Research infrastructures refer to a reserve of research instruments, equipment, data, materials and services that enables research, promotes research collaboration and reinforces research and innovation capacity. Research infrastructures may be single-sited, distributed, virtual or a combination of these.

Research infrastructures are of national or international importance and provide broad support for Finnish research, development and innovation. They can be owned by one or several organisations.

The applicant is a research organisation. Management representatives of the research organisation issue the commitment of the site of research in the Academy’s online services.

The management assigns the responsibility for application submission to a person of their choice. The person starts the application in the online services and will also submit the application to the Academy. The person may be the director of the entire research infrastructure or another person approved by the responsible organisation. Persons authorised by the person responsible for submitting the application, such as the deputy director of the research infrastructure, may also participate in drafting the application. The authorisation is given on the tab ‘Authorisation’ in the online services. The duration of the authorisation may be determined case-by-case. However, the authorisation will expire with the call’s deadline.

The person responsible for submitting the application must also authorise a representative of the host organisation to view or edit the application during the call.

Consortium applications

If the research infrastructure is hosted by more than one organisation, the organisations may form a consortium. Read more in the guidelines for consortium applications. A consortium application includes the head organisation of the research infrastructure network, along with any other hosting parties. The application will be filled in and submitted by the head organisation. The management representatives of the other host organisations will commit to the application in the Academy’s online services. Additionally, the information on other parties in the research infrastructure must be entered in the online services. NB! The consortium parties will not be able to examine the entire consortium application without authorisation (described above). However, the application can be viewed in the online services by clicking on ‘Application in PDF format’ to the left.

If the research infrastructure has ongoing infrastructure funding granted by the Academy, it may be awarded additional funding for justified reasons. The need for the funding must be justified in the action plan, and the connection to the granted funding must be described in the interim report.

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

Under the present research infrastructure call, the Academy of Finland is prepared to fund collaborative projects with a total of 20 million euros. The recommended minimum limit for the Academy’s contribution to an individual application is 200,000 euros. Correspondingly, the recommended minimum limit for the Academy’s contribution to a consortium subproject is 100,000 euros and 600,000 euros for the whole consortium.

Draft the cost estimate as follows: 50% of the total project costs in 2020 and 50% in 2021.

In this call, only research organisations may apply for and be granted funding. The potential funding or in-kind contributions of the collaborators cannot be included in the self-financing calculation of the research infrastructure.

The funding to be granted is intended to cover the purchase of equipment and systems and the development of services, including the salary costs of persons developing these activities. The funding cannot be used for research infrastructure maintenance costs nor for salary costs of maintenance personnel. Permanent operating expenses should mainly be covered by funding from host organisations.

In the action plan and the application, applicants shall provide a detailed description of what the funding is applied for and how the funding would support the joint development of the research infrastructures. In addition, the action plan shall describe at a general level the total funding data for the research infrastructure, including expenditure and revenue from 2017 onwards and the financial plan until the end of 2024, including contributions from other host organisations and funders, such as collaborators. This information is needed for assessing the parties involved and the sustainability of the funding base of the research infrastructure.

Those who receive funding from this call may also participate in the FIRI 2021 call to be opened in spring 2021, if the application concerns a different purpose.

For justified reasons, research-related costs can be accepted retroactively as of 1 July 2020. A prerequisite for granting a discretionary government grant is that there is a need for the grant. In this funding opportunity, exceptionally, the costs incurred (i.e. retroactively) prior to the funding decision may be accepted if the recipient is able to show that the later part of the project would not be realised in full or would be realised clearly more slowly or narrowly without the government grant.

The first funding instalment has been brought forward, and the related payment request must be submitted to the Academy no later than 14 December 2020. The last payment request must be delivered by 13 December 2021.

For justified reasons and to start the project, the site of research may apply for an advance, which comes to up to 40% of the project’s funding. The advance must be applied for by 14 December 2020. The need for an advance shall be justified from the perspective of the financial and other situation of the funding recipient. Payment of the advance may be justified where the start-up or implementation of the project within the timeframe and scope referred to in the government grant decision requires the beneficiary to have access to the funding within a faster timeframe than through the normal payment procedure.

The person responsible for submitting the application shall submit it in the Academy of Finland’s online services. The deadline is non-negotiable. The call opens on 11 August 2020 and closes on 2 September 2020 at 16.15 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. 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 supplemented information insofar as it is possible in view of the review and decision-making schedule.

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 action plan, 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.

The application consists of a form completed in the online services and its PDF appendices. As an applicant, you have the right to submit your application in Finnish or Swedish, but we ask you to submit it in English.

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 research infrastructure director
• Degrees (most recent one first)
• Titles of docent and professorships

Consortium parties (if applicable)

• 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
• Information on the research infrastructure (select from the list or enter under ‘Other’)
• 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 description of the funding applied for and how it supports the overall functioning of the research infrastructure and the call’s objectives

Most relevant publications

• Up to 20 of the most important publications produced by using the research infrastructure
• You can retrieve publication details from the VIRTA publication information service. Also 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)

Collaborators

• Specify the collaborators of the research infrastructure (name, organisation, country, brief description of collaboration). List the collaborators participating in the project. In the free-text field, describe call-relevant previous cooperation with the collaborators, including the main outputs, such as patents.

Affiliations

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

Research ethics

• 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.
• See the ethical guidelines.

Funding for the project

• The project’s funding follows the full cost model. The Academy’s funding contribution 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’.

• Draft the cost estimate as follows: 50% of the total project costs in 2020 and 50% in 2021.

• The site of research maintains the following percentages: effective working hours, indirect employee costs, overheads percentage and VAT.
• Enter the funding period. The funding period starts on 1 July 2020 and ends on 30 November 2021 at the latest.
• Enter salaries and other costs.
• 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 your application to the Academy has been submitted.
• Justify the funding to be applied for. 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’.
• 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 funding applied for in English and Finnish/Swedish, including how it supports the overall functioning of the research infrastructure and the call’s objectives
• You may add a link to the research infrastructure’s website.
• We use the public description to disseminate information on the research infrastructure. The project description is also stored at research.fi, a service that makes available information on research conducted in Finland.
• Read the guidelines on the public project description.

CV

• CV following the template, no more than two pages

Appendices

• Appendices must be PDF files.

    Obligatory appendices:

• Action plan: The action plan should follow the structure and order given in the guidelines for the action plan. This ensures that the reviewers find everything they need in the plan. Be as concise as you can. The action plan may be no longer than 15 pages. See the guidelines on the structure of the action plan.
• Data management policy: write the plan by using the DMPTuuli tool or following the Academy’s DMP guidelines.
• Prioritisation list from a research organisation or university that is for its part host to the research infrastructure. See the guidelines and template for the prioritisation list.

    Case-specific appendices:

• Letter of commitment: See the guidelines on the letter of commitment.
• Collaborative agreements of relevance to the project

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. 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.

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.

Interim report

• If the applicant organisation has ongoing Academy research infrastructure funding related to the research infrastructure in question, the organisation must draw up an interim report in the online services on each ongoing project (incl. consortium subproject) before the call deadline. Read the guidelines on drafting the interim report.
• Also see the How-to guides for the online services.

International and/or Finnish experts will review the applications in autumn 2020.

Read the review questions that will be used in the review: review form for ‘Research infrastructures as collaborative platforms’ call. Infrastructure Committee will make the funding decisions by the end of 2020. The Committee will

The Finnish Research consider the review reports and the call objectives.

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 public project description (if necessary) and make changes to the annual instalments (if necessary). 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 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.

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