Funding for research post as Clinical Researcher 2024

The Research Council of Finland funds part-time research by physicians and researchers engaged in clinical practice. The aim is to promote clinical research careers in cooperation with, for example, university hospitals, and to encourage medical doctors and other researchers working in clinical practice to engage in research.

Those eligible to apply are medical doctors with a doctoral degree (DMedSc, DDS or DVM) working in clinical practice or other healthcare professionals with a doctoral degree engaged in clinical practice. Funding will not be granted to full-time university researchers. Those who have received Clinical Researcher funding may have a concurrent Academy Project.

Special terms and restrictions

In the winter call, we will consider (process) only one application per researcher if the application concerns Academy Project Funding (incl. a consortium subproject), an Academy Research Fellowship or Clinical Researcher Funding. If you do submit more than one application for any of these funding opportunities or apply for funding from more than one of them, we will only consider (process) the first application to arrive.

The Clinical Researcher funding period begins on 1 September 2024 and covers a maximum of four years.

The funding is granted towards salary costs to support part-time research (20–50% of working hours). The applicant and the site of research must agree the salary based on the pay system at the site of research. You must also agree the working-time arrangements in advance, particularly if you aim to conduct research and clinical work at different sites.

In addition to salary costs, we may also provide funding for research costs. Funding will not be granted for hiring staff. Short-term research, study, or other assignments may also be carried out in the form of outsourced services, if it is deemed necessary for the project.

The average funding amount has been approximately 240,000 euros per Clinical Researcher for four years.

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.

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.

When drafting the cost estimate, you must consider the scientific councils’ policies that concern the funding (the policies will be updated in autumn).

Specify all research costs in the free-text field in the online services on the tab ‘Funding for the project’.

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

• salary costs of principal investigator, no more than six months per year
• 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

Funding will not be granted for hiring staff. Short-term research, study, or other assignments may also be carried out in the form of outsourced services, if it is deemed necessary for the project.

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 the 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 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 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 Value added tax and read more in our funding terms and conditions).

How to submit and supplement the application

The deadline is non-negotiable. 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.

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 , 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 statement 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

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.
• 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.

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 Finnish 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 (yes/no)
• The research ethics description is entered under section 4 of the research plan. See the ethical guidelines.

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 the how-to guides 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.

Clinical work

• Clinical work during the project and site where the work will be conducted

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
• 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.
• 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 the call deadline has expired, supplementation must be requested via our helpdesk.

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 applications are reviewed by pre-selected 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 5 or 6 from at least one expert will proceed to the panel review stage. Applications that receive an overall rating of 5 or 6 from the review panel will be ranked.

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 Clinical Researcher funding will be reviewed in panel number 42. You do not have to select the panel, as your application will automatically be directed to that panel.

Review criteria

• 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)
• suitability of the proposed research in terms of the possible special objectives of the funding scheme (incl. societal impact)

See the rating scale and the review questions that will be used in the review: review form and review guidelines for Clinical Researcher applications. The  review guidelines and forms are only available in English.

The funding decisions are based on the review reports and panel rankings. Additionally, the decisions will be prepared considering the Research Council of Finland’s criteria for research funding decisions and other guiding policies. Read about how funding decisions are made.

The scientific councils will update their science policies in the autumn. The funding decisions are based on the policies of each scientific council. The policies will be updated on our website before the call opens. Read the scientific councils’ policies before submitting your application.

The scientific councils will make the funding decisions in May–June 2024.

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.

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.

• Sanna Marjavaara, Senior Science Adviser
• Our email addresses are in the format firstname.lastname(at)aka.fi.
• Get in touch via our helpdesk (and contact the Division of Information Management) if you encounter technical issues in the online services.
• Our telephone number (switchboard) is +358 295 335 000.
• See the Ask & Apply webinar schedule and materials.
• Also see our FAQ page.