Special funding for research on key areas of green and digital transition 2021

Research plays a crucial role in, for instance, supporting national and international carbon neutrality and climate objectives and protecting biodiversity. In the Sustainable Growth Programme for Finland, this is reflected in the objective of promoting the green transition and digitalisation. The green transition will support structural changes in the economy and the development of a carbon-neutral welfare society.

The Academy of Finland supports the implementation of Finland’s national Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), part of the Sustainable Growth Programme for Finland, with an additional funding of 25 million euros to promote the dual digital and green transition. The present call will provide funding for research that promotes solutions related to carbon neutrality and adaptation to climate change as well as related digital technologies. The goal is to strengthen existing competence clusters (such as Finnish research flagships) in this thematic area but also to promote competence development outside the clusters. Competence clusters are characterised by strong research expertise and impact generation, and active collaborations with partners utilising research outputs and with other actors.

The projects to be funded must comply with the ‘Do No Significant Harm’ principle, according to which the projects must not cause significant harm to the six environmental objectives defined in the EU Taxonomy Regulation:

• climate change mitigation
• climate change adaption
• the sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources
• the transition to a circular economy
• pollution prevention and control
• the protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems.

The actions must not cause significant harm during or after the project. Projects promoting the use of fossil fuels will not be funded. Learn more about the DNSH principle in this Commission Notice (PDF) and on the website of the Finnish Ministry of Finance (in Finnish).

Applicants must describe their compliance with and commitment to the DNSH principle in the application. After the call has closed, the Academy may also require a separate account on compliance with the DNSH principle to support decision-making.

Projects funded through the call must in their communications acknowledge the funding source and ensure the visibility of European Union funding, for example by featuring the EU logo and the reference “Funded by the European Union – Next Generation EU”.

A similar funding call will be opened in 2022, depending on the Finnish Parliament’s decision to allocate the necessary funds to the Academy in the 2022 state budget.

After the completion of the funded projects, the achievement and results of the funding objectives will be assessed, taking into account the requirements of the EU.

The funding can be applied for by multidisciplinary consortia of two or more research teams, where the consortium parties bring expertise in both green and digital transition. The applicant consortium must collaborate with different actors and end-users of research results. The consortium parties may be based at one or more research organisations.

A consortium application is an application built around a joint research plan, where each party to the consortium applies for funding. The Academy treats the 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.

The Academy of Finland invites applications from all fields. Applicants are encouraged to approach the topic broadly, utilising relevant national or international networks.

In addition to a doctoral degree, the principal investigator (PI) (head of consortium or consortium subproject) 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. 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.

Special terms and restrictions

We will only accept one application per applicant (also applies to consortium application as PI or subproject PI). If you do submit more than one application, we will only review the first application submitted. Applications that are not reviewed will not be eligible for funding.

In accordance with the Finnish Act on Discretionary Government Transfers, a research project cannot receive simultaneous funding for the same purpose. Applicants should take note of this if applying for other Academy funding.

If the applicant has ongoing Academy funding or completed projects for which a final report has not yet been submitted, they must prepare a progress report. This does not apply to applicants acting as the responsible person in funding schemes where the funding recipient is an organisation. Read more about drafting the report. If you have not submitted a final report on a completed, Academy-funded project by the set deadline, we may decide not to process your application.

Members of the Academy Board, research councils and the Strategic Research Council 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.

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 research council or another decision-making body may decide not to process and 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 the Academy not to process or review an application.

The funding period starts on 1 January 2022 and ends no later than on 31 December 2024.

The funding depends on the Council of the European Union’s approval of Finland’s Recovery and Resilience Plan and on the Finnish Parliament’s approval of the budget containing the funding. According to an indicative timetable, the Council is expected to approve the plan during summer 2021.

Academy research funding is granted to Finnish sites of research (usually universities or research institutes) unless there are special reasons for not doing so. 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.

The application must contain a funding plan drafted in line with the full cost model, including the funding to be applied for from the Academy (up to 70% of the total project costs). Read more about the full cost model.

You can apply for Academy 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.
• costs related to promoting the utilisation of research, if they are not incurred in economic activities.

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

Research team salaries

As a rule, staff hired with Academy 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, study or other assignments may also be carried out in the form of outsourced services, if it is determined to be necessary for the project.

What is required from the site of research?

We require that the site of research (i.e. the applicant’s host organisation, e.g. a university, research institute or other research organisation) 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 Academy 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. Read more in the guidelines 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. 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).

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, applicants must agree with the administration at their own 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 own organisation whether the funding planned as the own funding contribution suits this purpose. The funding applied for from the Academy must not exceed 70% of the total project costs. The cost estimate must be realistic.

All research costs must be justified in the free-text field in the online services under ‘Funding for the project’.

Salary costs of principal investigator

Academy funding for research projects is primarily intended for the salaries of full-time researchers working on the projects and for other research costs.

As a rule, funding is not granted for the salary of the project PI. The PI’s salary costs may only under certain limitations and on justifiable grounds be incorporated into the total project costs. The PI’s salary is entered under ‘Salary of principal investigator’ in the online services.

Including PI’s salary for project management in total project costs

The PI’s salary costs may be incorporated into the total project costs in accordance with what is stated under the tab ‘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. For example, a three-year research project may include a maximum of 4.5 months of work for the PI.

Applying for funding for PI’s salary for research

The Academy may grant funding for the PI’s salary for no more than a year for well-justified reasons, such as working abroad, returning to Finland or transferring to another research organisation or a company in Finland. Possible business collaboration must fulfil the terms set out in the Academy’s funding terms and conditions.

A condition is that the research-related reasons and the PI’s tasks must be clearly presented on the tab ‘Salary of principal investigator’ in the online services. The funding cannot be used for this purpose unless it is mentioned in the conditions accompanying the funding decision.

Account of salary when PI does not have an employment relationship

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.

How to submit and supplement the application

The non-negotiable call deadline also applies to consortia. The deadline for applications is 8 September 2021 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 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.

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 supplemented information 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.

If you have not submitted a final report on a completed or ongoing Academy-funded project by the set deadline, we may decide not to process your 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 research council or another decision-making body may decide not to process and 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 the Academy 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 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 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.

The online application contains the following parts

Personal data

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

CV

• CV following the template, no more than two pages

Consortium parties

• 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 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
• Read more about the abstract.

Research plan

• Maximum length 15 pages
• Under section 1.4 in the research plan, briefly describe how the project complies with the ‘Do No Significant Harm’ (DNSH) principle. In addition, include a free-form commitment to comply with the DNSH principle. Read more about the DNSH principle under ‘Background and objectives’ in the call text.
• Read the guidelines on the structure of the research plan.
• See the how-to guides for the online services.

Most relevant publications and other key outputs

• The consortium PI enters up to ten of the consortium’s own most important project-relevant publications and up to ten of 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.
• 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 show in the PDF version of the application).
• The information is used to assess the competence of the applicant or consortium to carry out the project.

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.

Collaborators

• Project collaborators, itemised by collaborator (name, organisation, country)
• Describe the collaborators’ project-relevant merits and the 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.

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. Learn 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

• Preliminary ethical review for project and/or animal testing permit (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 4.1 of the research plan.
• See the ethical guidelines.

Funding for the project

• The project’s funding follows the full cost model. The Academy’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.
• 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.
• Only under certain limitations and on justifiable grounds may the project PI’s salary for project management and/or research included in the application. The justifications are entered on the tab ‘Salary of principal investigator’ in the online services. Read more in the call text under ‘Funding to be applied for and funding period’.
• 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 (usually a university or research institute) to supporting the project. Read more in the guidelines 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 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’.

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. 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.

Progress report

• If you have ongoing Academy funding or completed projects for which no final report has yet been submitted, the projects to be reported are available on a separate tab in the online services. This does not apply to applicants acting as the responsible person in funding schemes where the funding recipient is an organisation.
• Maximum length per project is 1,500 characters including spaces.
• Describe the progress 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.

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.

Authorisation

• You can authorise another person to supplement or view your application.
• 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 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.
• 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 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 Academy’s contact persons listed in the call text.

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

Applicants are requested notify the topic, fields and keywords of the application by email to keyareas@aka.fi by 25 August 2021. The notification is non-binding. The information will be used in organising the scientific review.

The applications will be reviewed by an international panel. At least two individual reviews will be requested for applications with a subject that does not fit into the panel.

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

Review criteria

• how the project supports the objectives of the call (promoting solutions related to carbon neutrality and adaptation to climate change as well as related digital technologies, strengthening competence clusters in the thematic area and promoting competence development outside the clusters)
• 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)
• added value of collaboration between consortium parties
• competence of research teams in terms of project implementation
• quality of research environment and collaborative networks
• mobility and researcher training.

Read the rating scale and the review questions that will be used in the review: review form and review guidelines for the call ‘Key Areas of Green and Digital Transition’. The review guidelines and forms are only available in English. The panel drafts one review report on each application. The review report is subject to professional secrecy. The review panel will also rank the strongest applications.

Two threshold values will be used in the review:

The threshold rating for the ‘Project’s relevance to the programme’ item is 4 on a scale from 1 to 6. If an application fails to meet this rating, the review will be discontinued and the applicant will only receive feedback on that item.

The threshold rating for the ‘Scientific quality, novelty and innovativeness of the research’ item is 4 on a scale from 1 to 6. If an application fails to meet this rating, the review will be discontinued and the applicant will only receive feedback on two items: ‘Project’s relevance to the programme/call’ and ‘Scientific quality, novelty and innovativeness of the research’.

The funding decisions are prepared based on the review reports and the panel rankings. Additionally, the decisions are prepared considering the Academy of Finland’s criteria for research funding decisions and other policies that guide the Academy’s activities. Read about how funding decisions are made.

The decisions are made so as to ensure that the projects to be funded focus on measures supporting both the green and digital transition and respect the principles of sustainable development and the ‘Do No Significant Harm’ principle. The DNSH principles states that projects must not cause significant harm to the six environmental objectives defined in the EU Taxonomy Regulation. Read more about the DNSH principle under ‘Background and objectives’ in the call text.

After the call has closed, the Academy may require a separate account on compliance with the DNSH principle to support decision-making.

The Academy’s General Subcommittee will make the funding decisions in December 2021.

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, 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. Make sure to check the decision and accept the funding and its terms in the online services without delay. Exceptionally, the funding must be approved in the Academy’s online services within three working days 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. See the how-to guide: Decision notification, review reports and accepting funding.

Attach the full data management plan (in consortium applications only consortium PIs do this) as additional information to the application no later than eight weeks after the funding decision.

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.

• Jukka Tanskanen, Senior Science Adviser, tel. +358 295 335 071
• Risto Vilkko, Senior Science Adviser, tel. +358 295 335 136
• Timo Lehtinen, Science Adviser, tel. +358 295 335 054

keyareas@aka.fi 

Questions and feedback

Can funding be applied for by researchers not affiliated with e.g. research Flagships?

• The goal is to both strengthen existing competence clusters (such as Finnish research flagships) in this thematic area and to promote competence development outside the clusters. Competence clusters are characterised by strong research expertise and impact generation, and active collaborations with partners utilising research outputs and with other actors.

Is it sufficient if a project advances only green transition or only digital transition?

• Both a strong green and a strong digital component must be included into the project. The call will provide funding for research that promotes solutions related to carbon neutrality and adaptation to climate change as well as related digital technologies.
• Consortium parties are expected to bring expertise in both green and digital transition

How much funding can I apply for?

• The maximum funding is EUR 2 million per consortium and EUR 600,000 per consortium party (PI / co-PI).
• All in all, the total budget of the call is 25 M€.

If I apply for funding in the key areas call, can I also apply in other Academy calls such as the September call 2021?

• Yes, but please note that the Academy does not grant simultaneous funding for the same purpose from its different funding instruments.

I have an ongoing funding from the Academy of Finland, can I still apply in this call?

• Yes, but please note that the Academy does not grant simultaneous funding for the same purpose from its different funding instruments.
• If the applicant has ongoing Academy funding or completed projects for which a final report has not yet been submitted, they must prepare a progress report and attach it to their application.