Publicity of applications

Under the Finnish Act on the Openness of Government Activities, official documents are in the public domain unless specifically otherwise prescribed by law. The key provisions on duty of nondisclosure are listed under section 24 of the Act. Processing and disclosure of personal data or not providing access to personal data is governed by the Finnish Personal Data Act.

Except for the research plan, plan of intent, abstract and interim report, which are primarily subject to professional secrecy, 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. 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.

Review reports on applications, applicants and research plans fall under the duty of nondisclosure. However, applicants have the right to access information on reviews that concern themselves.

Research funding decisions are in the public domain. We publish information on the recipient of research funding on our website (name, organisation, research topic, project description and funding amount).

Disclosing data

The Research Council of Finland is committed to following regulations on data protection. The GDPR-compliant privacy statement concerning the research funding process is available on the Research Council website under Data protection.

We use the data given in the application in the review. The data are saved in our information system. Applicants can check what kinds of data on them have been stored in the system. This request must be submitted in writing to the Research Council(i.e. the controller). Personal data may be disclosed from the system only in cases when the conditions of the Personal Data Act are met.