Research group application instructions

The Foundation for Economic Education encourages research groups to conduct pioneering research and to compile or acquire new datasets and databases. A three-year grant for research groups can be applied for by personal groups led by a Principal Investigator (PI).

PI (Principal Investigator)

• is responsible for submitting the group’s application,
• is employed by a domestic university or another host organization and does not work on the project with a grant,
• leads a group where researchers working with grants can be from outside the host university (visiting researchers),
• designates the researchers, working months, and grant shares.

The applied three-year grant is EUR 150,000─300,000 (EUR 50,000─150,000 / year)

• The size of the researcher member’s grant share follows the annual grant level for post doc and PhD research as announced by the Foundation for Economic Education (PhD research EUR 26,000 and Post doctoral research EUR 30,000).
• The application budget breaks down the working shares of all researcher members and the common expenses of the research group.
• The shares of the research group members are divided in the grant payment as personal grants to the researchers.
• The group’s shared expenses are paid to the host organization. Note, that no percentual overhead is used.

Submit the research group’s application by the research/working group’s application form

• The application must state any supplementary salary funding of the group members as well as other tasks and time allocations during the grant period.
• The community or cooperation network cannot apply for a research group grant.
• The Foundation for Economic Education can also award shorter grant periods from the applications.

Pay special attention to the application attachments!

• The one-page (A4) project summary must concisely present the research topic, the intended outcomes, their significance for the academic field, and their relevance to Finnish business and society. The summary must include a budget specifying the personal grants and the group’s expenses during the grant period.
• The research and funding plan (3–5 pages) plan includes free-form sections on communication and publications as well as international networks, e.g., building a research consortium/network and the roles of senior researchers.
  • Foreign members of the research group are requested to explore complementary funding opportunities from grant foundations in their home countries as part of the project led by the Principal Investigator (PI). The research and funding plan must indicate the sources from which the foreign researchers have received or intend to apply for additional funding.
• The CVs of the PI and the group members are submitted as one attached file.