Equality at Kone Foundation

At Kone Foundation, we are committed to promoting equity and diversity in both our funding and other activities. We take concrete steps to prevent and address discrimination and commit to this work on a long-term basis.

Our work to promote equity involves continuous critical reflection, development of our practices as individuals and as an organisation, and collaboration: recognising our own privileges and the power structures that affect what we do.

We are establishing anti-discrimination work and practices within the Foundation. We strive to recognise how differences such as social class, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and age affect a person’s position and the number of privileges they have. In addition to direct discrimination, we seek to identify and dismantle structural and subtle forms of discrimination that appear in the activities of organisations and interpersonal interactions in various ways.

Our values

The Foundation’s mission is to create the conditions for multi-voiced art and research. The realisation of this mission requires diversity among researchers and artists. We value diversity as such, as well as in its various contexts, such as in language, society, and individuals, as well as biodiversity in nature. 

Our activities are also guided by the idea of eco-social awareness. Eco-social awareness entails social, cultural and ecological responsibility for human beings, other species, and the environment, and includes equity and justice.  

For us, implementing equity means listening to and supporting minorities in interaction with researchers and artists. Equity forms the foundation of a sense of community, encounters and dialogue, and the courage to revise one’s thinking and ways of acting derives its strength. Our goal is a socially equal Finland.

Funding

Our core work consists of the funding process, through which we can take equity and diversity into account at every stage. When selecting the projects we support, we often have the opportunity either to reinforce discriminatory structures or to help dismantle them. It is important to us that researchers and artists from a variety of backgrounds and circumstances receive our support.

We are developing our funding and residency application processes to be more accessible, both in terms of usability and of communication and social accessibility. We aim to ensure that people from different backgrounds and starting points can apply for professional funding. Each year, we collect feedback on accessibility and develop the application process accordingly.

Evaluation of applications

Our goal is to make the handling and evaluation of applications as clear and as equal as possible for all applicants.

We strive to select a diverse group of peer reviewers to evaluate the applications. We instruct evaluators to pay attention to their own preconceptions, as well as to issues of equity and diversity. Evaluators are also rotated annually so that power does not become concentrated in the same hands.

Ethical guidelines for funded projects 

It is important to the Foundation that research is conducted in a participatory manner whenever possible. Research findings should be shared with the communities concerned. In other respects too, we encourage grant recipients to adhere to the ethical guidelines of the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity (TENK) and the ethical principles of their own research organisations. Artists involved in art projects are advised to follow the ethical codes of the arts and culture sector.

We also aim to ensure that everyone involved in the projects is treated appropriately and fairly. Our Fair Practices in Funded Projects information package for grant recipients aims to help prevent discrimination and other inappropriate behaviour within projects. We also encourage projects to comply with the Foundation’s safer space principles at events they organise.

The purpose of the information package is to support grant recipients in their work and to increase awareness of wellbeing at work and of creating and maintaining of a safe working atmosphere. In this way, the Foundation aims to contribute to the wider adoption of good practices.

The Foundation’s harassment contact person also serves as a liaison for Foundation-funded projects. We have established procedures for resolving project-related conflicts. In a mediation pilot, an external mediator has also been made available for project use.

Saari Residence for artists and researchers

The development of the Saari Residence is guided by principles of dismantling structural inequality and promoting ecological, social, and psychological sustainability. The residence provides a place and context for exploring and sharing sustainable working methods.

In artist selections, we aim for wide-ranging diversity, paying particular attention to applications from the Global South. A geographically and artistically diverse residency acts as a testing ground for a more sustainable future. Evaluators are also instructed to apply positive discrimination where appropriate.

The residence ensures a working, living, and meeting environment free from harassment. A harassment contact person is appointed for the residence and its events.

An accessibility survey has been carried out at the residence, and improvements and adjustments are made based on its findings.

Grants+

As part of our Grants+ activities, which support our grant recipients’ work, we will organise training to promote equity.

We ensure that Grants+ services are as accessible as possible to everyone, regardless of their place of residence or language.

As part of this initiative, we are also developing the collection of funding-related statistics to support the advancement of equality, equity, and inclusion.

The organisation and recruitment

We acknowledge that the Foundation’s employees are in a position of privilege. We seek to broaden our understanding of equality, equity, and inclusion and to act in its favour. All our staff members have participated in preparing our equity plan so that we can promote equity more purposefully and systematically. In the plan, we define the objectives, means, and follow-up measures for our equity work.

Through training, we are improving our competence in matters of equity and discrimination.

We aim to consider diversity in recruitment and procurement. In recruitment, we encourage applications from people of different ages, genders, and disabilities, as well as those belonging to linguistic, cultural, or other minorities. Positive discrimination may be applied in selections where appropriate. We also aim to make necessary adjustments to support inclusivity.

Communication and events

We use our voice to advocate for equality. In our communications and at our events, we also give space and a platform to an ever more diverse range of perspectives and practitioners.

As an event organiser, we are committed to the safer space principles and require everyone using our premises to commit to them as well. At our events, a harassment contact person is always designated. This reflects our commitment to respecting others’ physical and psychological boundaries. Our aim is to ensure that participants can attend events free from discrimination, harassment, or disparagement.

The safer space principles are also part of our events’ accessibility. Detailed accessibility descriptions of our venues are available on our website. If an event is held outside our own premises, accessibility information is included in the event details. If you have any questions about the accessibility of our events, please feel free to ask our staff in advance or on site.

In online and other communications, we aim to ensure that everyone can access the information they need in a clear and comprehensible form, in both Finnish and English.

Updated 09/2025