Home Grants For grant applicants Guidelines for making an application Guidelines for making an application Applications are submitted through our online grant service. The application form can only be accessed when the call is open in September. Please read the instructions carefully before applying! GrantsFor grant applicants Criteria for applying Kone Foundation’s focuses in awarding grants Guidelines for making an application Evaluation and decisions Frequently asked questions Propose a peer reviewer For grant recipients General information about the grant Grant payment, social security and taxation Grants+ Project communications Kamari – “The Chamber” Kone Foundation logos and mentioning the Foundation’s support Funding programmes and thematic grant calls Funding programme: Is Democracy Eroding? (2021–2025) Thematic grant call 2024: Media and Democracy in Finland in the 2020s Thematic grant call 2022: The current state and challenges of Finnish democracy Thematic grant call 2021: Language, Power and Democracy Previous thematic grant calls Metsän puolella initiative (“In the Woods“) Metsän puolella: Guidelines for making a grant application Vuoden Tiedekynä Academic Writing Award You can go directly to each section by clicking the titles below. Go back to the top of the page by clicking the black arrow at the bottom right corner. Submitting an application online Sections of the application form Selecting the evaluator for your application Attachments Attaching a recommendation Important dates Back to the top Submitting an application online Apply for funding by submitting your application and attachments using the Online Grant Service. The service is open during the annual application period in September. Applications cannot be submitted after the deadline. Once you are logged in, detailed information about the different sections of the application form can be found behind the ‘?’ symbol. The application form can be accessed only when the call is open. You can watch a video instructions for filling out the application form below: Signing in To access the online service, select “Register as an applicant here”. Your email address serves as your username. Once you have registered, a confirmation email will be sent to the email address you have provided. If you do not receive the confirmation email within a few minutes, please check your junk mail/spam folder. Submitting an application Log in using your account information, or if you are a new applicant, register as a new user. Create a new application. Fill in the required information. Submit the application to Kone Foundation before the deadline. Only applications submitted during the application period will be considered. Applications cannot be sent via email or post. Applications cannot be edited after the deadline Please let us know as soon as possible if you are awarded other funding after the application deadline. After submitting the application, the status of the application will be marked as ‘Application received’. No separate email will be sent upon receipt of the application. Within a week of the deadline, the status of the application will update to ‘Application under evaluation’. Language of the application The application form is available in Finnish and English. The application and attachments can be written in Finnish, Swedish or English. Certificates may be in languages other than those mentioned above. The application form GRANT CALLS Choose the grant call you are taking part in. General funding call (open 1.-15.9.) Thematic funding call: Media and Democracy in Finland in the 2020’s (open 1.-15.9.) Metsän puolella (“For the woods“) (continuous call) APPLICATION TYPE Choose whether you are filling out the application as an individual applicant, working group or organisation with a Finnish business ID. Individual applicants must fill in the application under their own names. If the applicant is a working group, the members of the group must elect a leader to submit the application in the name of that person. You may also give your working group a name. We recommend that you familiarise yourself with the ethical codes of conduct in different fields. If the applicant is an organisation with a with a Finnish business ID, a leader must be selected for the project. Read more about the role of the project leader. Sections of the application form 1. APPLICANT Fill in the basic information. Research applicants using the ORCID-identification code can provide this information in their applicant data. The details for working group members who are not applying for a personal monthly grant must also be listed on this page. Working group members’ names will be published on Kone Foundation’s website if funding is awarded. 2. TYPE OF PROJECT The applicant must choose a category for the project: Research Art Research and art Another type of cultural work Please note that the proportion of other kinds of cultural work is marginal in our funding. You may also list on the form keywords or fields related to the project and its themes. 3. DESCRIPTION Fill in the working title. In the summary (max. 2,000 characters), please provide a short description of your project’s primary content and the intended methods for implementing the work. You must also provide a more detailed work or research plan as an attachment. Applicants’ summaries are important in the evaluation of the applications – the summary is usually the first section the evaluator reads from the application. When a grant is awarded we may use the applicants’ titles and summaries in the Foundation’s communications (such as on our website or social media), and the text from these sections will be published online. The applicant must provide a brief description of the project’s duration and a timetable on the application form. 4. FUNDING On the application form, select the primary purpose for the funding: Academic research and/or artistic work Doctoral thesis Popularisation of research Organising an event, exhibition or other production The applicant must select whether the grant request is for a multiyear project or a project lasting a maximum of one year. The Foundation is willing to support an unbroken span of work. If you are planning a multiyear project such as a doctoral thesis, we recommend that you apply for funding for the whole project at once. Please divide the funding applied for from Kone Foundation into personal monthly grants and other expenses on the application form. Fill in the information for the monthly grantee(s). Individuals doing scholarly or artistic work are awarded personal working grants instead of salaries. You can also apply for a grant for an unnamed person if the members of the working group are not known at the time of application. In this case, select “Unnamed” as the monthly grant recipient and specify the duration and the role of the unnamed monthly grant recipient in the project. The amount of the personal monthly grant varies, depending on the stage of your career. Grant 1: early career applicants in arts; researchers working on doctoral thesis €2,700/month (€32,400/year) Grant 2: mid-career applicants in arts (min. 10 years of artistic work); post-doctoral researchers €3,200/month (€38,400/year) Grant 3: late-career applicants in arts (min. 20 years of artistic work); experienced researchers (adjunct professor level, ‘dosentti’ in the Finnish academic system) €3,800/month (€45,600/year). If you are applying for monthly grant 2 or 3, please describe your career phase. Personal monthly grants are usually awarded for full-time work for a minimum of one month. Smaller grants are available (25%, 50% or 75% of full grant) for part-time work. Grants awarded by private foundations such as Kone Foundation are exempt from taxes below the limit of the Finnish state grant for artists. Recipients of annual grants can take around one month of holiday per year without their grant being suspended. Compensation for work lasting less than a month, such as a performance fee, can be applied for under ‘other expenses’, not as a monthly grant. When applying for funding to cover fees and salaries, tax and overheads must be taken into account. If funding is requested for other expenses (e.g., travel, salaries, materials), a budget must be included as an attached PDF. If you apply for funding for travel expenses, we encourage you to favour low-emission travelling. Flights within Finland can be funded only when they are well justified. If your project involves a wide range of other costs and you need support in preparing a budget, you can contact the Foundation’s application advice before submitting an application. For larger grants, this will streamline the processing of applications at the time of application period. 5. OTHER FUNDING Please list funding from Kone Foundation and elsewhere for the same project in the last three years and any pending applications for the same purpose. Inform Kone Foundation immediately if other funding or salaried doctoral progamme position is received during Kone Foundation’s application processing period. If an applicant is granted funding without having informed the Foundation of funding from other sources, Kone Foundation may repeal its decision. Kone Foundation grants are usually not awarded to applicants who have already secured funding for the project in question (grant or salary) for the entire upcoming calendar year. 6. EVALUATORS The applicant must select which field they want the expert assessing their application to represent. A maximum of three selections can be made, but please note that the applications will generally be assessed by the first choice of expert. If you are applying for a grant for doctoral thesis work in artistic research, please choose the first evaluator from among the evaluators of Artistic Research, listed among the research disciplines. Please check the separate guidelines for Selecting the evaluator of the application. 7. ATTACHMENTS AND LINKS See the section Attachments. 8. RECOMMENDATIONS See the section Appending a recommendation to the application. 9. PROXIMITY The Foundations Act mandates that all foundations must disclose information about transactions involving related parties. Therefore, all grant applicants are required to disclose any close connections they have with key individuals at the Foundation. Related parties can still apply for funding from Kone Foundation. This requirement also applies to new grantees who join an ongoing project, to ensure they don’t have a conflict of interest with the Foundation’s key individuals. The question is based on the Foundations Act of 1 December 2015. 10. FEEDBACK We want to continuously improve our grant application process, so we invite you to give us your views. The feedback section is optional and will not be visible to the evaluator. Kone Foundation aims to promote accessibility in its grant applications. In the feedback section, you can raise any comments, suggestions or concerns you may have, for example, regarding disabilities when using the application guidelines or the application form. Responses will be treated anonymously and confidentially by the Foundation. 11. SUBMISSION The application with attachments must be submitted by 15 September, 16:00 (Finnish time). Please note that after the deadline, applications cannot be edited in any way. Recommender may submit their recommendations via the online service until 22 September, if the recommendation request has been sent during the application period. If the applicant wishes to add the recommendation themselves, they must submit it as an attachment by the application deadline. You can submit your dissertation permit or degree certificate as an attachment to the application in the “Attachments and links” tab by 15 November. If you want to edit an application you have already submitted before the deadline, please choose “cancel application”. This does not clear your application data. After editing the application, please submit the application again After the submission period, you cannot change or submit your application anymore. Only applications submitted via the online service will be considered. Research applicants may also give permission to share information about the grants they’ve received to the National Research Information Hub, which gathers and shares data about research conducted in Finland. Once the application has been sent, its status in the online service will be “Application received”, and within a week of the deadline it will update to “Application under evaluation”. No separate email will be sent upon receipt of the application. Selecting the evaluator The applicant must select which field they want the expert assessing their application to represent. If your application is multi-disciplinary, you can choose up to three evaluators, but choose the profile closest to your work as the first profile. The applications will generally be assessed by one’s first choice of expert. If more than one field is selected, the primary evaluator may choose to discuss the application anonymously with the evaluators of the other selected fields. If you are applying for a grant for doctoral thesis work in artistic research, please choose the first evaluator from the artistic research fields, listed among research disciplines. The evaluators (peer reviewers) change every year. The names of the evaluators are not disclosed. Evaluators can be proposed to the Kone Foundation using the proposal form. The evaluators do not see your previous applications or possible reports on your awarded grants. Evaluator profiles in research are: Archaeology Artistic research: music Artistic research: performing arts and film studies Artistic research: visual arts Arts studies Cultural sciences Educational science Environmental education Environmental science; biological, chemical and physical Environmental technology Gender Studies History Linguistics Literary Studies Media and communications studies Philosophy Political and administrative sciences Political economy Social psychology Social work and social policy Sociology Societal-environmental research Evaluator profiles in arts are: Art curating Arts criticism, art journalism Film Literature and verbal art Media and sound art Museum work, cultural heritage Music Performing arts Site-specific and time-based art Visual arts Attachments The applicant’s ability to successfully complete the project is evaluated based on the work plan, curriculum vitae and other supporting documents attached to the application. All attachments must be uploaded by the deadline of the grant call, 15 September, 16:00 (Finnish time). Referees may submit their recommnedations via the online service until 22 September, if the recommendation request has been sent during the application period. If the applicant wishes to add the recommendation themselves, they must submit it as an attachment by the application deadline. Degree diplomas and permission for the public defence of academic dissertations awarded after the deadline can be sent using the Online Application Service by 15 November. Applicants can also inform the Foundation of funding received from other sources using the online application service. All necessary attachments should be uploaded to the Online Application Service and attached to the application as a PDF. The maximum size for one file is 6 MB. Please select the file type from the drop-down list on the online application form. Please note that we cannot accept attachments by mail or email. The application cannot be edited after the submission period. Attachments and applications received afterwards are not considered. REQUIRED ATTACHMENTS research or work proposal curriculum vitae budget (a budget should be included if the applicant is applying for other expenses besides a personal grant) portfolio (applications for artistic work or artistic research) recommendation (compulsory for doctoral researchers, recommendable for post-doc researchers in their early career) copy of degree certificate (research applicants) Work group: research or work proposal curriculum vitae for each project member (or summaries) budget portfolio (applications for artistic work or artistic research) copy of degree certificate (individual research applicants with a personal grant) Organisation with a Finnish business ID: research or work proposal curriculum vitae for each project member (or summaries) budget portfolio (applications for artistic work or artistic research) copy of degree certificate (individual research applicants with a personal grant) copies of the annual report, financial statement and auditor’s report from the previous year Please note: if you have received a prior grant from Kone Foundation for the same purpose, include a short description of your progress in your work/research plan. DESCRIPTION OF ATTACHMENTS Research and work proposal Those applying for a grant for academic research attach a research plan to their application. For all other applications, a work plan is required as an attachment. The maximum length of the research or work plan for individual applicants is 4 pages, including bibliography. The maximum length of a research or work plan for work groups or institutions is 8 pages. In the evaluation of proposals, attention is paid to: merit (academic merit in research projects) feasibility implementation of the Foundation’s key focuses In general, the research proposal should include the following sections: Introduction: the background of the research and its subject matter, as well as the significance of the proposed research in light of this background. Aims and objectives: what will be studied and why. The objectives must be indicated as clearly as possible, for example through proposed research questions. Research materials and methods: the research data or literature and the methods chosen for analys. Work outline: a short estimate of the expected duration of each phase of the project. References and sources: a concise list of the most important sources for the research. It is important to clarify the theoretical framework behind your research. In doing so, follow the practices of your own field. We fund research in a broad range of disciplines and do not aim to teach academics how to perform their research. It is also important to highlight the ways your work responds to the Foundation’s key focuses. If you have received funding for the same purpose from Kone Foundation previously, the plan should provide a brief account of what has been accomplished during the previous Kone Foundation funding period and the project’s current status. In addition to the above-mentioned, the research proposals for work groups or institutions should include: The names of participating researchers Indication of the applicants’ familiarity with the subject An explanation of any multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary characteristics of the project. Applications for projects that are not research projects must include a work plan. A sufficient work plan answers the questions: Why? How? When? Who? and Whom with? The work plan for artistic work may include several projects or parallel productions to be worked on during the grant period. For artistic work applications, the objectives and content of the work plan may be a description of the artistic practice and/or a future exhibition, performance, etc., if known at the time of application. The work plan should include: project aims and objectives a description of intended working methods names of the participants and possible partners schedule ways in which your work responds to the Foundation’s focuses If you have received funding for the same purpose from Kone Foundation previpusly, the plan should provide a brief account of what has been accomplished during the previous Kone Foundation funding period and the project’s current status. The work plan for work group must highlight the role of each person involved in the project. Curriculum vitae (CV) The applicant must attach or link a CV from all individuals that would be receiving a working grant or individuals doing salaried work in the project if their contribution to the project is essential. The purpose of the CV is to provide a concise overview of the applicant’s education and experience. It should include work experience, previous research, previously received grants, key publications, and/or other outputs and teaching experience. It is especially important to include information of particular relevance to the project for which Kone Foundation funding is being sought. A researcher’s CV can be based on the template provided by the Finnish Advisory Board of Research Integrity. The CV should not exceed four pages. Please do not attach a separate publications list. Online CVs can be used. Budget If only a personal monthly grant is required to implement the project, there is no need to attach a budget to the application form. If the applied funding is a part of a larger project with several funders, please attach the project’s total budget to the application. It is important to try to estimate the costs plausibly and precisely in the budget. A detailed and itemised budget will make it easier for the Foundation to make a funding decision. Other possible sources of funding must also be mentioned. Even if only a portion of the funding of a project is being applied for, the cost estimate for the entire project must be presented. Please indicate clearly the contributions that will be requested from Kone Foundation. In projects that span several years, it is better to devise the budget according to the years of activity rather than calendar years. In addition to a separate, detailed project budget, the budget must be outlined in the online application form. The project’s annual personal monthly grants and any other expenses of the project (such as travel, material and equipment expenses; additional labour force or salaries; and outsourced services and other costs) must be specified. You can also apply funding for other expenses for disability-related costs, such as the salary of an assistant or interpreter (when the work of the assistant or interpreter is related to the content of the project), travel expenses of the assistant or interpreter, and equipment and software needed for the work. In the budget, please indicate any overhead, if required by the research institution. Use the field ‘Other expenses’ on the online application form. Please note that Kone Foundation usually does not award more than a 15% overhead, and overheads are only counted for the ‘other’ expenses, not for the personal monthly grants. See a sample budget Portfolio Applications for arts and artistic research funding must include a portfolio. A portfolio showcases the artist’s ability in the relevant field and conveys an impression of them as an artist. A portfolio thus showcases the applicant’s level of artistic expression, quality of artistic thinking and any other particular proficiency that the applicant finds relevant to mention. A portfolio can contain images, texts, links or a list of literary output. The portfolio can be submitted as a PDF, or you can compile it on your own website and include the link in your application. If you apply for a grant as a working group, you can attach a shared portfolio to the application. Recommendations Read more about recommendations here. Certificates If the application includes individual researchers as personal grant recipients, please include a certificate of their most recent academic degree and/or the most relevant certificates for the research project. The copy of the certificate does not need to be officially authenticated. A degree certificate can also be included in other applications, if desired, but it is most important for the CV to include the qualifications. Degree diplomas and permits for the public defence of academic dissertations awarded after the application deadline can be sent by 15 November using the online application service. Applicants can also inform the foundation of funding received from other sources through the online service. Attaching a recommendation Recommendations play an important role in grant applications for both doctoral studies (mandatory) and post-doctoral applications. Either a supervisor or other person familiar with the applicant’s work or the proposed project may submit a recommendations. If the same person submits recommendations for more than one doctoral researcher, they are asked to rank the applicants. The rank plays an important role in the evaluation process. Recommendations can be submitted for other types of applications as well. In the case of art applications, a recommendation can help the evaluator in the evaluation process. The person writing the recommendation should know the applicant and the project well enough to add value to the application. For example, one can confirm the relevance of the project in the field of arts (projects that are innovative in the field) or clarify the planned cooperation to the evaluator of the application. For an individual artist’s application, the recommendation does not carry much weight in the evaluation of the application. Two ways to submit a recommendation 1) The referee submits the recommendation via an email link Requests for written recommendations are sent to potential referees by email on page 8 of the application form. The email address of the referee is thus required in order to issue a request. We also advise that applicants contact a potential referee well before the application deadline to provide enough time to compose and submit the recommendation. The referee then submits their recommendation using the link emailed to them via the Kone Foundation online grant service. In this way, the recommendations is automatically connected to a certain application The request is automatically sent in Finnish and in English and can be replied to in both languages. NB! If the referee doe not receive the recommendation request, we recommend checking the spam folder first. In the online service, the referee can view your work or research plan included as attachments to the application, but cannot view any other parts of your application. Please note that if you update or remove your work or research plan, the version will also be updated for the referee. Submitted recommendations are not visible to applicants in the online service. Referees may submit recommendations via the online service until 22 September, if the recommendation request has been sent during the application period. 2) Attach the recommendation to your application yourself If you have received a recommendation personally and wish to submit it yourself, you may attach it to the application as a PDF. In this case, you must submit it as an attachment by the application deadline, 15 September 16:00 (Finnish time) Important dates General grant call is open 1.-15.9. Send your application with the attachments via the online service by 15 September, 4:00 P.M. EEST (Finnish time). Referees may submit recommendations via the online service until 22 September, if the recommendation request has been sent during the application period. Degree diplomas and permits for the public defence of academic dissertations can be sent by 15 November using the online application service. Funding decisions are announced in early December. 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