Guidelines for making a grant application

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Application form and the online grant service

This section includes guidelines for using the Online Grant Service. Please read these instructions carefully before filling out and submitting your application. 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.

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 have registered, a confirmation email will be sent to the email address you have provided. The email address also serves as your username. If you do not receive the confirmation email within a few minutes, please check your junk mail/spam folder.

Only applications submitted during the application period will be considered.

• 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.
• Applications cannot be sent via email or post.

Please note: after the deadline, applications cannot be edited in any way.

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

We recommend that Finnish-speaking applicants or a group consisting entirely of Finnish speakers submit their applications and attachments in Finnish. If a Finnish-writing applicant or a group consisting entirely of Finnish speakers submits an application in English, they are requested to write the title and summary in Finnish.

All elements of an application can be in Swedish.

The application form

GRANT CALLS 

Choose the grant call you are taking part in.

• Grant call
• Thematic grant 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 his/her/their own name. You may also give your working group a name.

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.

Application form tabs

1. APPLICANT

Fill in the basic information.

• Research applicants using the ORCID-identification code can provide this information in their applicant data.
• If you’re applying as an organisation with a Finnish business ID, please note that the registration numbers recorded in the Register of Associations are no longer in use. Business IDs have been used since September 2019.
• 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.

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 in the Foundation’s funding decisions, the proportion of other kinds of cultural work is marginal.

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 or study’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. The Foundation may use applicants’ titles and summaries in the Foundation’s communications (such as on its website), and the text from these sections will be published if the grant is awarded.

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

For the last two alternatives, please state the intended target audience.

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 same project at once.

Fill in the information for the monthly grantee(s). Individuals doing scholarly or artistic work are awarded personal working grants instead of salaries. Grants awarded by private foundations such as Kone Foundation are exempt from taxes below the limit of the Finnish state grant for artists.

Kone Foundation funding is specified as personal monthly grants and other expenses on the application form.

The amount of the personal monthly grant varies, depending on the stage of your career.

Grant classifications for the year 2021 onwards are:

• Grant 1: early career applicants and those working on their doctoral thesis €2,500/month (€30,000/year)
• Grant 2: mid-career applicants (min. 10 years of artistic work) and those working at the post-doctoral level €3,000/month (€36,000/year)
• Grant 3: late-career applicants (min. 20 years of artistic work) and experienced researchers (e.g., adjunct professor level, ‘dosentti’ in the Finnish academic system) €3,600/month (€43,200/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.

Recipients of annual grants can take around one month of holiday per year without their grant being suspended.

The names of personal monthly grant recipients are published on the Kone Foundation website.

Compensation for work lasting less than a month, such as a performance fee, can be applied for under ‘other expenses’ but not as a monthly grant. When applying for funding to cover fees and salaries, the applicant can include taxes and additional costs in the total amount of the other expenses being applied for, if necessary. 

If funding is requested for other expenses (e.g., travel, salaries, materials), the reasons must be stated on the application form. In such a case, a budget must be included as an attached PDF. Flights within Finland, which should be avoided for sustainability reasons, can be funded only when they are well justified.

5. OTHER FUNDING

Please list all grants received during the preceding three years and any applications pending at the time of applying for Kone Foundation funding. Applicants are requested to inform Kone Foundation immediately if other funding is received from any other source during Kone Foundation’s application processing for the same purpose. For projects, applicants must indicate on the application if they have sought funding for the same project from other sources. 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 financing for the project in question (grant or salary) for the entire upcoming year.

Research grant applicants must also indicate on their applications all salaried doctoral programs for which they have been awarded a grant or for which applications are pending. They must also inform of any paid work related to the project or any other overlapping funding for this application.

We also wish to know if the applicant has applied for funding from Kone Foundation before and if this project includes work or planning done during a Saari Manor residency period. This does not affect the evaluation of your application.

6. EVALUATORS

Please check the separate guidelines for Selecting the evaluator of the application.

7. ATTACHMENTS AND LINKS

See the section Attachments.

8. REFERENCES

See the section Appending a reference to the application.

9. PROXIMITY

According to the Foundations Act (a Finnish Law), all foundations are required to provide information on their transactions with related parties. The Act has a broad definition of a related party of a foundation. Please note that related parties may apply for funding from Kone Foundation. Foundations are required to disclose if they award funding to persons within the “narrow” definition of a related party. The executives of the Foundation cannot participate in the processing of applications from related parties in the broad sense. For these reasons, all grant applicants will be asked about their relationship to key Foundation personnel.

The question is based on the new Foundations Act of 1 December 2015.

10. FEEDBACK

We ask our applicants for feedback. Your feedback does not affect the evaluation of your application.

11. SUBMISSION

The application (and attachments) must be submitted by 15 September, 16:00 (Finnish time). Please note that after the deadline, applications cannot be edited in any way.

References may submit their reference letters via the online service until 22 September, if the reference request has been sent during the application period. If the applicant wishes to add the reference letter themselves, they must submit it as an attachment by the application deadline.

If, after submitting your application, you wish to edit the text before the deadline, please choose “cancel application”. This does not clear your application data. After editing the application, please submit the application again. The status of the application will then read “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.

Only applications submitted via the online service will be considered.

All applicants must agree to the description of the processing of personal data and other conditions mentioned in our Privacy Policy.

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.

Selecting the evaluator(s) for your application

The applicant will 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 one’s first choice of expert.

If you are applying for a grant for doctoral thesis work, even in artistic research, please choose the first evaluator profile from the profiles listed under Research.

The evaluators change every year. The evaluators do not see your previous applications or possible reports on your awarded grants.

Evaluator profiles in research for the 2023 application call 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 for the 2023 application call 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).

References may submit their reference letters via the online service until 22 September, if the reference request has been sent during the application period. If the applicant wishes to add the reference letter 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.

REQUIRED ATTACHMENTS

• research or work proposal
• curriculum vitae
• budget (a budget is included in the application if the applicant is applying for more than a monthly grant)
• portfolio (applications for artistic work or artistic research)
• reference (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 monthly 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 monthly 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

The maximum length of the research or work proposal for individual applicants is 4 pages, including bibliography. The maximum length of a research or work proposal 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 is to 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 method chosen for analysing or handling these materials.
• 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 of 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, 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:

• Names of participating researchers
• Indication of applicants’ familiarity with the subject
• An explanation of any possible multidisciplinarity or interdisciplinarity factored into the project.

Projects that are not research projects must include an attached work plan. A sufficient work plan answers the questions: Why? How? When? Who? and Whom with?

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, 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.

Curriculum vitae (CV)

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, presentations given 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.

Budget 

If a personal monthly grant alone is required to implement the project, there is no need to attach a budget to the application form.

It is important to try to estimate costs plausibly and precisely in the budget. 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. 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.

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 does not award more than a 15% overhead, and overheads are only counted as ‘other’ expenses, not as personal monthly grants.

See a sample budget

Portfolio

Grant 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.

The contents of the portfolio are to be chosen by the applicant. 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.

References

Read more about references here.

Certificates

If the grant application includes individual researchers working as a monthly grant recipients, please include a certificate of their most recent academic degree and/or the most relevant certificates for the research project.

A degree certificate can also be included in other applications, if desired, but it is most important for the CV to include education and qualifications.

Degree diplomas and permits for the public defence of academic dissertations awarded after the Kone Foundation September deadline can be sent by 15 November using the online application service. Applicants can also use the online application service to inform the foundation of funding received from other sources.

Appending a reference letter (recommendation) to your application

References play an important role in grant applications for both doctoral studies (mandatory) and post-doctoral applications. They can be submitted for other types of applications as well.

Either a supervisor or other person familiar with the applicant’s work or the proposed project may submit a reference.

If the same reference source submits references for more than one doctoral researcher, the applicants’ order made by the reference source plays an important role in the evaluation process.

Requests for written recommendations are sent to potential references by email on page 8 of the application form. The email address of the reference source is thus required in order to issue a request. We also advise that applicants contact a potential reference source well before the application deadline to provide enough time to compose and submit the letter of reference.

The reference source then submits their reference letter using the link emailed to them via the Kone Foundation online grant service, which directs the reference as an attachment to your application. The request is automatically sent in Finnish and in English and can be replied to in both languages. NB! If the reference source has not received the reference request sent, we recommend checking the spam folder first.

In the service, the reference author can view your project or research plan that has been included as attachments to the application but cannot view any other parts of your application. Please note that updating or removing the attachment on the application will update the version viewable in the reference service.

Submitted references are not visible to applicants in the online service.

If you have received a reference letter personally and wish to submit it yourself, you may attach it to the application as a PDF.

Reference sources may submit reference letters via the online service until 22 September, if the reference request has been sent during the application period. If the applicant wishes to add the reference letter themselves, they must submit it as an attachment by the application deadline, 15 September, 16:00 (Finnish time).

Checklist for applicants

Before applying for a grant, please read through this checklist to plan your application according to our guidelines.

1. Make sure you are eligible to apply for Kone Foundation funding.

Please read through Kone Foundation’s focuses in awarding grants and Criteria for applying. Does your project match with them?

Also, are you a professional within an academic or artistic field? Kone Foundation does not fund non-professional activities.

In addition we recommend reading our instructions for grant recipients. It is important to be aware e.g. of issues regarding social security for grant recipients before leaving an application.

2. How long will your project take? Are you applying for a grant for several years or just a few months?

Personal monthly grants are usually awarded for full-time work for a minimum of one month. As a rule, we do not fund working periods of less than six months for individual applicants (excluding funding for finishing doctoral dissertation). Grants may be funded for a maximum of four years at a time. We may support long-term initiatives both in academic research and the arts. Grants awarded following the September funding call can be used, at earliest, at the start of the following year. Grants are not awarded retroactively.

The applicant must select whether the grant being applied for is for a multi-year project or for a project lasting less than a year.

3. A personal monthly grant or salaried work?

• Individuals performing academic research or artistic work are awarded personal working grants.
• If the work is not artistic or academic, individuals must apply for a grant to pay wage costs and to cover fees and salaries.

4. Amounts of monthly grants?

The amount of the personal monthly grant varies according to the stage of your career. If the applicant applies for the larger monthly grant, a description of the applicant’s current career stage must be included in the application.

Grant classifications from the year 2021 onwards:

• Grant 1: early career applicants and those working on their doctoral thesis €2,500/month (€30,000/year)
• Grant 2: mid-career applicants (min. 10 years of artistic work) and those working at the post-doctoral level €3,000/month (€36,000/year)
• Grant 3: late-career applicants (min. 20 years of artistic work) and experienced researchers (e.g., adjunct professor level, ‘dosentti’ in the Finnish academic system) €3,600/month (€43,200/year).

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.

5. Other expenses? Will you apply for funding for expenses such as travel, materials, wages or services?

If your application includes a funding request for other expenses, please attach a budget for such. We also request an overall budget for larger projects that include funding from other sources. If you are applying for a personal monthly grant, a budget is not required.

6. Attach a separate work or research plan to your application.

A research or work plan must be attached to all applications as a PDF, in addition to the summary requested on the application form. For more guidelines on how to write a plan, see Attachments.

7. Will you be applying for funding for the same project from other sources?

Applicants must immediately inform Kone Foundation if funding is received from any other source during Kone Foundation’s application processing or if your situation changes significantly after the application has been submitted. Research grant applicants must also indicate on their applications all salaried doctoral programs for which they have received grants or for which applications are pending. They must also inform the Foundation of any paid work related to the project to be funded.

8. Compulsory attachments

Before submitting your application, please check the Attachments section to see which attachments are required for your application.

9. Will I need references?

References are only compulsory for doctoral studies grant applications. They are useful in post-doctoral applications and can be submitted for other types of applications as well. Either the supervisor or another person familiar with the applicant’s work or the proposed project can submit a reference.

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).
• Reference sources may submit reference letters via the online service until 22 September, if the reference 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.

Return to the For grant applicants main page.