Kone Foundation awards nearly three million euros to multidisciplinary cooperation in research and art, including the foundation’s largest ever individual grant

Kone Foundation has awarded multiyear special funding to four organisations in the fields of academic research and art, whose work involves multidisciplinary cooperation. Kone Foundation’s grants are aimed at promoting the grantees’ ability to continue operating in a society that needs more intersectoral discourse.

The Kone Foundation Board of Trustees has awarded a four-year grant totalling EUR 1,800,000 to BIOS, an environmental research unit, which promotes interaction between academic research and decision-making. It is the largest individual grant ever awarded by Kone Foundation.

Operating since 2015, BIOS develops the anticipatory skills of citizens and decision-makers to address environmental crises and societal transformations. To achieve this goal, BIOS communicates actively with various actors in society.

In 2019, BIOS published the initiative of ecological reconstruction, a research-based study of the future challenges of society in the Finnish context: while reducing its emissions and resource consumption, Finland must provide equal and better opportunities for its citizens to have a good life. The ecological reconstruction initiative was received well, and it is also mentioned in the Programme of Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s Government.

“BIOS is an active promoter of interaction between scientific research and decision-making, which is one of Kone Foundation’s priorities. The Finnish society clearly needs the research activities and interactive approach of BIOS as an independent, multidisciplinary and bold research unit in order to implement the systemic changes needed for ecological reconstruction,” says member of the Kone Foundation Board of Trustees, Professor of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Jyväskylä, Janne Kotiaho.

“The basis of visionary research and interaction is working with a long-term, goal-oriented approach under the basic assumptions of academic research. The multiyear grant, which Kone Foundation awards with no bureaucracy and no strings attached, has been a key factor in making our work meaningful,” says Paavo Järvensivu at BIOS.

Continuation grants to Doctor of Arts programme of the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, IHME Helsinki, and Mad House

Kone Foundation has also awarded a EUR 480,000 continuation grant to the Doctor of Arts programme of the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. The grant will go towards inviting doctors of art to the Collegium as visiting researchers, who bring collaboration between research and art to a multidisciplinary environment. The Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies is an independent institute for scholars in the humanities and social sciences within the University of Helsinki. The Collegium focuses on research that crosses disciplinary boundaries and promotes discussion on the methods and theoretical assumptions of scientific research.

IHME Helsinki, a contemporary art organisation that combines art, science and climate work, receives a continuation grant of EUR 350,000 from Kone Foundation. IHME’s core activity is the annual staging of a new artwork, together with an artist and Finnish and foreign partners, in a public space in Finland and abroad.

The performing arts organisation Mad House receives EUR 360,000 from Kone Foundation. Mad House curates performance seasons, co-produces live art and other experimental performing arts, creates new operating models in the field of art and makes experimental art accessible. Mad House Helsinki’s programme consists of experimental art, including performing arts, performance art, installation art, stand-up and contemporary dance, and workshops.

Further information:

Kalle Korhonen, Director of Research Funding, Kone Foundation kalle.korhonen@koneensaatio.fi +358 50 3447468