Kone Foundation grants nearly 50 million euros in funding to 366 projects in total

The funding decisions for Kone Foundation’s annual grant call, thematic grant call and the latest round of the Metsän puolella call were announced today. A total of 48.9 million euros was awarded for research and the arts.

Kone Foundation’s Board of Trustees granted funding to a total of 148 academic research projects, 162 art projects and 42 projects combining research and art. In addition, 13 new projects in the Metsän puolella initiative received funding.

In total, more than 7,000 applications were submitted to the grant calls.

“Kone Foundation’s mission is to make the world a better place by creating conditions for free research and art. The funding decisions reflect the abundance and diversity of academic research and art in Finland. New and different perspectives stimulate debate, which I hope will be constructive and inspiring. We also value well-grounded questioning,” says Hanna Nurminen, Chair of the Board of Trustees of Kone Foundation.

Over the next year, work will start in hundreds of different projects. They include work done independently, by working groups and within organisations. Most of the funding from Kone Foundation is multi-year: the aim is to secure sustainable working conditions for researchers and artists.

“The new projects are starting their work at a time when the democratic processes of society are under pressure around the world, and in many places, non-mainstream activities are struggling. In Finland, cuts in the cultural sector affect the whole field. This time of uncertainty also challenges private foundations to find new ways to carry out their purpose,” says Ulla Tuomarla, CEO of Kone Foundation.

Fields from archaeology to visual arts

Most of Kone Foundation’s funding is awarded in the autumn general grant call: this year, the amount is 44.8 million euros. The funding is available for research in the humanities, social and environmental sciences, academic artistic research, as well as artistic work in all fields of art. A total of 32 different academic and artistic disciplines were available for selection on this year’s application form.

“We want to promote a deeper understanding of the world by encouraging projects that combine expertise from different academic or artistic disciplines. At the same time, it is important for Kone Foundation to support fundamental research and fields that are increasingly at risk of being marginalised due to cuts in public funding. Each year, we consider the categorisation of disciplines in the general grant call, and sometimes changes are made to the list. When foundations create categories of research and arts and allocate funding on that basis, they are also engaging in science and arts policy,” says Kalle Korhonen, Director of Funding.

Applications are reviewed based on the Foundation’s strategic priorities

Each year, Kone Foundation seeks more than 50 peer reviewers from the academic and artistic communities to review applications in different fields. The reviewers’ decisions are guided by the priorities set out in the Foundation’s strategy: academic and artistic freedom, ecosocial awareness, diversity, boldness, perseverance and sense of community.

The names of the reviewers are not published, so they can work in peace. The final decisions on the projects to be funded are made by the Foundation’s Board of Trustees based on the evaluators’ proposals.

“The freedom and intrinsic value of research are reflected in the original and unexpected topics of the proposed projects, and in the delightfully high number of projects that can be described as basic research”, commented one of the academic reviewers.

The high quality of the applications, wide range of perspectives on contemporary issues and new approaches to research questions and art were highlighted in the reviewers’ feedback to the Foundation’s Board of Trustees this year.

“Many of the applications showed a shift from individualistic work to collective, shared ways of thinking and working. This orientation seemed to be motivated by an understanding that collaboration is key to surviving in a crisis-ridden world and building a vibrant present and future,” wrote one of the art reviewers in her feedback.

Funding for media research and forest issues

This year, a thematic grant call Media and Democracy in Finland in the 2020s was also organised as part of Kone Foundation’s multi-year Is Democracy Eroding? funding programme. The projects funded in the call aim to increase understanding of, for example, the impacts that media concentration, content homogenization and changes in editorial practices may have on democracy. Ten research projects were funded for a total of 1.9 million euros.

The ongoing Metsän puolella call funds research, art, journalism and activism related to forests. In the fifth funding round, 13 projects were awarded a total of 2.2 million euros.

A watercolor portrait illustration of a dark haired person smiling with their eyes closed, being cradled by four hands. It is unclear who the hands belong to. On on of the arms, there is a tattoo of a dove of peace. Dark twigs branch out from the persons hair on the background. — Illustration: Sanni Seppä.

Highlights of funded projects

An era of crises and uncertainty

We live in a world marked by many complex and overlapping challenges. The climate crisis, biodiversity loss, devastating wars, growing global inequalities and other global and local crises were clearly reflected in this year’s applications. Many of the funded projects also explore the emotions and experiences that different crises evoke: insecurity, fear, anger and sadness, for example. Research and art can both help frame and articulate our feelings in the face of uncertainty.

A project led by Ilmari Käihkö, Associate Professor of War Studies, combines research and art to examine the consequences that war has on people, societies and the world (€193,700). The project’s Finnish-Afghan working group will study how decisions about wars affect people’s lives for generations to come, how a time of war shapes those of us living in peace, and how crises such as climate change contribute to the outbreak of wars. The project examines Finland’s involvement in the war in Afghanistan from a variety of perspectives. As part of the project, an illustrated non-fiction book for young people about war as a phenomenon will be produced, and the themes of the project will be turned into a podcast series.

Napafilms Oy receives funding for the development of a four-part documentary series (€275,000) that delves into the dramatic and long-lasting environmental impacts of war, armament and arms trade. War causes enormous suffering for the people who are attacked, but it is also violence against nature. This documentary series looks at the immediate damage to nature caused by war through the war in Ukraine and the longer-term damage to nature through the Vietnam War. In addition, arms industry and warfare experts provide insights into whether ecological warfare is possible at all. With the two-year grant, researchers from different countries will conduct extensive background research for the series. The development will include test footage and the production of a script, pitch deck and trailer for the series.

A project led by Kaarina Aitamurto, PhD, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, will study the attitudes of Russia’s Muslim communities towards the war in Ukraine (€417,200). Russia’s ethnic and religious minorities have been over-represented on the front lines of the war. For many Muslims, Russian propaganda calling Muslims to war contradicts the realities of the political persecution and violations of their rights. In the Western media and academic debate, however, Russians opposed to the war have been represented mainly by the pro-Western liberal opposition. The project will explore the divergent positions of Russia’s diverse Muslim population on the war by examining public speeches by Islamic leaders, Islamic publications, blogs and discussions on social media, for example, in an attempt to diversify perspectives on the global framing of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Writer Khalil Abusharekh will work on a trilogy of novels (€32,400) on Palestinian identity, resilience and memory across three generations. Central to the realities of the characters’ lives in Gaza is the concept of “shattered time”, which describes how political and social unrest has fragmented Palestinian history and identity. In addition to writing, Abusharekh collaborates with refugee communities and arts organisations in Helsinki by teaching storytelling and filmmaking.

Simo Muir, PhD, Associate Professor, and working group will study fear in different eras (€387,200). The project, which combines research, performing arts and public dialogue, centers around Tove Jansson’s classic novel Comet in Moominland, which has been interpreted as dealing with the horrors of the Second World War and the fear of nuclear war in its aftermath. With the war in Ukraine, fears of world war and even nuclear war have been rekindled in Finland, and the war between Israel and Hamas has strained Jewish-Muslim relations to the extreme. The crises caused by climate change are also adding to universal fear. The research section of the project examines the lives of Tove Jansson’s Jewish friends, artist Sam Vanni, photographer Eva Konikoff, translator Maya London-Vanni and theatre musician Erna Tauro, and Jewish refugee Kurt Bandler, and their reactions to the war and prevailing threats. The result is a collective biography of Jansson’s Jewish friends, centred on the experience and encounter of fear. The artistic part of the project, directed by Mikaela Hasán, will produce a Yiddish translation of Comet in Moominland, and a new play based on it as an international production. Through the play and accompanying talks, the play explores the meaning of fear in today’s society and ways of dealing with the feeling.

Filmmaker Reetta Huhtanen will work on a documentary film about the industry of fear (€34,900). The turmoil of recent years, from the COVID-19 pandemic to tensions between the US and China, has fundamentally undermined people’s sense of security. At the same time, a growing global business has been built around insecurity. As Huhtanen puts it: “When we are afraid, someone benefits from it”. The documentary explores an economy riding on fear and threats through people whose job description involves creating fear, worry, a sense of danger and uncertainty. Through absurd means, the documentary makes visible how fear has come to structure our everyday lives and how our interpretation of the future has become defined by threats rather than hope.

A working group led by Johanna Nurmi, PhD, will examine young people’s experiences of living in the age of polycrisis (€425,500). Polycrisis refers to a network of interconnected and simultaneous crises. The project explores how young people aged 16-19 in Finland and Morocco experience the combination of different crises in their everyday lives and what kind of future prospects they envision. Combining sociology with literary and reading studies, the project will examine young people’s experiences, particularly from the perspectives of security (e.g. wars, violence, extremism) and belonging (e.g. racism, hate speech, polarisation), while exploring the possibilities of resilience, hope and solidarity together with young people. The material for the study will be collected through reading circles and writing competitions in Moroccan and Finnish schools and organisations.

In Take Shelter (€76,800), visual artist Hanna Råst, Master of Fine Arts, explores the concepts of shelter and refuge. Combining video, word art and photography, the works are based on shelter as a physical and psychological space, and the different defence mechanisms of humans and other species. Human-made shelter structures such as caves, nests and bomb shelters offer protection against threats and weather conditions. Animal defence mechanisms, on the other hand, can range from physical spaces to camouflage and mimicry, for example. While humans often communicate danger through technological means such as sound and light, other species may also communicate threats through smells, chemical messages or warning colours. The works explore the current globally volatile times and society’s historically, culturally and politically changing perceptions of security. Råst will work on the project at Kone Foundation’s Saari Residence in autumn 2025.

The built world

The built environment plays an increasingly important role in our societies, both globally and locally. More than half of the world’s population lives in urban environments. Among other things, human-built infrastructure provides shelter, transports people and natural resources from one place to another and is an important part of visible culture and local identities. On the other hand, the construction industry is shaping our environment in increasingly widespread, lasting and destructive ways.

Many of this year’s funded projects address these contradictions and challenges related to construction. How to balance the needs of an urbanising world with the planet’s limited resources? What does the architecture around us tell us about our society, our history or our ideals? Whose needs or visions does our built environment reflect?

The project by Laura Berger, D.Sc., and working group (€541,400) examines the demolition frenzy of modern architecture in Finland. Mankind uses half of all the natural resources it exhausts for construction: demolition and new construction therefore accelerate biodiversity loss and the climate catastrophe. The project likens large-scale demolition of buildings, i.e. building loss, to biodiversity loss. The working group examines the historical, conceptual and social background of building loss and looks at the demolition frenzy as a societal process that can be influenced. The multidisciplinary project combines perspectives and methods from architecture, business and legal history, ecology, philosophy and architectural design. Berger and the working group aim to bring the ecological impacts of the construction sector into broader societal debate by producing research-based information that is both accessible and insightful for experts and the wider public alike.

In her project, postdoctoral researcher Johanna Tuomisaari studies what kind of ecological compensation planning practices and institutions are needed to manage the environmental damage caused by urban land use (€197,400). Especially in growing cities, changes in land use and construction are major causes of biodiversity loss. With better land use and compensation planning, cities could significantly reduce biodiversity loss. The data for this study is gathered through thematic interviews and workshops with land-use planning officials, politicians and other experts. Tuomisaari analyses how ecological compensation is defined and interpreted, how it is linked to land use planning and decision-making, and what its implications are. The information generated by the project can be applied to land use planning and nature conservation policy in the future.

Architect Eveliina Sarapää’s project (64,400 €) aims to integrate the Sámi perspective and culture in the construction projects taking place in the Sámi homeland. The project proposes that the Sámi people should be the ones to define the principles according to which construction in the Sápmi region is carried out. In Finland, architecture for the Sámi people has so far only been built, studied and discussed from outside the Sámi culture. Significant buildings for the Sámi are financed by the dominant culture, designed by non-Sámi architects and built on the basis of the dominant culture’s own principles and tradition. In architectural debate and representations, Sámi identity is still exoticised in simple symbols or forms: reindeer horn or witch drum motifs, lavvus and goahti designs. Sarapää’s project aims to bring the Sámi voice into the discussion about architecture and building in the Sámi homeland.

Intertwining Human and Non-Human

Eco-social awareness is one of Kone Foundation’s values: to us, it means social, cultural and ecological responsibility for humans, the environment and non-human species. Many of this year’s newly-funded projects look at the other-than-human species on our planet – animals, plants, fungi and insects. In the words of one science evaluator, the applications reflected a mainstreaming of an ecocritical and post-humanist approach. There is a desire to question the human-centredness of science and arts and to renew perspectives.

The four-year project (€422,600) by Mika Perälä, PhD, associate professor, and working group will delve into the origins of animal research and use it as a lens to look through at the present day. The history of species and biodiversity research is poorly known, even though it could help us understand and assess our perceptions of nature and human relationships with other species that have evolved over time. The philosopher Aristotle is considered to be the founder of the discipline of zoology, and animal studies account for as much as a quarter of his output. The aim of the project is to provide new insights into the history of zoology and Aristotelian theory of science by examining how Aristotle’s empirical studies have influenced later zoological practices and understandings of animals.

The doctoral thesis of Piia Vinnari, Master of Social Sciences, will challenge the prevailing conceptions of animals in our society and the view of other-than-human species simply as a resource to be exploited by humans (€133,600). Vinnari’s research looks at our relationship with animals from a new perspective by comparing the ways we relate to animals with the ways we relate to other actors alien to us, such as artificial intelligence and robots. The four-year PhD project is carried out at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Turku.

In their project (€83,800) Heikki Helanterä, PhD, and working group combine citizen data, research and science communication to investigate the factors that influence people’s attitudes towards different species. At the core of the interdisciplinary project is an online survey, in which people rate insects and other invertebrates based on factors such as how interesting they are thought to be. Based on the survey, the team will write a research paper on people’s attitudes towards different insects and the factors explaining variations in these attitudes. In addition, the project will run a large-scale social media campaign as part of the “Ötökkäakatemia” (‘Insect Academy’) communication project. Insect loss is a major part of the current crisis in the ecosystem, so it is important to make people aware of the importance of each insect species to the ecosystem.

Media and Democracy in Finland in the 2020s

This year, a thematic call was organised alongside the general grant call. This year’s thematic call, Media and Democracy in Finland in the 2020s, focused on the changes, diversity and pluralism in Finnish media environment in terms of democracy. The call was open to projects that explored related topics through research or journalism, and the foundation also encouraged collaboration between researchers and journalists in the projects.

The project by Tuukka Ylä-Anttila, PhD, and working group (€243,900) is an example of collaboration between academic researchers and journalists. The project examines the social media content of right-wing populist influencers. Ylä-Anttila and the team call the technology and culture that give space to attention-seeking personalities and algorithm-driven content “narcissistic media”. Influencers using their media attention to drive populist politics is a constantly evolving phenomenon that can have long-term effects on democracy. However, academic research is only just waking up to this transformation. In the project, Ylä-Anttila and the team will produce a podcast, journalistic publications, peer-reviewed academic publications, a report and a non-fiction book, including a practical guide to collaboration between journalists and academics.

A working group led by Heta Mulari, PhD, is exploring the complex relationship between TikTok and democracy from the perspective of young adults (€275,400). The short videos on the online platform, with their new narrative forms and aesthetics, have become hugely popular. At the same time, TikTok has become a central part of election campaigning and grassroots movements. The platform offers tools for self-expression, interaction and community building, but also for disinformation, polarisation and hate speech. The project will explore how the way young people produce and consume short videos on TikTok affects their perceptions of democracy. The research introduces the concept of TikTokCracy to refer to the digitalised, redefined and challenged democracy mediated by TikTok. The case studies explore the redefinition of youth feminism in a polarised media landscape and Russian-speaking youth’s experiences of nationality, being Finnish, racism and nationalism.

Ilkka Koiranen, PhD in Economic Sociology, will examine the contradictory relationship between populist parties and expert knowledge, science and journalistic media (€129,200). The denial of and opposition to politics based on expert knowledge has been seen as characteristic of populism. However, according to Koiranen, representatives of populist parties have begun to place more emphasis on policies based on expertise and research in recent years. The project, which combines sociology, political science and communication research, asks what kind of knowledge and expertise populists value in politics and how these perceptions differ from other groups of voters. It will also explore how networked media environments and algorithms of platforms guide the formation of knowledge, and what kind of epistemic networks and new social divisions emerge from divergent perceptions.