Kone Foundation supports researchers and artists fleeing the war in Ukraine with additional EUR 400,000 funding

Kone Foundation supports researchers and artists fleeing the war in Ukraine with working grants and residencies. The foundation provided additional funding to the Research Collegiums of the universities of Helsinki and Turku, which coordinate visiting researcher programmes in Finland. Kone Foundation’s residencies at Saari Manor in Mynämäki and Lauttasaari Manor in Helsinki will also accommodate visitors from Ukraine.

To address the human suffering and distress caused by the war in Ukraine, Kone Foundation has awarded special funding to the visitation programmes that accommodate researchers from the Baltic countries, Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine at the Helsinki Collegium of Advanced Studies, and to the Scholars at Risk programme of the Turku Institute of Advanced Studies. Additional places were awarded to ongoing programmes for a total of seven researcher years. The awarded institutions will recruit researchers through their networks the same way as in their regular visitation programmes.

The Foundation’s residencies (Saari Manor in Mynämäki and Lauttasaari Manor in Helsinki) will also receive residents from Ukraine, and additional funding was provided for these residencies.

“We have tried to make quick funding decisions and use existing structures to channel support that will rapidly reach Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian researchers and artists fleeing their home countries. Long-term support from foundations for Ukrainians, as well as for Russians suffering under a dictator, will be necessary in the future too. Philanthropic work is also peace work,” says Kalle Korhonen, Director of Funding.

The Board of Kone Foundation granted an additional EUR 396,900 at its meeting on 14 March 2022. The Foundation’s statutes do not allow humanitarian aid to be provided to Ukraine.