Welcome to the Nessling Foundation’s community! Here you will find detailed instructions on how to manage your project in E-Nessi, how to manage your payments and how to report on your project. At the end of the page you will also find important information on insurance for grant recipients and on the taxation of grants.
This guide is intended for Foundation-funded doctoral projects, post-doctoral projects and project leaders responsible for implementation projects. If you are receiving personal grant as a member of an implementation project but you are not the responsible leader of the project, we recommend that you read the sections on Mela insurance and tax information.
Please remember that the personal grant is awarded to the applicant in their name as a personal grant and cannot be exchanged for another person.
If, despite these instructions, you are still unclear about anything, the Nessling staff will be happy to help you.
E-Nessi: Project management and payment requests
Once you have received a positive grant decision, the next step is to draw up a payment plan. The Foundation’s grants are applied for and managed through the online E-Nessi grant system. Through E-Nessi, you can submit payment requests for funded projects, track payment information for your own projects, update your own contact details and report on the results of your projects.
The project is managed in E-Nessi under My Applications. Clicking on the project number will take you to the main project page, where you will find a link to the Payment Plan at the top.
The grantees’ details are filled in under 1. Add account info. For personal grants, fill in the personal identity number of the grantee and the bank account number in IBAN format. For the payment of the other part of the grant (expense allowances such as travel and research expenses), an account will be opened within the university, research institute or other place of execution whenever possible.
For the payment of expense allowances, enter the establishment’s business identifier (VAT number) and account number in IBAN format. In the message field, enter the internal project number or other identifier assigned to the project by the site, e.g. the name of the applicant. If the project does not have a place of execution, a separate bank account must be opened in the project leader’s own bank for this purpose only and the account number must be provided to the Foundation for the payment of the grants.
The information can be updated until the request for payment plan is sent. If you need to update your payment information after the payment plan has been sent, please contact the Nessling Grant and Administrative Coordinator via E-Nessi.
Under 2. Add instalments, you can add the payment dates you wish to use, by category of expense (personal allowance, travel, supplies, etc.). Select the recipient, the expense category, the month of need and the amount of the instalment. The personal allowance is paid monthly in as equal parts as possible (e.g. a doctoral candidate’s annual allowance of 28 000 = 2333,33e/month). Other expense allowances may be paid annually in a lump sum at the beginning of the fellowship period.
In section 3. Add possible additional info you can provide additional information about the payment. The payment plan must be completed and sent no later than Monday 11 December 2023. The forms must be checked carefully before sending, as once sent they cannot be edited anymore.
After sending, the payment request status changes from “payment schedules not sent” to “payment schedules sent”. For multi-annual projects, the payment plan is made for the whole grant period at once, i.e. for a maximum of four years. The instalments are approved for payment for 12 months at a time, and the following year (12 months) is always approved for payment after the intermediate report has been processed.
From the payment plan page, you can follow the financial flow of the project. The grant will be paid according to the payment plan. If necessary, changes may be made to the payment plan during the project by separate written agreement (preferably by E-Nessi message) with the Grant and Administrative Coordinator.
A personal grant is not paid to a researcher who is simultaneously receiving a salary from a full-time post or position, or during family leave or military/civil service. Nor is it paid at the same time as sickness benefit. During these periods, the grant is suspended. In such situations, please contact the Nessling Foundation’s Grant and Administrative Coordinator as early as possible.
The grant can be used for up to two years longer than the total planned duration of the project. This means that: for projects lasting one year, payments may be spread over a maximum of three years, for projects lasting two years up to four years and for projects lasting four years up to six years.
Any change in payment details, such as a change of account number, must always be notified in writing by E-Nessi message.
Payment of grants
The instalments of the grant for each month are paid no later than the 7th of each month. This includes all the instalments entered in the payment plan for that month. Expense allowances cannot be used to pay the personal grant.
The personal grant is for full-time work. In 2024, the personal grant will amount to €28 000 per year, or €2333.33 per month for a doctoral candidate and €34 000, or €2833.33 per month for a post-doctoral researcher. The personal grant is subject to the payment of statutory insurance contributions (see the end of the instruction page for more information).
You can also work part-time with the grant. In this case, the amount of the grant is directly proportional to the percentage of the part-time work, e.g. 80%. The grant can be accompanied by a part-time employment relationship that supports the grant project (e.g. employment relationship with a research organisation). In addition to the full grant, it is possible to have a work contract of maximum 20%. The percentages can be determined on a case-by-case basis, but the maximum workload combination of grant and employment cannot exceed 120%. Please note that we encourage our grantees to take care of their well-being; the percentage of the grant can be reduces even if there is no work contract. Please contact the Foundation’s Grants and Administrative Coordinator via E-Nessi if you wish to change your grant percentage. Note that small paid side jobs such as speaking engagements or e.g. positions of trust do not need to be considered in the working percentage of the grant.
For the remaining part of the grant (travel and research expenses) or other expenses, a bank account will be opened within the university, research institute or other place of performance whenever possible. In all other cases, a separate bank account will be opened for this purpose only. In this case, the grantee is responsible for the accounting of the grant and must report annually to the Nessling Foundation with supporting documents. The grantee must approve all invoices paid from the grant. Travel expenses cannot be used to pay per diem allowances.
The expenses are recorded in accordance with normal accounting practice. If the financial transactions are handled by a university, research institute or similar, a financial report is requested from the institution to accompany the project report. The grantee is personally responsible for unauthorised changes in the usage of the expenses as well as overdrafts. If the account is not managed by a research institute, receipts for financial transactions will be requested as proof when reporting.
If you need temporary staff, it is mainly research assistants who will be assigned to the job. The grantee must provide for the social security, pensions and insurance contributions of their research assistants in accordance with the current regulations. The assistants are not employed by the Nessling Foundation, but by the university, research institute, consultancy firm or project leader (the grantee), depending on the practical arrangements for financial transactions.
Supplies, equipment, and literature purchased with Foundation funding remain the property and control of the research/project organisation. Purchases will be made in accordance with the purchasing procedure of the organisation concerned.
The Nessling Foundation reserves the right to request repayment of the grant if the funding is not used for the purpose stated in the application.
Reporting
Another year behind you?
Multi-annual projects that have received a grant must report on the use of funds and the outputs of their project every 12 months. Payment of the subsequent year’s instalments will be authorised after reporting.
For one-year long or other projects, the project is reported two months after the end of the project. The request for reporting is automatically sent to the grantee. Reporting is done through E-Nessi.
To report, log in to E-Nessi and select Reporting.
If you wish to send other material, such as more detailed progress reports, financial receipts, articles or books to the Foundation, please attach files in an email or send by post. For dissertations, we would appreciate an electronic link only, as we do not have the capacity to keep printed copies.
On the reporting pages, select the intermediate report if the report is from the first, second or third year of a longer project. In the intermediate report, you will report on publications and other social impact during the reporting period. The intermediate report must include a breakdown of the use of the grant by category of expenditure.
If the report is for the only or last year of the project, select final report. The final report summarises in general terms the main objectives of the project, its results, their potential for application in environmental protection and its societal impact. This section can be used in the Nessling Foundation’s external communication. The final report must be accompanied by a bookkeeping report on the financial management of the research organisation. If the grantee has administered the grant itself, the expenses and supporting documents are reported annually to the Foundation.
Any grant surplus in the final report will be returned to the Nessling Foundation. The information required to return the surplus can be obtained from the Grant and Administrative coordinator.
The publications produced by the project during the reporting year are filled in under Publications and are categorised as follows by selecting under Type of publication:
- 1. Articles
- 1.1 Articles published in peer-reviewed international journals
- 1.2 Articles published in peer-reviewed international edited publications (including peer-reviewed conference publications)
- 1.3 Articles published in national journals
- 1.4 Articles published in national edited publications or conference preceedings
- 2. Graduate work
- 2.1 Doctoral dissertation
- 2.2 Licentiate thesis
- 2.3 Pro gradu -thesis or diploma work
- 3. Conference abstracts
- 4. Other publications
- 5. Patents
Please remember to inform the Foundation about dissertations and important publications funded by Nessling Foundation also after the end of the project! For dissertations, we would appreciate an electronic link only, as we do not have the capacity to keep printed copies.
The other impact (outside the scientific world) of the project is reported under Other research impact accordingly:
- Public presentations
- Other than scientific publications
- Activity in social media
- Collaboration with end users of the knowledge
Note! The annual report (a requirement for continued funding) must include a description of the progress of the doctoral thesis and postgraduate studies compared to the previous year, together with a statement from the supervisor.
Communications
The Nessling Foundation funds projects that promote collaboration between different disciplines or sectors and the transfer of knowledge to knowledge users. This is why we want to offer our grantees not only financial support, but also a range of communication and impact support through our Nessling Impact programme. For more information, read here.
Ownership rights and good scientific practice
The Foundation encourages its grantees to draw up an internal project agreement within their research team, which defines the ownership of the data collected and the results of the research.
The Foundation also encourages its grantees to follow the ethical guidelines drawn up jointly by the Finnish National Board of Research Integrity and the scientific community, as well as the research organisation’s‘ own ethical principles.
Social security and taxation
Under certain conditions, grant holders are covered by statutory pension and accident at work insurance and group life insurance. In addition, grant holders are entitled to the Mela sickness allowance and daily allowance benefits under the health insurance law.
What is Mela? The Farmers’ Social Insurance Institution (Mela) is responsible for the statutory pension and occupational accident insurance of the persons who have a grant or a scholarship and who have to be insured in Finland. This is the case if the recipient of a grant works uninterruptedly for at least four months. The insurance is available also for foreign recipients of grants if they are covered by the Finnish social security. This insurance is mandatory and the recipients of grants must be active in the application process. The insurance application must be made within three months from the beginning of the grant work period. The insurance can start only once the decision of awarding the grant has been made.
The application form and further instructions can be found at Mela. The Nessling Foundation will notify Mela of the grants it has awarded.
Foundation reports the paid grants annually to the tax authorities. Personal grants are tax-free up to the amount corresponding to the Finnish state grant for artists (25 547,52 euros in 2023). The Foundation does not deduct taxes from grants even if the amount of the grant exceeds the maximum tax-free sum. Instead, the grantees must inform the tax authorities of their grants in their annual tax submissions. For more information, please read the instructions on vero.fi/en.
From 2020 onwards, in addition to the personal allowance granted to a natural person, the expense allowance granted to them must be declared to the tax authorities in accordance with the annual declaration instructions. It is the responsibility of the grant recipient to ensure that the tax authorities receive a statement of the use of the grant where it is not a personal grant but has been used as an expense allowance for travel, equipment or similar project expenses. You should pay special attention that the other expenses (e.g. travel expenses, equipment etc.) are separated from the personal grant in the prefilled tax form and make necessary changes accordingly.
The grant is tax deductible in the same way as other income. For example, statutory pension insurance, a deduction for office expenses or travel expenses between home and work are tax deductible.
Tax regulations can change and there can be variations in their interpretation. In case of doubt, the grant recipient should contact the Tax Administration directly (www.vero.fi).
Those taking the insurance from Mela should notice that they must pay health benefit and daily benefit payments in connection of taxation, even if no tax is paid on the grant. For more up to date information, contact the Finnish Tax Administration.
