What are grants awarded for?
The Foundation primarily awards funding for solution-oriented research projects whose results have a systematic and scalable impact on the progress of environmental protection. We also support the implementation of researched environmental information to society.
Environmental challenges are multidisciplinary phenomena, which means that no scientific field can be excluded from our search for solutions. Rather, we encourage researchers to engage in forms of collaboration that break the boundaries of science.
The projects do not have to relate to Finland alone since the phenomenon-based approach is often essentially global. However, the results of the projects supported must be applicable to Finnish environmental protection and societal decision-making or otherwise support Finland’s environmental objectives.
In particular, the Foundation supports projects that promote collaboration between different scientific fields or sectors and the transfer of knowledge to its users. The Foundation also funds novel research and collaboration projects that are suitable for funding and situated in the interface or meeting ground between scientific fields.
What themes do we fund in the 2022 call?
Research and other activities supported by the Nessling Foundation are divided into five phenomena related to environmental protection, which we expect the applicants’ solutions to be related to. Those applying for a grant will need to explain how their project promotes a sustainability transformation to protect natural systems. The project applied for can also be systemic and solve more than one of the phenomena mentioned below.
- Climate change
- Biodiversity loss
- Sustainability of the use of natural resources
- Water risks
- Chemicalization and pollution
Who can apply for a grant?
1. We award personal working grants along with funding for possible research costs for doctoral thesis projects and post doctoral research projects
- The applicant is the research project’s researcher, i.e. the grant recipient him/herself.
- We fund doctoral thesis work if the project is just beginning or less than halfway through.
- We fund Post Doc project if the applicant has obtained the degree no longer than 5 years ago (excluding parental leave, Finnish military/civil service).
- The working grant can also be used at a non-Finnish research institute. At the Nessling Foundation, the mobility of researchers is a plus.
- In the 2022 general grant call, the size of a personal grant is 28,000 euros a year for a doctoral thesis researcher and 32,000 euros for a Post doctoral researcher.
2. We award project funding to consortia for the implementation and use of scientific environmental information
- The applicant can be an individual, community or organization.
- We are looking for co-creation and action projects involving researchers and end-users of information (for example, a company or a municipality).
- Funding can be applied for projects lasting up to one year.
- The aim of the projects is to implement existing researched environmental information into action.
- We award 50,000–100,000 euros to projects.
Main funding criteria for research projects
For research projects (PhD -projects and Post doc -projects):
- How the research participates in facilitating or supporting the sustainability transformation specifically on natural systems’ terms
- Solution orientation, societal relevance and scalability of the results
- Scientific quality of the research, researcher and research group (if the applicant is doing research as part of a group)
- Innovativeness of the research
- Collaboration between the researchers/research groups/organizations
- Communicating about the research and interacting with stakeholders (especially knowledge users)
- Educational environment (if applying for a doctoral thesis grant)
For other than research projects (implementation of researched environmental information):
- How the project promotes sustainability transformation and supports the protection of nature’s systems
- The solution orientation, societal relevance and scalability of the project
- Applicant’s (individual or group) know-how and operating environment related to the implementation of the project
- Innovativeness of the project
- Collaboration and interaction with the project’s key stakeholders
