Here you will find instructions for managing your project in Nesslink, payment of grants, and reporting on your project. At the bottom of the page, there is important information on the statutory insurance for grant recipients and grant taxation.
Please note! This guide is intended for the doctoral and postdoctoral researchers as well as responsible leaders and individual grant recipients in action projects funded by the Nessling Foundation.
If something remains unclear despite the instructions, the Nessling Foundation staff are happy to assist. For administrative questions, please primarily contact the Grant and Administrative Coordinator, Kristiina Takkinen, through the project system Nesslink. For general questions related to our Foundation’s activities, you can reach out via the office email address at .
Payment of grants
A few important reminders to start with:
- The personal grant granted to you cannot be transferred to another individual.
- Supplies, equipment, and literature purchased with the Nessling Foundation funding remain the property of and under the management of the project implementation site. Procurement procedures should follow the guidelines of that institution.
- Daily allowances cannot be paid from travel grants.
- The Nessling Foundation reserves the right to request the return of the grant if the funding is not used for the purpose stated in the application.
We will pay the grant to you once a month, no later than the seventh working day of the month. The monthly payment includes all the instalments you have entered in your payment plan for that particular month. Instructions for creating a payment plan can be found further down on this page.
The personal grant is intended for full-time work on the project. In 2025, the monthly grant amount for a doctoral researcher is €2,500, totaling €30,000 per year. For a postdoctoral researcher, the monthly grant amount is €2,833.33, totaling €34,000 per year. Statutory insurance contributions must be paid from the personal grant.
In addition to the personal grant, you may have applied for funding for other expenses, such as travel, research costs, or communication and engagement activities. Expense grants must be used for the purposes specified and approved in the application. Expense grants cannot be used to cover personal grant payments. Any changes to the intended use must always be approved by the Foundation, so please contact us through Nesslink in such cases.
To manage expense payments, you should open an account at your project implementation site (e.g., university, research institute), if possible. Otherwise, you will need to open a separate bank account dedicated solely to the expenses of your project. If you use your own separate bank account for expense payments, the responsibility for bookkeeping lies with you as the project implementer. All funds used must be reported annually to the Nessling Foundation with supporting receipts.
Research expenses must therefore be recorded in accordance with standard bookkeeping practices. If your project implementation site manages the financial transactions, request an expense report related to your project from their finance department to include as an attachment in your intermediate and final reports. However, as the grant recipient, you are personally responsible for any unauthorised changes to the intended use and for any account overdrafts.
If you are managing the expense account yourself, attach receipts to the intermediate and final reports that show how the expense funds have been used. For detailed instructions on this, see the Reporting section.
Possible project support staff
In the projects we fund, support staff typically refers to research assistants. The grant recipient is responsible for ensuring the social security, pension, and insurance contributions for their support staff in accordance with current regulations. Support staff are not employed by the Nessling Foundation. Depending on the arrangements for financial transactions, their employer is either the university, research institute, company, or other organisation where the research is conducted, or the responsible leader of the project (grant recipient).
Illness
If you fall ill and the illness lasts more than five days (the waiting period for grant recipients insured with Mela), you may apply for sickness allowance from Kela. Sick leave does not reduce your grant period. The portion of the grant corresponding to the sick leave period will be deferred to the end of your project. Notify the Nessling Foundation of your sick leave via Nesslink.
Pausing the grant and part-time grant work
In addition to illness, grant payments can be paused for parental leave, military/civil service, or a temporary employment contract that supports your grant-funded project. You may also choose to work part-time with the grant. In such cases, the monthly grant amount will correspond to the part-time working percentage.
Any pauses in grant payments and part-time work will be counted in the total duration of your project, which for research projects can extend up to two years beyond the original duration. For operational projects, the project duration may be extended by one year for justified reasons. Sick leave does not affect the overall project duration.
Please contact the Foundation’s Grant and Administrative Coordinator through Nesslink if you wish to pause your grant or adjust your grant work percentage due to employment or other reasons.
Working alongside the grant
It is possible to work in a secondary, small-scale employment position alongside your grant. However, we recommend carefully considering what workload will be manageable for you.
You may hold a part-time position of up to 20% alongside a full-time grant, provided it supports your grant project (e.g., an employment position within a research organisation or teaching work). This is because the grant has been provided for the full-time advancement of your project, and delays due to other work are not ideal. Work percentages can be defined on a case-by-case basis, but your total workload may not exceed 120%. Small and occasional paid side jobs, such as speaking engagements or trust positions, do not need to be included in the grant work percentage. Please contact the Foundation’s Grant and Administrative Coordinator through Nesslink if you wish to adjust your grant work percentage due to employment or other reasons.
Nesslink: Project management, payment requests and communication
Your project management is conducted through the Nesslink project system. In Nesslink, you can create your project’s payment plan, submit payment requests, track payment information, update your contact details, report on your project, and communicate with the Nessling Foundation. We encourage you to always communicate with us via Nesslink for administrative questions regarding your project. This ensures that all communication is archived in one place for both you and us.
Your Nesslink username is the same one used for submitting your funding application. Once logged in, you can view current applications on the homepage and access previous projects and applications through the application archive. The top menu allows you to access pages for creating a payment plan, reporting, sending messages to us, and updating your personal details. You can use Nesslink in either Finnish or English.
Creating a payment plan i.e., a payment request
The first step as a grant recipient is to create a payment plan. You can complete the payment plan in Nesslink by navigating either to Current Applications on Main page or Payments tab. If your project has funds that have not yet been drawn, it will display a status of Request Payment along with a deadline for submitting the request.
We pay the grant to you once a month, no later than the seventh working day of the month. The monthly payment will include all instalments you have listed in your payment plan for that month.
How to create a payment plan
- From the Instalments menu in the payment request, choose the duration of your project in months. This will generate the corresponding number of monthly instalments in the plan. Ensure that the payment dates run sequentially from your project’s start date to its end date.
- For each instalment, enter the monthly amount of your personal grant. If this amount is not a whole number, adjust one of the instalments to include cents so that the annual total is exactly your annual amount (e.g. €34,000).
- Enter the expense grant amounts in the Recipient of cost share field further down. Allocate expense grants in line with the budget outlined in your application. You can view this in the Grant Terms section at the top of the payment plan. If there are unused expense grants at the end of the year, these can be carried over to the following years of the project. Expense grants are available for use until the end of the project, so it is not necessary to use all expense grants allocated for a particular year within that same year. The total expenditure will be reviewed in the final report, and any surplus funds must be returned to the foundation.
- Ensure that the entire granted amount is included in the payment plan according to the budget you submitted in your application.
- Enter the bank account details for both your personal account and the Recipient of cost share (i.e., project implementation site). If you are managing the expense grants personally, provide the details for the separate bank account you opened for these funds. If the entire grant is granted to an organisation, the payment plan will only require the organisation’s details.
- Submitting the payment plan requires authentication with your bank credentials. If this is not possible, sign the payment request either manually or electronically and send the signed form to the Nessling Foundation via Nesslink.
- You will receive a message once your payment plan has been approved.
Reporting
When the reporting period approaches, you will automatically receive a report request from the Nesslink grant system, where reports are also submitted.
For us, reporting is an administrative requirement to ensure that the funding we provide is used as intended, but it goes far beyond that: it provides us with valuable insights into your project’s progress, results, successes, and any potential challenges. The insights from these reports help us improve as a funder and better support our grant recipients.
We encourage you to approach reporting with curiosity: compiling the report is a valuable opportunity to pause, reflect on your work, and recognise all that you have accomplished. Reporting also gives you a long-term perspective on your project, helping you to see the big picture and steer your project effectively.
Please also note that failure to report may result in the suspension of grant payments or retrospective recovery of the funds. Neglecting reporting may also make it more challenging to receive funding from the Nessling Foundation in the future.
Intermediate report
If you have received funding from the Nessling Foundation for more than one year, you will report on your project’s progress annually by submitting an intermediate report. Intermediate reports are essential, as we approve the payment of the following year’s grant only after the intermediate report has been reviewed. The final project report must be submitted within three months of the project’s completion.
For one-year projects, reporting is only required once. The final report must be submitted within three months of the project’s completion.
In the intermediate report, you will provide an update on the progress made during the past grant period. You will be asked to report on project developments during the reporting period, any publications produced, and the methods used for communication and engagement. Additionally, you must include an expense breakdown by category in the intermediate report.
Please note that the intermediate report template is the same for all projects, regardless of the project phase. It is completely understandable if early-stage projects have not yet produced publications or carried out extensive communications. Don’t worry if there is nothing to report for certain sections—we interpret your report as a whole, taking into account the phase of your project.
Final report
The final report must be submitted within three months of the project’s completion. In the final report, you will provide a summary of the final year as well as an overview of the overall achievements and impact of the project. A brief summary of the project results, included in the report, will be used in Nessling Foundation’s communications. The final report must also contain a detailed account of the funds used.
Reporting requirements by project type
- Doctoral research projects: Annual intemediate reports and a final report. These reports should cover project progress, publications, communications, impact, and expenses (including a financial report from the project implementation site or personal receipts). Additionally, a supervisor’s statement is required (an automatic request will be sent to the supervisor).
- Postdoc research projects: Annual intermediate reports and a final report. These reports should cover project progress, publications, communications, impact, and expenses (including a financial report from the project implementation site or personal receipts).
- Action projects: A final report only, which should cover project progress and outcomes, publications, societal impact, and expenses (including a financial report from the project implementation site or personal receipts).
Please note! Please do not send us printed materials, as our capacity to archive them is limited. We would be happy to receive an electronic link to your completed dissertation or other project publications.
Reporting publications and communications
We recommend that you keep an ongoing record of your project’s results and the methods used for communication and engagement to make the reporting process smoother.
Publications completed during the funded year should be categorised and reported in Nesslink as follows:
- Articles (Articles in peer-reviewed international journals; Articles in peer-reviewed international edited works; Articles in national journals; Articles in national edited works or conference publications)
- Graduate work (Doctoral thesis; Licenciate thesis; Pro gradu thesis or diploma work)
- Conference abstracts
- Patents
- Other publications
Communication and engagement methods used during the funded year should be categorised and reported in Nesslink as follows:
- Public appearances
- Influencing political decision-making
- Popular publications
- The use of social media channels
- Organised events
Reporting of funds
In the report, record the personal working grants paid during the reporting period and the actual research/project expenses incurred. Please ensure that the amounts you report match the financial report from the project implementation site or, if you manage the funds personally, your own expense documentation (bank statement and receipts).
If your expenses are managed by the project implementation site: Request an expense report from the finance department of your research organisation to include as an attachment in your report.
If you manage your expense grants personally: Attach a bank statement for the expense account and all receipts for incurred expenses. These should be uploaded as two separate files: (1) the bank statement, and (2) all receipts combined into a single PDF file, arranged in reverse chronological order according to the bank statement to facilitate clear and easy review. You can use free programs such as PdfSam and Smallpdf to combine PDF files.
Note: If you make purchases for the project with your personal payment card, transfer the exact amount corresponding to the receipt from the expense account to your personal account separately. Do not combine multiple expenses into a single, larger transfer. This ensures that the bank statement for the expense account matches the receipts, making it easier to verify in the report.
If there are several small payments for the same purpose (e.g., public transport tickets), you can add them up and make a single transfer from the expense account. For this transfer, you should provide either a summary receipt (if available from the service) or one ticket/receipt along with a brief description of the total expenses. For example: “5 public transport trips in Tampere for fieldwork meetings.”
Any grant surplus indicated in the final report must be returned to the Nessling Foundation. You can obtain the necessary details for returning surplus funds from the Grant and Administrative Coordinator.
Social security and taxation for grant recipients
Statutory social security
Grant recipients are covered (under certain conditions) by statutory pension and occupational accident insurance, and group life insurance. These statutory insurance totals approximately 15–20% of the personal grant amount. Additionally, as a grant recipient, you are entitled to earnings-related Mela sickness allowance and daily allowance benefits under the Health Insurance Act.
The Farmers’ Social Insurance Institution (Mela) manages the insurance for grant recipients. Note that pension insurance for grant recipients, i.e., Mela insurance, is mandatory if the work is conducted in Finland and the grant period exceeds four months. Personal grant recipients must apply for insurance through Mela within three months of starting work under a grant that meets these conditions. Remember to do this on time. If you fail to apply, the insurance cost will be billed to you by the following autumn when Mela reviews all grant notifications and retroactively insures those who did not apply voluntarily.
The insurance application and further information are available on Mela’s website. The Nessling Foundation reports all granted grants to Mela. When you apply, be sure to specify the amount of expense grants granted to you to distinguish it from your personal working grant.
Taxation
Grants are tax-exempt up to the amount equivalent to the annual government artist grant (€26,269.46 in 2024). At the end of each year, the Nessling Foundation sends a report to the Tax Administration on grants paid, as required by tax regulations. You must check and declare any received grants on your pre-filled tax return and pay taxes on any amount exceeding the tax-exempt limit afterward.
Since 2020, following annual reporting guidelines, we also report expense grants granted to individuals, in addition to their personal grant. We are required to report these expense grants even if they are paid directly to a university or organisation account. It is your responsibility to provide the tax authorities with a clear breakdown of the grant’s usage, specifying which part is not personal income but used for research expenses (such as travel or materials). Ensure that your pre-filled tax return separates any research expenses granted from your personal grant. More information can be found on the Tax Administration’s website.
You may be eligible for tax deductions on the grant as with other income. For example, statutory pension insurance, home office expenses, and travel costs between home and work are deductible.
Note! Grant recipients who pay insurance to Mela should be aware that health care contributions and daily allowance payments are required in taxation, even if the grant itself is not taxed. For precise and up-to-date information, consult the Tax Administration directly.
Further information on grant taxation is available on the website of the Tax Administration. Tax regulations may change, and their interpretation can vary. If you have any questions, you can contact the Tax Administration for clarification.
Any questions?
Please do not hesitate to ask us for help with project management, budgeting, and grant usage!
For any questions or challenges related to project administration, our Grant and Administrative Coordinator, Kristiina Takkinen is here to assist grant recipients. For project-related matters, your primary contact should be Kristiina, through the Nesslink system. If you would like to discuss something by phone, please arrange a time via email () or text message (050 5027 537).
Note! For any matters related to project payments, please always contact us via Nesslink.
