The Nessling Foundation offers funding for active researchers and actors whose projects speed up the sustainability transformation that protects natural systems. Funding for doctoral thesis projects may be applied during the general grant call in the autumn. Before submitting an application, please carefully read the instructions below.
Please review the following criteria first
- We award funding for doctoral thesis to the same individual only once.
- We award personal grants for doctoral thesis projects for a maximum of four years. In addition to this amount, it is possible to include other costs in the application including, for example, well-justified research and travel costs, or costs related to communication and interaction.
- We do not award funding for doctoral thesis work lasting less than two years, such as the finalisation of a dissertation.
- The applicant’s undergraduate degree must be completed and admission to the doctoral programme confirmed before beginning their grant-funded work. However, it is possible to apply for a grant before this.
- The applicant must have a connection to Finland. If the applicant is a Finnish citizen, they may apply for doctoral thesis funding for work carried out in Finland or abroad. If the applicant is not a Finnish citizen, they must be affiliated with a Finnish research organisation. In addition to this affiliation, applicants who are not Finnish citizens must either reside in Finland or carry out the work in Finland.
- Funding may be applied for even if the applicant currently has an ongoing project funded by the Nessling Foundation. However, the same person may not hold two Nessling Foundation grants at the same time. The applicant’s funding under the current project must therefore have ended before the doctoral thesis funding begins.
- The funded work must start during the following calendar year, no earlier than 1 January and no later than 1 December 2027.
Submit your application using the Nesslink system
The grant application is prepared using the Nesslink system. The application form will be available in Nesslink from the start date of the application period on Monday 17 August 2026. The application must be submitted by the grant recipient, who should register in the Nesslink system as an individual applicant.
The application form must be filled out with the applicant’s details, project details, project risk assessment, research ethics assessment and project budget. A request for a statement from the doctoral thesis supervisor is also sent via Nesslink. The supervisor’s statement is a mandatory part of the application.
The mandatory attachments of the application include a research plan, communications and interaction plan, the applicant’s CV and list of publications, and a commitment form signed both by the applicant and the project implementation site. The commitment form must be signed either by hand or using an electronic signature that requires strong authentication. Download the template for the commitment form here.
You may submit your application in either Finnish or English. All the attachments may also be prepared in Finnish or English. The only exceptions are the Project title and Project summary fields on the application form – these are to be given in both Finnish and English as we use this information in our communications if funding is granted for the project.
The Nesslink system allows you to save and edit an unfinished application. It will guide you forward and provide instructions. We only consider applications that are received through Nesslink by the deadline. All required attachments must also be submitted during the application period and cannot be edited after the application has been submitted.
How to fill in the application form
Below, you find instructions for completing the application form fields in the order in which they appear in the form.
Applicant details
Doctoral thesis funding is awarded as a personal grant, so the applicant must be the intended recipient of the grant. Each applicant may submit only one application in the call.
On the application form, fill in the applicant’s current degree, project’s implementation site, faculty or department, and an ORCID identifier. Additionally, you can choose the language in which you wish to communicate with the Nessling Foundation.
Project details
On the application form, fill in the project title in both Finnish and English, and the estimated duration of the project. Select also the project’s primary field of research from the options below and, if desired, any supplementary fields of research.
- Humanities
- Business and Administration/Economics
- Education
- Natural sciences
- Social sciences
- Law
- Technology
- Health sciences
- Sustainability science
- Other, please specify
Specification of discipline
Specify the more precise discipline(s) of the research project.
Brief summary of the project
Provide a general overview of what the project entails and what its objectives are. This will be published on the Nessling Foundation’s website if funding is granted for the project. The summary is also requested in Finnish. The maximum length of the response is 1,000 characters.
Risk assessment
Describe the internal and external factors related to the project that may delay or prevent the achievement of its objectives. You may use, for example, the following questions. The maximum length of the response is 1,500 characters.
What uncertainties or risks of failure are associated with this kind of research? Why is taking these risks justified, and what potential outcomes could be achieved? How are the risks identified and managed?
Research ethics
Describe how ethical considerations related to the research will be taken into account in the project. Areas of research ethics include, for example, participants’ consent and rights, data protection and the ethical handling of data, risk assessment, and any required prior ethical review in accordance with the guidelines of the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity. The maximum length of the response is 1,500 characters.
Use of artificial intelligence
You may use artificial intelligence to support the preparation of your application, but the applicant is always responsible for the content, reliability and ethical integrity of the project. The use of artificial intelligence must comply with good scientific practice. You should therefore ensure that its use does not compromise data protection, information security or the reliability of the research. If the use of artificial intelligence has an impact on the implementation of the research, the processing of data or the assessment of the results, this must be disclosed transparently in the application. Please also note that artificial intelligence has significant climate and environmental impacts.
Indicate whether you have used artificial intelligence in preparing the application and, if so, how:
- Artificial intelligence has not been used in preparing the application
- Artificial intelligence has been used to support idea generation
- Artificial intelligence has been used for editing or language revision
- Artificial intelligence has been used to generate content
- Artificial intelligence has been used for another purpose, please specify
Supervisors
Name at least one and no more than two supervisors for the doctoral thesis. A statement from at least one supervisor is a mandatory part of the application. The system will automatically send the statement request to the supervisor, and the request cannot be edited after it has been sent. Please therefore make sure that the email address is correct. The statement request cannot be delivered if the email address is incorrect. The statement must be submitted within two weeks after the closing of the application period. You can later check in the Nesslink system whether the supervisor has submitted the statement and, if necessary, send them a reminder.
Project budget
You may apply for funding for doctoral thesis for a maximum of 4 years and for a minimum of 2 years. We do not fund the finalisation of doctoral theses. The grant is awarded personally to the researcher and cannot be transferred to another person. The Nessling Foundation can also participate in co-funded projects.
The amount of the personal grant in the 2026 call is €32,000 for doctoral students, i.e. €2,666 per month. The grant is awarded for full-time research work and cannot therefore be applied for on a part-time basis. Enter the annual amount of €32,000 in the budget table for each year of the project.
The statutory insurance contributions of the grantee must be paid from the grant. The grant is tax-free up to €26,671.92 (in 2025).
On the Budget page of the application, fill in the total amount of funding applied for from the Nessling Foundation and over how many years the expenses are distributed. Then, specify the costs for each year. When preparing a budget for a multi-year project, take into account the annual variations and moderation. In addition to the table on the Budget page, the distribution of costs must also be reflected in the research plan.
Please report also all grants received during the preceding three years and any pending grant applications intended for the same purpose.
Costs breakdown
In addition to the personal grant, you may include other expenses in the application. Funding for other expenses is awarded only together with a personal grant.
In this section, specify in detail the purpose and object of funds applied for, including costs related to travel, analysis services, equipment and other research-related tools, open access fees, communication and interaction, or any other purposes. No upper limit has been set for these costs, but they must be justified, contribute to the implementation of the project, and be reasonable in amount. Open access costs may be awarded up to €3,000.
Please note that the project budget cannot include:
- travel expenses between home and the workplace
- the purchase of a standard laptop or an office space
- daily allowances paid from travel grants.
NB: Without a detailed breakdown of costs, other expenses will not be taken into account when awarding the grant.
Auxiliary staff
In research projects, we provide personal grants only to the main applicant, not to auxiliary staff. However, you may budget for salary costs for auxiliary staff. In research projects, auxiliary staff primarily refers to research assistants. When calculating the salary costs of auxiliary staff, please take into account the statutory social security, pension and insurance premiums. The auxiliary workforce will not have an employment relationship with the Nessling Foundation, but the employer is the implementation site of the doctoral thesis project.
The Nessling Foundation’s guidelines for sustainable practices
We require applicants to take the Nessling Foundation’s guidelines on sustainable practices (will be updated during June) into account when budgeting costs and planning the project. The guidelines apply to travel expenses and any costs related to possible catering.
Overheads
We only pay overheads to research organisations. Check whether your research organisation requires an overhead share as it will not be granted retrospectively. Calculate the overhead share in the budget table of the application in its own section. The share of overhead costs may not exceed 15 per cent of the project costs other than the grant.
Example: If you are applying for a personal grant of €32,000 and €5,000 for other expenses (such as travel and supplies), the maximum overhead share may be € 750 (0.15 x € 5,000).
Part-time personal grant and working alongside the grant
The grant is awarded only for full-time research work. It cannot be applied for on a part-time basis.
However, alongside a full-time grant, it is possible to undertake other paid work that supports the grant-funded project, allowing flexibility for different life situations. Please note that holding a concurrent salaried research position for the same research is not permitted. This does not exclude a possible employment contract of up to 20 per cent offered by the university to grant-funded researchers.
Attachments
The mandatory attachments of the application are:
- research plan
- communications and interaction plan
- CV and list of publications
- commitment form signed by the project implementation site and the applicant
Submit all attachments in PDF format. The maximum size of one file is 10 MB. Please note that all required attachments must be submitted during the application period and cannot be edited after the application has been submitted.
Attachment 1. Research plan
The research plan is the most important part of your application. It is used to assess the scientific quality of the research and its suitability for this call (please familiarise yourself with our criteria). The plan should be concise and clearly written.
The maximum length of the plan is three pages (line spacing 1, font size 11, font Calibri). Any text exceeding three pages will not be read. In addition, the file may include one extra page for references or a bibliography. You may upload only one attachment in PDF format, with a maximum file size of 10 MB.
The research plan may be written in free form, but it should address the themes described below, where applicable to the project. However, every applicant must include the sections on Implementation of the doctoral dissertation and study plan and Literature.
Background, objectives and implementation of the research
- What is the topic, research problem and key research questions of your study?
- How does your research relate to previous research, and what new knowledge will it produce?
- What are your key theoretical and methodological starting points?
- What methods will you use, and how do they respond to the research questions?
- What data or materials will you use, and how will they be collected? How will the data be processed, stored and, where applicable, made available to others?
Sustainability transformation and scientific and societal impact
- How does your research relate to the sustainability transformation that protects natural systems?
- What key leverage points, structures or assumptions related to the sustainability transformation does your research identify or challenge?
- What is the societal and scientific significance of your research, and how can its results be applied?
You may illustrate this, for example, by reflecting on how your project relates to changes taking place in a specific socio-ecological system or to safeguarding planetary boundaries.
Implementation of the doctoral dissertation and study plan (mandatory for all applicants)
- Is your doctoral thesis article-based or a monograph? What is the publication plan or preliminary structure of the dissertation?
- What is the realistic timeline for your research?
- At what stage are your doctoral studies at the time of application? How will the dissertation work and related studies progress as a whole?
Literature (mandatory for all applicants)
- What are the key sources for your research?
Attachment 2. Communications and interaction plan
The aim of the communications and interaction carried out during the project is to increase the impact of your research. An active researcher working to advance the sustainability transformation that protects natural systems is expected to share science-based knowledge and expertise with society. In the plan, describe the communication and interaction objectives and methods that are appropriate for your research. When assessing the applications, the evaluators pay particular attention to the quality and realism of the communications and interaction plan.
The maximum length of the plan is one page (line spacing 1, font size 11, font Calibri). The attachment must be submitted in PDF format and may not exceed 10 MB.
The communication and interaction plan may be written in free form, but it should address the following themes, where applicable to the project:
- Societal impact of the project: What is the societal relevance of the project, and how does it contribute to a sustainability transformation that protects natural systems?
- Goals of communications and interaction: How do communications and interaction support the project’s objectives?
- Target groups and stakeholders: Who is the project aiming to reach and engage, and why?
- Communications: By what means will you share information about the project and its results with different audiences? For example: articles, social media, interviews, public talks, policy briefs. (Note: scientific publications are not part of this plan.)
- Interaction: How will you collaborate with stakeholders? For example: workshops, school visits, meetings, events, campaigns.
- Timeline: The phases of communications and interaction throughout the project and after its completion.
Please note that we may grant additional funding for communications-related expenses, which can be used, for example, to purchase visualisations or layout services from a graphic designer, organise an event, or pay for translation assistance. Carefully consider any potential outsourcing costs for communications already at the application stage and include them in the budget table.
By communications, we mean all the communication actions that are carried out during and after the project. Communications may include, for example, writing and publishing general-interest articles on different platforms, media cooperation and giving interviews, opinion articles, social media activity, speeches at public events and conferences outside one’s discipline, or policy briefs. The communications plan does not need to include scientific publications produced during the project. Instead, it is essential to describe the communications carried out on the basis of scientific publications and the results of the project.
By interaction, we mean cooperation with the users of knowledge, i.e., the various stakeholders of the project. We recommend that you work closely with the knowledge users throughout the entire research process. There are many different ways of working with stakeholders. These include, for example, workshops, training, school visits, bilateral meetings with landowners, NGOs, companies, policymakers or officials, or even campaigning at a street event. The most important thing is that you identify the key stakeholders in your own research and pay attention to how to work with them.
The Nessling Foundation not only encourages communications and interaction but also supports projects in these areas in various ways. For example, we offer training and provide sparring for our grant recipients.
For further help with identifying stakeholders and planning communications and interaction, see for example the Science communication recommendations by the Committee for Public Information, the Researcher’s Handbook on Science-for-Policy by the The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, the From science to decision-making online course, the Biodiversa Stakeholder Engagement Handbook and the book Tutkimuksesta toimintaan (Koskinen, Ruuska, Suni, 2018; in Finnish).
Attachment 3. CV and list of publications
The CV should follow the template provided by the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity. The CV and list of publications may be in Finnish or English and must not exceed two pages in total, including the most relevant publications. You can only download one PDF attachment with a maximum size of 10 MB.
Attachment 4. Commitment form signed by the project implementation site and the applicant
The commitment form must be signed by both the applicant and the implementation site. The signatures must be handwritten or provided using an electronic signature that requires strong authentication. You may upload up to two files, each with a maximum size of 10 MB. Attachments may be submitted in JPEG, JPG or PDF format. The template for the commitment form can be downloaded from here.