Project Funding Application Instructions

The application must include a brief description of the project, written in Swedish or in English. The description must not exceed 6,000 characters. It is to include a description of the relevance of the project to the Swedish language, the Swedish-speaking population or Swedish cultural heritage in Finland, and an estimated budget. Overheads are calculated as 20 per cent of salary costs and associated salary costs. The project description can be structured as the applicant wishes.

The project plan must not exceed 20,000 characters. It must not contain tables, charts, images, or a bibliography. These should be enclosed as appendices to the application.

Research projects: The project plan should be written in Swedish, or in exceptional cases in English, and should follow the Academy of Finland’s research plan guidelines.

Outline projects: The project plan is to be written in Swedish, or in some exceptional cases in English. Follow the Academy of Finland's research plan guidelines where applicable.

Please append a separate publication plan to your application (for research projects in step 2 only). Any costs of open access publication must be factored into the budget.

For research projects, a data management plan is only submitted in step 2. Costs must be included in the budget.

Instructions for the data management plan

Structure of the data management plan

You need to attach a separate data management plan to your application. In it, describe how research data and research materials will be handled while the project is in progress and how the project data will be made available once the project is completed.

Submit the plan even if the project does not create research data or gather material. Provide brief and concise answers to the questions. The data management plan complements the research plan by providing a description of the technical management and archiving of the project data and establishing the rights to the project data.

Either write a free-form plan or use the generic model for data management plans in DMPTuuli (LINK https://dmptuuli.fi). Please note that the list below contains some questions that have not been specified in DMPTuuli.

Questions that your data management plan must answer

General description of data and material

What type of research data (e.g. qualitative, quantitative, measurement data) does the project collect or use in analogue and digital form?

What kinds of data and materials does the project use?

 A) data gathered for the project

 B) data arising/created in the research process

C) existing data collected previously which is reused in this project

Briefly describe the types of analogue or digital data and materials that will be collected or produced. This may be text, numerical data, images, photographs, audio and video recordings, for example. State the kinds of existing data that will be used.

What file formats does the material use? State the file formats for all digital data. The file format is of central importance for future availability and reusability of data.

Quality assurance

How will the consistency and quality of the data material be checked? Describe how the methods used to collect, analyse, and process data might affect the quality of your project’s data and how the risks are minimised.

Quality control ensures that the data is not changed by mistake and that quality is retained throughout its lifecycle. Quality problems may arise in connection with technical data management or data transfer or when processing and analysing the content.

How legislation and ethical principles will be taken into account

It is of the utmost importance that legislation on data protection and intellectual property and the rules on research ethics are complied with when research data is managed, archived and made available.

In line with its policy of open access to science and cultural heritage, SLS aims to promote as free access to research data as possible, although restrictions may be imposed by legislation and ethical considerations.

Does the project research data include personal data on living persons as defined in the EU’s Data Protection Regulation? If this is the case, how will you comply with the personal data processing requirements set by the Regulation?

Describe how copyright and rights of ownership to the material will be handled. Has consent been obtained under copyright law and agreements drawn up so as to ensure that the material can be gathered, used, published, archived and reused in subsequent research? Agreements on copyright and ownership of the research material are to be drawn up with informants and with other external partners as well as members of research projects.

In their research and management of the research material, the researchers must follow the regulations of the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity (Link: https://www.tenk.fi/en/).

Draw up plans and take the necessary steps to resolve any ethical or legal questions in conjunction with disseminating the material. Details of ethical issues and statements from the ethics committee must be set out in the research plan. The data management plan only needs to detail ethical issues related to data management.

How will any ethical issues be taken into account when storing data (e.g. sensitive data linked to personal data, other people’s access to the material)?

If the ethics review board provides a statement on the research, the data management plan must state how the board’s instructions will be followed (e.g. how the identity of the participants will be protected by removing sensitive or personal information from data before making it accessible).

Documentation and metadata

In what way will data and materials be documented and systematised so that they are searchable, accessible, interoperable and reusable? Which identification data and metadata will be used?

Data and materials produced or used in the project must be able to be found, identified, and located using metadata.

Metadata is necessary information, e.g. about where, when, why and how data and materials have been gathered, processed and interpreted. Metadata can also include data on analytical methods and the research environment.

Find out whether there is a specific metadata schema or a metadata standard in your discipline/research community or at the archive where you intend to locate your data material.

Storage and backup during the project period

How will the data be stored and backed up and how will it be protected from unauthorised access while the project is in progress? Describe how secure and reliable storage of the research material will be ensured.

Think about who will be responsible for backing up the material and restoring it if necessary.

It is extremely important to ensure data security, especially if the data material contains sensitive personal information, for example. State who has access to your data material, what they are entitled to do with it, and how it will be ensured that data is transferred to partners or other researchers securely.

Open, publish and archive data once the research project is completed

The assumption is that research material produced using SLS funding will be openly accessible.

Describe and specify how and in which archive the research material will be archived once the project is complete. Materials arising in research and projects funded by SLS are to be offered to SLS’ archive in the first instance. If research data cannot be made openly available for continued use, explain how and where metadata for the material will be made accessible.

Briefly describe how the project will document its own activities and how this documentation will be archived.

Mandatory for project heads.

The curriculum vitae must comply with the Template for a researcher’s curriculum vitae provided by the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity (TENK).

Mandatory for project heads. Research projects in step 2 of the application process must provide a list of publications for all the researchers taking part in the project.

The list of publications is to be drawn up in accordance with the Academy of Finland’s guidelines, see Guidelines for complete list of publications.

We do not accept written recommendations in conjunction with the application, but you may specify individuals who can provide references for your research project if required.

SLS employees who will be taking part in a research or outline project should enclose a letter from their sector/function manager stating that leave can be granted.