Are you looking for a scholarship to help you recruit a foreign student to do doctoral research? The EDUFI Fellowship is intended particularly for providing initial funding to carry out research for a doctoral thesis in Finland. We have attracted excellent young researches to Finland with the fellowship, the majority of whom have also managed to secure further funding for their research.
A man and a woman working together
Photo: Satu Haavisto

 

 

Applicant: a Finnish university department

For whom: a doctoral student or a young researcher from outside Finland

Purpose: initial funding for completing a doctoral research project in Finland, completion of a double degree or a study visit on exceptionally compelling reasons

Application deadline: rolling deadline. You should apply for the grant five months before the start of the fellowship.

Duration of fellowship: 3–12 months, visits 3–6 months

Size of grant: 1,900 euros/month

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You can apply for the fellowship grant if 

  • you work as a researcher or a teacher in a Finnish university department
  • you will be hosting the research fellow
  • you will commit to common objectives with the research fellow
  • you will offer facilities and equipment for the use of the research fellow 
  • you will supervise the research.

You can apply for the grant for a non-Finnish post-graduate (post Master’s degree) that you will invite to Finland or who has been in Finland for a maximum of one year before applying for the fellowship. 

The EDUFI Fellowship is available to all foreign nationals and all fields of study.

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The fellowship grant is intended for post-graduate studies and research cooperation in Finnish universities in all fields of study.

We will award the grant 

  • for starting work on a doctoral research project if the whole doctoral thesis will be completed in a Finnish university. You cannot apply for the grant at the end of a research project or for post-doctoral research.
  • for completing a double degree in Finland.
  • for a study visit for post-graduate students working on a doctoral thesis in a university outside Finland, if there are particularly compelling reasons for the cooperation.

The fellow must work in Finland but is allowed to make conference visits abroad.

If the fellowship period is longer than six months, it can include short visits abroad to gather research material, if needed, in addition to conference trips. These visits in total cannot exceed one month.

If more time will be needed for gathering material during the EDUFI Fellowship, the fellowship grant can be applied only for those periods during which the fellow will be working in Finland.

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The fellows cannot apply for the EDUFI Fellowship themselves, because the grant will be awarded only to a Finnish university department.

The university will pay the grant to the fellow as a personal grant. The university will invoice EDUFI for the grant as a lump sum at the earliest when the scholarship holder’s arrival in Finland is confirmed but at the latest three months after the start of the scholarship period.

The grant can be split over several periods.

The grant is intended to cover the living costs of the fellow in Finland. We will not pay separate accommodation costs or contribute to travel, visa, residence permit or insurance costs.

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You can apply for the fellowship grant at any time. Please send the application to us at least five months before the planned start of the fellowship.

The application process will take about three months. Usually about 35-40% of applications are approved every year. Decisions will be sent to the applicant university department.

Fellows will need the following documents for their visa/residence permit application

  • a copy of the EDUFI fellowship decision
  • an invitation from the host university department
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You can fill in the EDUFI Fellowship application form in Finnish, Swedish or English. The application form comes with instructions on how to fill it and a list of required annexes. Please e-mail the signed form and annexes to: Kirjaamo(at)oph.fi , and write “EDUFI Fellowship” in the subject line of the e-mail.

NB! EDUFI will not process applications where the applicant is some other than a Finnish university representative.

 

The Finnish National Agency for Education submits information on all decisions made on applications in the call EDUFI Fellowship to the tutkiavustuksia.fi service for publication (Act on discretionary government grants 688/2001). 

As for discretionary government grants that have been made available for application after 1 October 2023, under section 32 of the Act on Discretionary Government Grants, the name of the natural person who is the government grant recipient, the purpose of the government grant and the regional allocation of the use of the government grant will be published by the State Treasury in the tutkiavustuksia.fi service. In addition, other public information on applying for, awarding and use of the discretionary government grant may be published in the service. 

In negative decisions, the name of a natural person applying in a personal capacity will not be published, nor will awarded grants of less than EUR 1,000 be published. 
 

Attachments
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Please find a link to our list of frequently asked questions and their answers below. We encourage you to read them through before contacting us. 

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The aim of the EDUFI Fellowship is to help make Finnish research and teaching more international and to build networks between Finnish and foreign universities. Final reports allow us to monitor the impact of the fellowships.

In your report, you will be asked to list the main results of the fellowship period and to describe how the objectives for the fellowship were achieved.

Please submit the report within a month after the end of the fellowship.

Please use the online reporting form.

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In case you have any questions, please contact us via email: edufi_fellowship [at] oph.fi

EDUFI Fellowship Team is on holiday from 15 July to 18 August 2024. Please be informed that we shall accept applications but not respond to enquiries received during this period. We will get back to you as soon as possible after our holidays.  We wish you a relaxing summer!


Päivi Jokinen

Tarja Mäkelä (changes in grant periods, invoicing)

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