EDUFI Fellowship

Applicant: a Finnish university department
For whom: a doctoral student from outside Finland
Purpose: initial funding for carrying out a doctoral research project in Finland, completing a double degree or carrying out a study visit for exceptionally compelling reasons
Application deadline: Rolling deadline. You should apply for the grant five months before the start of the fellowship.
Duration of the fellowship: 3–12 months. For those working on a doctoral research project at a foreign university, the fellowship may be awarded for the duration of a visit lasting 3–6 months. This limit does not apply to Ukrainian doctoral researchers who are or have been forced to flee Ukraine due to the Russian invasion in 2022 or later and are working on a doctoral research project at a Ukrainian university. As such, they can be awarded the fellowship for the duration of a visit lasting 3–12 months.
If a doctoral researcher has already received 12 months from EDUFI Fellowship or EDUFI Fellowship for doctoral students from Ukraine programme, themself is no longer eligible.
Size of grant: EUR 1,900 per month

The fellowship grant is intended for post-graduate studies and research at 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 at a Finnish university. You cannot apply for the grant at the end of a research project or for post-doctoral research. 
•    completing a double degree in Finland
•    a study visit for post-graduate students working on a doctoral research project at 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 during the fellowship. 
If the fellowship period is longer than six months, it can include short visits abroad to gather research material and data. The total combined length of these visits cannot exceed one month.
If more time will be needed for gathering material and data during the EDUFI Fellowship, the fellowship grant can be applied only for those periods during which the fellow will be working in Finland.

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

The application processing time is approximately three months. Please note that the processing time is longer in the summer. The application approval rate is 35–40%. The decision will be sent to the applicant. 

The primary selection criterion is the quality of the application. The balance between universities is also taken into consideration regarding the total amount of funding to be granted. Furthermore, the Finnish National Agency for Education may limit the total number of projects funded at the same university. 

How applications are evaluated

All applications that pass the validity check will undergo a quality evaluation, in which their relative strength and the extent to which they are considered capable of meeting the following selection criteria are evaluated:

Eligibility criteria

• The applicant is eligible.
• The applicant has provided the Finnish National Agency for Education with the requested reports on the use of previously awarded EDUFI Fellowship grants.
• The application and annexes have been prepared in accordance with the application instructions (more detailed instructions on the application form).
• The grant is being applied for for the purpose specified in the call for applications.
• The applicant does not have EDUFI Fellowship funding for another doctoral researcher at the same time. This limitation does not apply to Ukrainian doctoral researchers who are or have been forced to flee Ukraine due to the Russian invasion in 2022 or later. They can also be working on a doctoral research project at either a Finnish or Ukrainian university.
• The fellowship candidate has not yet arrived in Finland or has been in Finland for no longer than one year by the time the application is submitted. This limitation does not apply to Ukrainian doctoral researchers who are or have been forced to flee Ukraine due to the Russian invasion in 2022 or later. They can also be working on a doctoral research project at either a Finnish or Ukrainian university.
• The applicant has taken into account possible sanctions imposed by Finland and the European Union (e.g. on Russia, Belarus).

Applications are evaluated based on the following criteria. More detailed descriptions of the content required in the different parts of the application are provided in the instructions included on the application form.

• The justification provided in the motivation letter for inviting the fellowship candidate.
• The academic competence, experience and previous research output of the fellowship candidate.
• The clarity and feasibility of the research plan including a risk analysis and mitigation plan.
• The general significance of the research for the Finnish university, research or society.

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 one month after the end of the fellowship.

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

Päivi Jokinen

Tarja Mäkelä (changes in grant periods, invoicing)