FIRST+ -programme

In Finland, all higher education institutions may participate in the programme. In Russia, institutions across the whole country entitled to award Russian degrees (accreditation) are eligible to participate in the FIRST+ programme. The programme is open for all degree levels (Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD) and for all fields of education.

The cooperation takes place across networks of institutions which are coordinated by Finnish higher education institutions. The FIRST+ network involves at least one higher education institution in Finland and one in Russia.

Individual students and teachers who would like to participate in a FIRST+ mobility should apply through their home institutions. The sending higher education institution selects the students and teachers going on exchanges, but the host institution has the right to make the final decision on accepting candidates.

The FIRST+ network will provide a grant for participating students and teachers.

Application round for 2020-2021 ended 2nd March 2020.

In the future, EDUFI's Asia and FIRST + programs will be merged into a new programme concentrating on funding education cooperation of Finnish higher education institutions with selected target areas and countries in the Team Finland Knowledge Network which are South Africa, India, Southeast Asia, China, Latin America and Russia.

The FIRST+ programme’s funding can be used to cover expenses from interrupted or cancelled exchanges due to corona virus (but not over the granted sum).

If FIRST+ mobility is cancelled or interrupted due to corona virus, enquiries about compensation for the costs should always be made through the participant’s travel insurance first. After that, it is possible to apply for compensation for the costs of cancelled or postponed mobilities through the force majeure procedure. All force majeure applications as well as the eligibility of the expenses caused by cancellations will be assessed case by case and for each case a force majeur form with attachments needs to be sent.

If student exchange or traineeship has interrupted because of corona virus but the student completes his/her exchange through distance studies or remote work in the receiving higher education institution or organization, the student can keep the grant calculated for the whole exchange and these cases do not need to be reported to EDUFI through force majeur procedure. This applies to both cases when student has returned to home country or has stayed in the destination country.

FIRST+ intensive courses and short exchanges planned for groups can be postponed to be held next autumn even after the actual funding period. Intensive courses can also be held online. In other words, if a funded intensive course is likely to be cancelled due to corona virus, it can be postponed to be held next autumn or it can be held partly or completely digitally and expenses due to this procedure can be covered by the granted funding. In these situations make a preliminary plan and then contact first [at] oph.fi with the plan and justifications.

The instructions can be changed and updated as needed. 

The coordinating Finnish higher education institution will be responsible for the use of funding. The higher education institution reports to EDUFI on the progress and implementation of the activities in the interim report and in the final report at the end of the agreement period.

As part of the FIRST+ programme, a separate call for applications for EDUFI Finnish-Russian intensive courses for PhD students is organised. This call is to support Finnish-coordinated intensive courses from the field of humanities and social sciences for postgraduate students from Russian and Finnish universities.

Application round for 2020-2021 will end 2nd March 2020 (the electronic system will close at 16:15). The application is sent via EDUFI's electronic state grant system.

The amount of the grant awarded can be a maximum of 30 000 euros. The entire grant is awarded to the coordinating Finnish university which determines how the grant is used.

At least one university from Finland and one from Russia must participate in the intensive course. Students taking part in the course and guest lecturers can also come from universities other than those organising the course.