Funding for researchers

Call target

HIIT funds initiatives that support our mission to enhance the quality, collaborations, visibility and impact of the Helsinki ICT research community. This open, continuous call is not restricted to those working in one of the HIIT focus areas, but is open to the wider ICT research community. HIIT funding supports activities with clear added value and high impact. Successful applications are:

• Short-term: This call focuses on short-term funding. HIIT’s longer-term commitments are centered around periodic calls for postdoctoral and research fellow positions.

• For future activities: HIIT does not consider funding applications for activities that have already taken place or to otherwise fund activities retroactively.

• No more than €5.000: In exceptional circumstances, HIIT may consider applications greater than this funding cap, however, successful requests are typically between €1.000 and €5.000.

The same application form is used for proposals that support FCAI’s research agenda. If the proposal supports both the mission of HIIT and the agenda of FCAI, then both FCAI and HIIT will consider the funding request.

Who can apply?

For administrative reasons, the main applicant must be a PI in Aalto’s CS or DICE departments or at University of Helsinki’s CS department. We particularly welcome applications that involve several groups or otherwise benefit the ICT community at large and not just a single research group. If several PIs are involved in an application, then please list them as co-applicants.

The main applicant will be the contact person and will also be responsible for writing a news item for the HIIT website if requested.

Decision criteria and process

Activity funding is intended for enhancing the quality, collaboration, visibility and impact of Helsinki ICT research. Successful applications are, therefore, expected to support one or more of these objectives. Additionally, as a joint research institute of Aalto University and University of Helsinki, priority is given to applications initiating or enhancing collaboration between the two universities, supporting common focus areas in ICT, the strategies of both universities, and demonstrating added value by supporting activities that might not otherwise take place without support.

Funding decisions are made by the HIIT Steering Group, which has meetings once per month. Applications should be submitted at least one week in advance via the form link. While there are no restrictions on the number of applications each PI can submit within a given year, HIIT reserves the right to take the amount of funding previously received by research groups and/or HIIT focus areas into account when making funding decisions.

In case of FCAI funding, the decision criterion is the relevance to the agenda.

Supported activities

Below are categories of activities that have previously been funded. However, all proposals are welcome if they support the mission of HIIT (or FCAI) and benefit the Helsinki ICT research community:

• Organizing events: Funding can be used to organize workshops, conferences, hackathons, bootcamps, summer schools and other events in Finland or abroad. The application should describe the target audience, how the event will be marketed and how the event will increase the visibility, impact or quality of Helsinki ICT. The applicant must be in charge of event organization (e.g., as the organizing chair). HIIT typically only provides partial funding (e.g., covering traveling expenses of one or two invited speakers). HIIT should be acknowledged for sponsoring the event. Local events must be advertised prominently in both Aalto University and University of Helsinki.

• Visitors to Finland: HIIT can support visiting academics from potential postdoc candidates to high-profile professors. The application should describe how the visit will contribute to HIIT’s mission and confirm that the visitor is willing to give a guest lecture. The main applicant is responsible for ensuring the visit is publicly announced well beforehand and is responsible for all practical arrangements (including facilitating meetings with other PIs who wish to meet the visitor). For exceptionally high-profile visitors, we maintain the Helsinki Distinguished Lecture Series coordinated by Prof. Heikki Mannila. If you think the visitor would fit this category, please indicate it in the application.

• Research visits abroad: Research visits to high-profile universities and other organizations can be beneficial for increasing the visibility, impact and quality of Helsinki ICT. For longer (and more costly) visits, funding is typically provided by several funding organizations, with HIIT only providing partial funding.

• Conference attendance for postdocs: HIIT supports conference attendance and travel only for HIIT-funded Fellows.

• Conference attendance for doctoral researchers: HIIT does not support conference attendance and travel for doctoral researchers. However, in exceptional circumstances, HIIT may support doctoral researchers who need funding to present at competitive high-profile conferences, when there are no other sources of funding available, i.e., the researcher is not associated with a funded project and has exhausted all other avenues of travel funding prior to applying for HIIT funding (please detail these efforts in the application). Applications must provide details about the conference, the paper being presented and state whether the paper will be included in their doctoral thesis. It is the responsibility of the supervising PI to apply on behalf of the presenting researcher.