Finnish-American Research Collaboration: Call for Potential U.S. Collaborators

The Finnish-American Research & Innovation Accelerator (FARIA) is seeking U.S. collaborators for research projects within the FARIAincubator program.

Deadline to submit letter of interest: April 15, 2022

Program Sponsors

The Academy of Finland has two partners in the United States: the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Academy and the American funders have agreed to promote Finnish-American research collaboration in 2020–2024. Cooperation will be strengthened by funding research projects between American and Finnish parties in areas represented by the research flagships included in the Academy’s Finnish Flagship Program. The collaboration between the funders follows a lead agency model, with the US-agency reviewing applications and the Academy of Finland providing additional funding for Finnish PIs, thus enlarging the overall possible budget.

To support the utilization of these opportunities the Finnish-American Research & Innovation Accelerator (FARIA) launched in collaboration with the Academy of Finland a light-weight matching and preparatory program for US and Finnish researchers – the FARIAincubator.

FARIAincubator

The FARIAincubator is a program that encourages the creation of joint project teams and prepares them to apply for funding. The preparation is conducted via a series of four online seminars which aim to share up to date information of the joint Finnish-US calls and coaching by experienced grant writers.

Added value for participating researchers:

• Reach new potential collaborators specific to your field of interest
• Qualify for joint Academy of Finland/NIH/NSF funding by partnering
• Stay up to date on funding criteria and application processes
• Increase the quality of your proposal and thereby success chances for funding

How UMN Colleagues Can Participate

1. Read the project description and request for U.S.-expertise: Finnish researchers submitted a draft research/project idea and description of the kind of collaborator expertise they are looking for. Review the descriptions to see if your interests and expertise are a potential match:
   • Adaptive Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Distributed Networks
   • Bio-Based Materials Applied to Biomedicine
   • Bio-Based Polymer Chemistry
   • Health and Social Services Proposal 1: Medicine and Health Technology, Health Sciences, Welfare Sciences, Social Research, Administrative Studies, Information and Knowledge Management, and Information Technology.
   • Health and Social Services Proposal 2: Social and health services: Welfare state, gender and generational relations and costs of care. Aging and gerontological social work are also of interest.
2. Get in touch with the FARIAincubator team by April 15: If interested, send a short email to the program manager Dr. Jérôme Rickmann ([email protected]) indicating:
   • The proposal you are potentially interested in
   • A short description of how you fit the expertise profile being sought
3. Researcher matching seminar: Dr. Rickmann will reach out to you and organize a researcher matching seminar, which essentially is a Zoom-session with the Finnish PI to present the project proposal in more detail and to discuss the idea with U.S. colleagues.
4. Program participation: After the matching seminar participants can freely decide if they want to follow the program and to continue to refine the initial ideas together. The participation is at all stages free of cost and no “hard commitment” to proposal submission is expected.

Program Steps

** Exact dates to be confirmed, depends on the Academy’s budget situation and the timing of the next joint calls.