Koneen säätiö

Grants

Kone Foundation grant decisions

Criteria for decisions

The Board does not provide reasons for individual decisions, nor do we disclose the identities of those who assess the applications for the purposes of deciding on allocation of Kone Foundation grants. However, all applications are assessed and final decisions made in accordance with the following criteria:

  1. Applications must relate to some area of research that is supported by Kone Foundation. Proposals relating to environmental research must indicate the relevance of the research to environmental problems or challenges. In assessing all research proposals attention is paid to scientific merit, feasibility, topicality and possible original contributions to knowledge. Non-scientific projects are assessed with the appropriate modifications to these criteria.
  2. The applicant’s likely ability to successfully carry out the proposed research along the lines set out in the research proposal will be assessed on the basis of the applicant’s curriculum vitae (CV) and other documents.
  3. In applications for funding for postgraduate theses, a recommendation or statement by the research supervisor is essential. Also, if the same supervisor provides recommendations for more than one applicant, these must be listed clearly in order of priority and Kone Foundation will take this also into account in reaching its decisions. For applications for post-doctoral funding also it is to the applicant’s own advantage to include a letter of recommendation from an authoritative source well acquainted with the researcher’s work.
  4. In addition to assessing each applicant’s research proposal, curriculum vitae, references and all other required documentation individually, final decisions will also take into consideration the overall quality of each grant application relative to all the others.
  5. In addition to the academic merits of the proposed research project in need of funding, the Board of Kone Foundation also takes into account the possible broader contributions of the applicant’s project to the research community and to society at large. In general, in its allocation of research funding Kone Foundation is conscious of the importance of supporting academic and cultural diversity in Finland.