Instructions for grantees – Suomen Metsätieteellinen Seura

Grant use

The grant may be used only for the expenses indicated in the application and in the award letter. Check also the grant management system for possible comments on grant use in the decision.
A personal research grant cannot be used for secondary occupation.
A research grant includes the right for an APC-free article in Silva Fennica. The article must be based on the work mainly funded by the grant, the grantee must be the first author, and the manuscript must be submitted no later than 12 months after the end of the grant period. The manuscript will be submitted to the ordinary peer-review of Silva Fennica.
No grant can be used for daily allowances, meal compensation, travel insurance, kilometrage, or similar expenses.
A travel grant may be used for covering in-congress tours and congress dinners.
A travel grant cannot be used for covering pre- and post-congress tours, or other side events before or after the congress.
More detailed instructions can be found on the page “For which purposes you may apply a grant?”

Conduct the project as described in the application.
Keep books on the expenses of the project.
Report on the execution, expenses, and results of the project according to the instructions.
Inform immediately the Finnish Society of Forest Science if they receive funding for the same project from another funder.

A grantee must sign a commitment to follow the instructions for grantees.
The commitment form can be downloaded from the grant management system at the same time when the grantee makes the first payment request.
A research grantee must ask a person with signature right on behalf of the research organisation to sign the commitment to provide basic research facilities for the grantee (e.g., office space, equipment, IT facilities, mailing right, and full library access).
The signature on behalf of the research organisation is needed also in the case when a research grant is awarded exclusively for research expenses.
The signed form must be mailed to the Executive Manager of the Society (Viikinkaari 6, 00790 Helsinki) or a good-quality scanned copy may be e-mailed to him (pekka.nygren [ät] metsatiede.org). The grant may be paid after the commitment letter is received in the office of the Society.

The payment request is done using the grant management system.
Payment dates must be filled also in the case the grant is paid in one payment. The tax control, which guarantees the tax-free status of the grant, is based on the information on payment dates.
The payment request must be made at latest by the end of the year, for which the grant is awarded. Otherwise, the grant will be interpreted as cancelled.
The grantee must inform the Society immediately if they decide not to use the grant.
Travel grants will not be paid before the grantee e-mails to info [ät] metsatiede.org a copy on the invitation or the acceptance letter of the presentation if this document is not attached to the application documents.

Transfer of a personal research grant may be accepted because of family leave, military or civilian service, or long sick leave of the grantee, or because of a very important reason based on the advancement of the research project. The grant may be transferred to be used at latest on the year following the award year.
Change or transfer of a research grant must be applied by a letter addressed to the Board of the Finnish Society of Forest Science. The application must include a detailed justification for the change or transfer and the research plan and schedule modified according to the applied change or transfer. The letter must be mailed or e-mailed to the Executive Manager of the Society (Viikinkaari 6, 00790 Helsinki; e-mail pekka.nygren [ät] metsatiede.org).
Travel grants cannot be transferred or used for another purpose than the one indicated in the application.

The grantee must report on the execution of the project, expenses, and results to the Board of the Finnish Society of Forest Science within two months after the end of the grant period or travel.
Reporting is done using the grant management system.
Receipts of all expenses must be attached to the report as pdf files. No expenses will be accepted without receipts.
An unused grant or an unused part of a grant must be returned to a bank account indicated by the Society.
The report must include a short description on the use of the grant either in the e-form (max 2,000 characters) or as an attached file not longer than one A4 page.
The most important results and other scientific achievements during the grant period must be written in the report of a research grant.
Abstract of the publications or manuscripts produced during the grant period must be attached to the report as separate files. Abstracts of manuscripts will be handled as confidential material.
A report of a travel grant must include a short description on the meeting or other event, for which the grant was used (e.g., importance of the meeting to field of study of the grantee, number of participants and presentations). The grantee must also write a description on the session, in which they make their own presentation, number of listeners, and feedback on the presentation. In addition, the grantee must write shortly about the significance of the meeting on their own research and/or studies.

A receiver of a personal research grant must take a statutory retirement insurance. The insurance payment depends e.g., on your age and grant amount. You can calculate your insurance payment using this calculator.
The retirement insurance, which the grantee pays, is about 12 % on the grant amount. The insurance is tax-deductible.
The insurance is provided by The Farmers’ Social Insurance Institution, MELA.
The Finnish Society of Forest Science will inform the insurance provider on grants awarded but the grantee themselves must make the insurance application within three months from the start of the grant period.
Further information on the insurance and its application can be read in the website of MELA.
The responsibility for retirement insurance does not extend to travel grants or to any other grants that are awarded exclusively for covering research expenses.

Typically, the grants awarded by the Finnish Society of Forest Science are tax-free income for the grantee. However, the Society has the responsibility to announce for tax authorities all grants and prizes of or bigger than 1,000 €.
The grantee is responsible to inform the tax authorities about the use of the grant or the part of the grant that is awarded for research expenses.
Grants and prizes awarded by the Society are taxable income if the total of grants and prizes for the grantee from public and private institutions and Nordic Council exceed the maximum annual tax-free artist grant. In 2023, this was 2,128 € per month (annually 25 536 €). Further information may be read in the grant guide of the Finnish tax authorities.

More information: Pekka Nygren, firstname.lastname (ät) metsatiede.org, tel. 044 558 1199.