The KAUTE Foundation is reforming its grants: "We want to take forward things that will change the world"

The Finnish Science Foundation for Economics and Technology KAUTE is reforming its grants to better match the foundation’s objectives. KAUTE particularly wants to support research that provides the tools for addressing and solving large global phenomena.

The foundation has decided to no longer award encouragement grants and to begin supporting researchers more through working grants. Applying for travel grants will also change. In the future, you can apply for travel support around the year. All grants are primarily targeted at promising young researchers.

“We want to take forward things that will change the world. We have been trying to generate more discussion about phenomena that result from technological change, and about what they mean for society and people’s everyday lives”, says the foundation’s Executive Director Jouni Lounasmaa.

The next call for grant applications will open in January 2019. At that time, grants will be awarded for the following purposes:

to cover travel, research or publishing costs, up to a maximum of 5 000 euros
working grants for young researchers: 6 000 euros (3 months), 12 000 euros (6 months) and 22 000 euros (12 months)

In addition, grants are awarded for researcher exchanges at top foreign universities through two separate calls for applications. The Tutkijat maailmalle grants can be applied for in March and the Fulbright grants in May and December.

New technologies as the upcoming years’ themes

In 2018–2020, the foundation will particularly be highlighting research from new fields combining economics and technology. These are, for example, cleantech, finance technology, e-health, e-learning, digital production technologies, and the application of artificial intelligence and blockchain.

“The research we fund combines technological development, business opportunities and changes in the consumer field. In a phenomenon such as fintech, for example, in which the banking and financial systems change with technology, it is simultaneously a matter of technology, regulation and people’s behaviour changing”, Executive Director Lounasmaa says.