North Karelia Grants

Eligible Applicants

The North Karelia Regional Fund awarded 980,000 euros in grants in 2022 for projects focused on North Karelia, to applicants born or currently residing in the region, as well as for scientific or artistic work taking place in or focused on the region.

Applying for a Grant

You may apply for a grant on the Online Application Service and provide a reference on the Online Reference Service. All applications and references must be submitted to the online service before 4 pm local Finnish time (EET) on the deadline date. Applications and references submitted in any other way will not be considered. The applicant should familiarise themselves carefully with the application guidelines and make sure they have appended all requested attachments in their application. More information on the January round of applications can be found here.

Grant Focus Areas

It is possible to apply for grants in all fields of science and art.

The Fund may award two-year grants for scientific follow-up research, artistic work, and implementing events. For any such grant, an interim assessment will be carried out after the first grant year.

Regional Fund Special Purpose Grants

A joint project for sciences

The North Savo and the North Karelia regional funds will altogether award a maximum of 100,000 euro grant to a high-quality, multidisciplinary undertaking that includes parties from both regions. In the 2022 application round, the grant is aimed at human and social sciences. Kindly submit your application to a single regional fund only.

Spearhead Projects

Spearhead projects requiring larger-than-usual funding will receive a minimum of 40,000 euros in the form of one or two grants. Such projects require fresh or exceptional points of view, content, quality, or design.

Art for Everyone Grant

20,000 euros have been earmarked for Art for Everyone projects in the January round of applications. The aim of this form of support is to promote the equal realisation of cultural rights and to improve the quality of life of people in need of special support or care, through art. The work or project may take place in welfare and nursing institutions or other environments, the residents or users of which may otherwise have limited access to art. Possible institutions include sheltered homes, day centres, and homes of the elderly, hospitals, prisons, reception centres, care units for substance abusers, and child welfare institutions.

Local Culture Projects

A grant may be applied, for example, for projects focusing on local culture of the region and cultural heritage projects, such as documenting cultural heritage, showcasing of cultural environment, promoting urban and neighbourhood culture, and histories of local communities and societies, exhibitions, and events. Local Culture Projects grants may also be related to multi-location or independent-of-place local heritage projects, for home region may be taken to mean a natural environment, a built-up environment, social and mental environment, as well as a virtual home region, which a person themselves finds meaningful. Scientific research into a local culture is not considered a local culture project. Note that applicants for the local culture projects grants must choose the field of science or art that their work most closely relates to.

Donor Funds

The grants are awarded from a general fund and those donor funds open for application in the next round:

• Eliel and Ina Engelberg Fund
• Olavi Hirvonen Fund
• Heikki and Maria Inari Fund
• A.E. Kalsta Fund
• Anna Koskimaa and Aada Nevalainen Fund
• Antti and Siiri Lehvonen Fund
• Aino Leppänen Fund
• A Support Fund for Dramatic Art
• Outokumpu Oy (plc) Fund
• Valter and Elin Parviainen Fund
• The North Karelia Savings Bank Fund
• Hagar Vaheri Fund

Grant Guidance

Grant-related enquiries should be sent to pohjois-karjala@skr.fi. Enquiries may also be directed to Fund Officer Asko Saarelainen and Secretary Maarit Hämäläinen-Koljonen.

Grant Decisions

The grant decisions are made by an administrative committee consisting of regional experts from various fields. If necessary, outside experts can be called upon to evaluate applications. The grant decisions of the January round of applications 2022 will be announced at the latest on May 15th. Both favourable and unfavourable grant decisions are sent to grant applicants by email approximately two weeks before that. The grants can be withdrawn from May 11th.