Pirkanmaa Grants

The next Pirkanmaa Regional Fund grant application period takes place from 16 Jan to 10 Feb 2023 until 4 pm local Finnish time (Eastern European Time).

Eligible Applicants

Eligible applicants include individuals born or currently residing in Pirkanmaa and individuals, working groups, or organisations working for the benefit of Pirkanmaa – organisations that primarily carry out different scientific, artistic, and cultural undertakings. The fund can also finance large applications in science and art, provided the working plan is interesting and the project budget drawn up realistically. The Fund will award a total of 1,500,000 euros in the January 2023 round of applications.

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

The Pirkanmaa Regional Fund awards grants for artistic work, scientific postgraduate studies and research, various cultural undertakings and local culture projects.

The Fund supports insightful and high-quality undertakings, rising and innovative talents, fields and events marginalised in different ways, and local culture.

The work is primarily supported through individual grants, not by funding salaried work. A working grant can be awarded for a project that begins after May 15th. The expenditure grants are also intended primarily for expenses that will realise after May 15th.

Regional Fund Special Purpose Grants

Additional EUR 1 million funding for the study of cardiovascular diseases

An additional EUR 1 million funding for the study of cardiovascular diseases is open for applications during the January application period. The grant is open for application in all regional funds. Instead of selecting a regional fund, applicants for this grant must select the special purpose grant of the regional funds, that is the study of cardiovascular diseases grant.

Planning Grant

A grant intended for the planning and development of a spearhead or a large-scale project for the 2024 application round. The purpose of the planning grant is to facilitate the follow-up planning and development of large-scale and extraordinarily demanding projects. A maximum of six planning grants will be awarded, each totaling EUR 2 500. The Cultural Foundation does not in any part undertake to continue funding projects that receive these planning grants. Applications having received planning grants will be assessed in an unbiased fashion along with other 2024 applications.

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

Grants are awarded from both General and Donor Funds. The Donor Funds bearing the names of their donors will award a total of 579,000 euros in grants in the fields defined by the donors.

Be sure to check the fields supported by the donor funds and the distributed grant sums. Should one of the donor funds open for application support the field of your application or purpose of use, please mention any such funds at the beginning of your working plan. There is no need to include general-purpose donor funds.

Aamulehti 100 Anniversary Fund
Anna and Kalle Eerola Fund
Matti and Helvi Heikkilä Fund
Matti and Aila Häkkinen Fund
Yrjö and Marjatta Juhari Fund
Aune and Kalle Kaihari Fund
Aili Luukkonen Fund
Marjatta Melkas-Rusanen and Anneli Melkas Fund
Nordman-Norvasmaa Fund
Irmeli Näsänen Fund
Elli and Elvi Oksanen Fund
Pirkanmaa Cardiology Fund
Juho Rajala Fund
Heli and Paavo V. Suominen Fund
Lea and Pekka Suoranta Fund

Additionally, open for application are the Maili Autio Fund grant for technical science, Norma Suoranta grant for visual arts and Irma Ääri grant for economic science.

The minimum grant sum awarded by the Regional Fund is 2,000 euros. A study scholarship from one of the donor funds may be less, provided it is in accordance with the fund regulations.

Grant Guidance

Grant-related enquiries should be sent to pirkanmaa@skr.fi. Enquiries may also be directed to Fund Officer Silja Minkkinen-Poikolainen and Secretary Kati Vastamäki.

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 2023 will be announced on May 12th. Both favourable and unfavourable grant decisions were sent to grant applicants by email approximately two weeks before that. The 2023 grants can be withdrawn from 22 May 2023.