Fulbright Finland Travel Grants for Research Collaboration

The competition for visits in 2025-26 ended on January 28, 2025.

Are you:

• Planning a short-term research visit to the U.S.?
• Interested in and willing to advance collaboration between your Finnish home institution and a U.S. partner as well as to share information about Fulbright Finland Foundation grant opportunities in order to advance that collaboration?

If you answered "yes" on both counts, read further, because this might be a grant for you.   

Purpose of the Grant Program

The Fulbright Finland Travel Grants for Research Collaboration are short-term travel grants for researchers from Finland to travel to the U.S. for a minimum of one week and a maximum of three months.

The proposal for the visit should include all of the following three goals:

• Advancing the applicant’s own research goals
• Initiating/advancing collaboration between the Finnish home and U.S. host institution and cooperation between Finland and the U.S. in the specific research area
• Sharing information about Fulbright Finland Foundation grant opportunities both while in the U.S. as well as at the home institution in Finland

Examples of activities for the visit may include making contacts, launching collaboration projects, negotiating contracts, attending conventions and conferences, and conducting research. Please note that the grant is not awarded solely for attending a conference. Teaching is possible as well (teaching cannot be the primary purpose of the grant), but candidates need to be aware that for teaching purposes a visa is required and it is the grantees’ own responsibility to obtain a visa. The goals of the visit must be realistic in view of the proposed length of the visit.

While applicants from all fields are eligible to apply, the Fulbright Finland Foundation especially encourages proposals tackling current and/or global challenges.

Focus areas could include (but are not limited to) the following:

Governance, Peace, and Wellbeing

• Global Health
• Equitable Societies
• Human Rights and Inclusive Societies
• Women in Society
• Preventing Radicalization
• Peace Mediation
• Multilateralism
• Education and Innovation

Shared Environments

• Sustainability
• Climate Change
• Arctic Cooperation
• Circular Economy
• Energy and Resources

Emerging Technologies & Hybrid Threats

• Artificial Intelligence
• Cybersecurity
• Media Literacy, Disinformation, and Societal Resilience

Managing Migration & Humanitarian Crises

• Displaced Persons, Refugees, & Asylum Seekers
• Irregular Migration
• Economic Migrants

Background of the Program

The Fulbright Finland Foundation has received feedback from Finnish higher education institutions that administrators, students, teachers and researchers on the departmental level at Finnish HEIs are not yet adequately familiar with Fulbright Finland Foundation grant opportunities. On the departmental level, there is not enough familiarity with the programs available for U.S. academia to visit Finnish universities or opportunities provided for Finnish scholars and researchers to visit U.S. institutions, and for this reason the institutions may miss out on important opportunities. The Fulbright Finland Foundation has also received feedback from Finnish university departments that there is a significant need for short-term travel grants for research collaboration with partners in the U.S. The Fulbright Finland Travel Grants for Research Collaboration was founded specifically based on the feedback from the field. It is, in essence, a combined response to these two needs. The first call for applications was made in April 2015.

Benefits

• Grant:
  • The grant is meant for travel expenses (travel costs between Finland and the host city and accommodation costs).
  • The exact grant amount is determined on the basis of the application and the total grant can range up to 4000 euros.
  • Applicant should be prepared to cover all other costs for the visit by other means.
• Support services and additional benefits:
  • Personal advising services throughout the process provided by the Fulbright Finland Foundation in Helsinki.
  • Orientation training to the U.S. culture, higher education system, and details for the upcoming visit. The training includes online materials and an orientation day in Helsinki.
  • Access to local alumni support networks in Finland and in the U.S.

A special award available for research at Cleveland State University. 

Support for Grantees with Disabilities

Extra funding support is available for grantees with disabilities. If you have a disability that would cause additional costs for the grant term, contact the Foundation to discuss reasonable accommodations. Send your self-assessment with a description of the disability and the specific accommodations requested to the Foundation ([email protected]) by the grant application deadline.

Please note that disclosing the need for disability accommodation does not affect the review and selection process.

Eligibility

• Degree: Researchers in Finland, including doctoral students, are eligible to apply. Applications from doctoral students and young postdoctoral scholars are particularly encouraged.
• Citizenship: Applicants do not need to be Finnish citizens.
• Grant period: The visit can start after the Fulbright Finland Pre-Departure Orientation in May 2025 and must end by May 2026. The minimum length of the visit is one week, and the maximum is three months. Grantees must return to Finland after the travel grant visit.
• Individual Grants: Travel grants are awarded to individual researchers. Grants are not available for groups. Applications that are duplicate or substantially similar, originating from the same institution and focusing on the same project, will be deemed technically ineligible.
• Previous grants:
  • Previous recipients of the Fulbright Finland Travel Grant for Research Collaboration are ineligible to apply again for the same travel grant category.
  • If applicants have received another grant from the Fulbright Finland Foundation, they are eligible to apply for a Fulbright Finland Travel Grant for Research Collaboration one year after the completion of the previous Fulbright Finland Foundation grant.
  • Recipients of the Fulbright Finland Travel Grant for Research Collaboration are eligible to apply for another Fulbright Finland Foundation grant after they have submitted a completed final report of their travel grant visit.

Visa Requirements:

• Grantees with Finnish citizenship or from countries eligible for the Visa Waiver Program (ESTA) may be able to travel to the U.S. without a visa. However, depending on the specific project, the U.S. host institution may require applicants to apply for an Exchange Visitor (J-1) Visa.
• Citizens of countries that are not part of the visa waiver program need a Temporary Business Visitor (B1) Visa or, if required by the host institution, an Exchange Visitor (J-1) Visa.
• The Fulbright Finland Foundation does not provide visa sponsorship to the U.S.; if a visa is required, it must be sponsored by the U.S. host institution.

How to Apply?

Please submit the completed application form as well as all the required supplements here by the application deadline.

Documents which are required to be included in the application:

• Application form
• Curriculum Vitae (CV)
• Invitation letter from the U.S. host institution: The invitation letter should include information about the:
  • Purpose of the visit
  • Estimated visit dates
  • Information about visa requirements: If a J-1 visa is needed, the host institution must sponsor it by issuing a Certificate of Eligibility for Exchange Visitor (DS-2019)
• Home university recommendation letter: The letter should be uploaded by the recommender via this link by the application deadline. It should:
  • Evaluate your professional work
  • Describe the potential for collaboration between the home and host institution
  • Assess the applicant’s suitability as an ambassador of Finland, their home institution, and the Fulbright Finland Foundation
  • The recommendation can be, for example, from the Dean of the Faculty, Head of Department, or other as appropriate (doctoral students should have their supervisor’s recommendation)
  • The recommendation letters are confidential and are not disclosed to the applicants

The applicant is responsible for saving all the required attachments in the application system by the deadline.

Evaluation criteria

The applications are evaluated according to the evaluation criteria set by the Fulbright Finland Foundation Board, and the interviews focus on the following attributes. The Foundation does not provide feedback on individual applications, their review process, or on any single grant decision.

The grantees are required to submit a final report to the Fulbright Finland Foundation within 14 days upon the completion of the visit. The Fulbright Finland Foundation will also send a follow-up inquiry one year after the visit on continuing home and host institution collaboration and Fulbright Finland information sharing at the Finnish home institution.

Alumni Experiences

Fulbright Finland Outreach Ambassadors are happy to share their experiences from the U.S. Feel free to contact them.

Read the Fulbright Finland News Magazine article Advancing Research and Building Collaboration: Short-Term Grants Respond to a Growing Need where program alumni Katariina Sorvari and Lotta Leiwo share their experiences of building international networks and advancing their research through the grants.

Read a plog post Ten Years of Fulbright – And the Journey Continues! by Erkko Sointu, one of the inaugural alumni of the Fulbright Finland Travel Grants for Research Collaboration program.

What is the Fulbright Finland Foundation?

The Fulbright Finland Foundation is a private, independent, not-for-profit organization based in Helsinki, Finland. The Foundation’s aim is

• to promote a wider exchange of knowledge and professional talents through educational contacts between Finland and the United States, and
• to support the internationalization of education and research in Finland, and help U.S. and Finnish institutions create linkages.

What Makes the Fulbright Finland Foundation Programs Unique?

• In addition to the grant, the Fulbright Finland Foundation offers the grantees several additional benefits and free support services, as well as an access to a global, multi-professional network.
• We are looking for applicants who want to impact the future and to make a difference – applicants who want to facilitate positive change, develop and advance their own profession or discipline, and find solutions to national and international challenges in their field.
• The grantees also act as ambassadors for the Fulbright Finland Foundation, their home country, and their home organization and, in this way, do their part in sharing their home country and culture and contributing to the relations between Finland and the U.S.

This program is fully sponsored by the Fulbright Finland Foundation, and it is implemented outside of the U.S. State Department sponsored Fulbright program.