APPLICATION AND REPORTING INSTRUCTIONS TO THE APPLICANTS

Application instructions

The application consists of three parts:

• Application (cover letter)
• Research plan
• Information about the applicant (CV)

The application (cover letter) is a free format document, no more than one page where you introduce yourself and your topic to the board of trustees. Help the board to figure out how your research is new, important and fits to the purpose of Neles Oy 30 Years Foundation.

For any academic research proposal, the research plan is a document that has similar structure as a scientific article. The elements the plan consists of are abstract, introduction, problem formulation, methods, and expected results. The research plan describes what the challenge is and how it is expected to be solved, whereas, the scientific article, after the research is completed, explains what the result is and how it has been obtained. All other elements, i.e. problem formulation or model, state-of-art, methods, etc. of a research plan are similar as in a research article.

The plan consists of description the problem formulation and the methods you will use to solve it. The introduction explains why the problem and its solution are important, what has been done before, and by whom, and how does your research create new knowledge. The problem formulation, methods and expected results describes your approach. The board of trustees need to understand why your research is necessary and how you will get the results.

The length of the research plan shall not exceed the length of a typical conference or journal article. The form (citations etc.) of the research plan shall follow the principles of good a research article. The CV shall follow where applicable, the format of TENK template: TENK template.

The board of trustees recommend that the applicant get familiar with common instructions on how to write technical journal and conference articles and apply the principles also for the research plan. For example: How to write for technical periodicals and conferences.

For any practical research proposal that is not intended to be published in an academic venue or to be part of an academic thesis, shall contain the same elements but not in the strict academic format.

Reporting instructions

After the supported research has been done the board of trustees expect a report of the research. The most convenient way to report is to prepare a scientific publication, either in a conference or a scientific journal or periodical.

Based on the well-prepared research plan it is easy to expand the research plan to a journal or conference article.

For grants more than 5000 €, the board expects a report about the progress of the research before the final amount of the grant is paid. This interim report shall be in a format of a scientific paper (for example, a manuscript of the forthcoming article) and the final report is the paper submitted for publication.