Finnish Cultural Foundation grants nearly €900,000 to the University of Jyväskylä in 2026
Overall, the Finnish Cultural Foundation awarded over €29 million in grants for science, art and culture based on applications received in October 2025. The proportion of successful applications decreased from the previous year: Funding was granted to 8.2% of science applications and 5.9% of arts applications. The majority of funding was granted for artistic work and doctoral dissertations.
The University of Jyväskylä was awarded one of the major grants of the year. PhD Carlos Aguilar-Trigueros, PhD Sten Anslan, and PhD Md Zulfikar Khan received €199,000 for their research on key species that have an essential impact on carbon regulation.
“Above the ground, researchers are studying, for example, how trees and lichen change as the number of reindeer increases. Similarly, soil can be studied to see how its composition changes with changes in soil mesofauna,” says Academy Research Fellow Carlos Aguilar-Trigueros from the Department of Biological and Environmental Science.
Furthermore, multi-year grants were awarded, among others, to MA Anna Upola for her doctoral dissertation on photographic self-portraits and selfies in modern art that criticise norms and challenge the Western art canon, to PhD Faisal Channa for his research on the potential of AI in teacher education to promote collaborative and critical learning, and to MA Irfan Durmic for his doctoral dissertation on extending the random walk approximation to additional dimensions. PhD Ilkka Rautiainen received funding for his research on predicting heart rhythm disorders by applying deep learning on Finnish electrocardiogram and background data.
