Over 3 million euros for research in the sciences from the Research Council of Finland
The first results from the Research Council of Finland’s (RCF) winter 2025 call are in: 48 researchers in natural sciences and engineering research will receive Academy Research Fellowship funding. The RCF’s Scientific Council for Natural Sciences and Engineering also granted funding for 69 new Academy Projects, which involve a total of 107 subprojects. The total funding comes to around 34 million euros for Academy Research Fellowships and around 50.5 million euros for Academy Projects.
New Academy Research Fellow studies the decreasing snow cover
Postdoctoral Researcher Pekka Niittynen has been granted 685 611 euros in Academy Research Fellowship funding to using satellite images, climate data, and field studies, this project will create detailed maps of snow cover and snowbeds across mountains and tundra regions.
Snow cover is shrinking rapidly in high-latitude and high-altitude regions due to climate change, with major implications for ecosystems. This project focuses on snowbeds, areas where snow persists late into summer. These unique habitats support rare and specialized species, regulate water availability, and influence local ecosystems, yet they are among the most vulnerable to warming. Despite their importance, we lack a clear picture of where snowbeds are globally and how they are changing. Using satellite images, climate data, and field studies, this project will create detailed maps of snow cover and snowbeds across tundra regions.
- By sharing open-access tools and insights, this work will help scientists and decision-makers understand the impacts of climate change on these fragile ecosystems and guide efforts to protect them, says Postdoctoral Researcher Pekka Niittynen from University of Jyväskylä.
The RCF’s Academy Research Fellowship funding is intended for early-career researchers on a fast career track who have formed international networks and who are conducting scientifically high-quality and high-impact research that contributes to scientific renewal.
Four new Academy Projects to the University of Jyväskylä
The Research Council of Finland’s Scientific Council for Natural Sciences and Engineering awarded funding to four Academy Projects and five researchers.
Academy Projects:
Academy Research Fellow Kezilebieke Shawulienu, Atomic scale optoelectronic control of van der Waals quantum materials, 431 717 €
In this project, we will develop new experimental and theoretical techniques to study the optoelectronic properties of two-dimensional materials at the atomic scale. We will in particular focus on probing nanoscopic magnetic and optical landscapes in so-called moiré heterostructures. This will allow creating materials with completely new magnetic or optoelectronic properties. This project will for the first time probe how these properties vary at the atomic scale, and result in a detailed understanding necessary for harnessing these effects in novel applications.
Professor Juha Karvanen, Causal synthesis under structural uncertainty, 529 127 €
We develop methods of causal inference that take into account uncertainty related to causality, combine different types of data sources, and aim to solve problems related to missing data and selection bias. The developed methods are applied in ecology, health sciences, and business.
Professor Petri Pihko, EXATH: Electrocatalytic X-atom Transfer and Hydride Reduction, 574 315 €
EXATH will focus on the development of electrochemical mediators for reduction reactions in organic chemistry. The purpose of the mediator is to transfer electrons from the electrode and then donate the electron(s) to the substrate, i.e. the organic compound being reduced. In this sense, the mediators serve the same purpose as many vitamins in the body to transport electrons. The organic compound to be reduced could be a complex molecule, with multiple possible sites of reduction, and the mediator helps to channel the electrons to the desired functionality and desired site in space. In this way, the mediator provides selectivity in the reduction reaction. The mediator can be used multiple times and it serves as a catalyst. The electrochemical reductions could replace wasteful, and often dangerous reduction reactions carried out in the industry, and they could also provide access to new selective reactions that are difficult to carry out without mediator-assisted electrochemistry.
Staff Scientist Mikael Reponen, 413 155 € and Associate professor Markus Kortelainen, Nuclear properties at the N=Z line, 479 880 €
NUANZ will probe the ground state properties of isotopes in the immediate vicinity of the heaviest self-conjugate nucleus, tin-100, with a particular focus on N=Z nuclei. The experimental part of the project utilizes sensitive laser methods and multi-reflection time-of-flight mass spectrometers, coupled with efficient hot cavity catcher technique, to measure the masses, charge radii and magnetic moments of very weakly produced exotic isotopes in the region of interest. In the theoretical component of NUANZ, the experimental data is interpreted using nuclear density functional theory (DFT). In parallel, the theoretical work will aim at implementing proton-neutron pairing and isospin projection into the calculations and the data will be used to drive energy density functional development to improve the description of isotopes along the N=Z line.
Further information:
- RCF winter call results: https://www.aka.fi/en/about-us/whats-new/press-releases/2025/rcf-winter…
- Funding decisions: Academy Research Fellowship funding: https://research.fi/en/results/fundings?decisionMaker=LT&callId=13786
- Funding decisions: Academy Project Funding: https://research.fi/en/results/fundings?decisionMaker=LT&callId=13789
- Funding criteria and policies of Scientific Council for Natural Sciences and Engineering: https://www.aka.fi/en/about-us/decision-making-bodies/scientific-counci…
- Winter call review panels and reviewers: https://www.aka.fi/en/research-funding/peer-review-and-funding-decision…;
