Visitor programme

​To support visits of useful and significant length as a way to promote the scientific interaction of FINCA with research institutions worldwide, and to enhance its role as a national astronomical centre, FINCA continues its combined visitor and mobility programme with the following principles and aims:

FINCA visitor program

The main purpose of the scheme is to invite researchers from abroad to visit Finland. The workplace of the visitors can be any of the participating universities of FINCA, with mobility between the universities encouraged.  Visitors to FINCA must pursue a collaborative research program related to one of FINCA’s main research themes, and if applicable, to teach an intensive lecture course.

FINCA mobility program

The main purpose of the scheme is to allow staff at FINCA and at the participating universities to visit top-level institutes abroad. Such visits include, but are by no means restricted to, visits to ESO at the HQ in Garching Germany, or at Santiago de Chile.  It is also the purpose of the program to increase national mobility by supporting visits of staff members between the participating universities of FINCA.

FINCA school/workshop support program

The main purpose of this new (as of August 2025) scheme is to support student and early-career researcher participation in astronomy summer schools, workshops, etc., that enhance and broaden relevant practical skills in modern astronomy in the Finnish community.  ESO-related schools and workshops are emphasised, but others offering such useful training are also eligible.

Program Calls:

Applications for inviting a visitor, or participating in the mobility program, or applying for support for schools/workshops, are solicited from all the research staff at the participating universities of FINCA.

There are two annual deadlines for the program:  in March, for visits in the June – November time frame, and in September, for visits in the December – May period.  The exact dates of the deadlines are communicated to the community at each specific Call; in case of questions, please see contact below.  The latest Call deadline is September 12, 2025.

Requirements for the FINCA Visitor program:

  1.  Researchers, with a PhD degree and based outside of Finland, are invited to visit Finland and spend between one week and one month at FINCA. Longer visits are allowed, but note that due the popularity of the grants, and to be able to support many worthy programs, the grants are now capped at 2500 EUR per proposal.  In practice this means that long visits usually would require additional funding, and the FINCA grant should be used to leverage more funding from other sources, when required.
  2.  Visitors must work with one or more scientist(s) at participating universities of FINCA. The planned research during the visit must have a connection to ESO.
  3.  Visitors must give at least one colloquium at a participating university of FINCA, and are strongly encouraged to give colloquia at other participating universities.
  4.  Visitors will not be paid a salary during their visit, but they will be reimbursed for round-trip economy travel, and reasonable living expenses. The latter is in the form of accommodation in an economic hotel. Note that according to University of Turku travel regulations, Finnish daily allowance can only be paid to UTU staff. Note also the cap in support per proposal.

Requirements for the FINCA Mobility program:

  1.  Researchers based in Finland will spend between one week and one month visiting an institute abroad, or another participating university of FINCA in Finland (hereafter, the ”host institute”).  As above, longer visits are possible, but note that the grant is now capped at 2500 EUR.
  2.  Visitors must work with one or more scientist(s) at the host institute. The planned research during the visit must have a connection to ESO.
  3.  Visitors must give at least one colloquium at the host institute.
  4.  Visitors will be reimbursed for round-trip economy travel and reasonable living expenses. The latter is in the form of economic accommodation. Note that according to University of Turku travel regulations, daily allowance of the country of destination (see here) can only be paid to UTU staff. Likewise, travel reimbursement is non-taxable only for UTU staff.

Requirements for the FINCA school/workshop support program:

  1. MSc students, Doctoral researchers (PhD students), and post-docs in the FINCA affiliated universities are eligible for this program.  Doctoral researchers are the highest priority.
  2. Astronomy schools and workshops (with an emphasis on ESO-related ones) are eligible.  Practical training schools, such as hands-on observational schools or other workshops providing training in relevant research techniques, are the highest priority, though more science focused (ESO-related) workshops are not excluded.
  3. While travel, accommodation, and registration costs are eligible for support in this program, it is expected that the applicant has requested, and has applied/been awarded support also from the organisers and/or their supervisor’s and/or home-institutes.  Hence, those applications that already have partial support for, e.g., registration and accommodation, and only require travel costs, are the highest priority.
  4. The call is competitive, and applications will be assessed based on the priorities mentioned above, and in addition based on these submitted materials:
    • Motivation detailing the importance of the school/workshop to research, and degree (where applicable)
    • Motivation letter from the supervisor (where applicable).

The application process is as follows:

Applications in English must include:

(i)  The visitor’s / applicant’s curriculum vitae and list of publications.
(ii)  A statement of the purpose and period of the visit, the research, teaching, and other activities to be undertaken during the visit, and the resulting benefit to FINCA.
(iii)  A supporting statement by the scientist acting as the host of the visit in case of Mobility and Visitor grants.
(iv)  In case of the School/Workshop grant, all relevant information on the school in question, as well as details of acceptance, and supervisors statement, if applicable.
(iv)  A budget estimate (travel, accommodation, any other costs, and per diem where relevant) of the requested funding, and, if applicable, supporting funding from other sources.

In particular, the applications must contain a clear justification for cases such as:

(i)  Long visits, or multiple visits in the same period.
(ii)  A need for both visiting a colleague, and inviting them for a visit, during the same period.
(iii)  Repeated visits to the same institute/host over multiple periods.

There are two annual deadlines for the program, in March and in September, as outlined above. 

Assessment principles and priorities:

Applications will be assessed by the FINCA Diretor, and the FINCA Board. The available funding (approximately 30-40 keur per annum) will be allocated based on (i) benefit to the FINCA research program and status, (ii) the research record of the applicant, and (iii) the significance and timeliness of the proposed research, teaching, and other activities.

In case of mobility grants going out from Finland, while no researcher categories are excluded from consideration, the Board will prioritise especially early-career scientists and postdocs, and advanced PhD students.  The career development and connections of the mentioned groups will in particular benefit from this scheme, while more senior researchers would be expected to also have other funds available.  However, in case of visitors coming to Finland, there are clear benefits also in inviting more senior researchers for knowledge transfer to the community.  Assessment priorities regarding the school/workshop support program were given above.

Finally, while it is possible for a given individual to receive support more than once per annum, such second applications (per call, or per year) will be ranked lower compared to those eligible applications to a given scheme without a prior awarded grant in the previous round, in case the budgeted funds do not cover all applications in the period.

 

Applications must be emailed to the FINCA Vice Director at kani@utu.fi.

For reimbursement of expenses, FINCA and UTU staff should use the normal internal UTU SAP travel claims system for seeking approval and submitting claims (the necessary cost centre and project number is below).   Reimbursements for other than FINCA or UTU staff, after the visit, please use an invoice for travel expenses found below, and fill in also the personal identification form, if you are a first time user of this programme. Please indicate the following project name/numbers on the claim forms, or on the SAP system in case of UTU personnel:

  • Use:  cost-centre #2609700 (‘ESO-keskus’) and the Internal Order (sisäinen tilaus) project number #26002908 (‘FINCA:n Vierailijaohjelma’).

Please return scanned and signed copies of the forms, together with all receipts etc., by e-mail to Sirpa Kelosto, sirpa.kelosto AT utu.fi , with a copy to the FINCA director.

In all publications and communications resulting from the visit, the following acknowledgement should be included: “N.N. acknowledges the financial support from the Visitor and Mobility program of the Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO (FINCA).”

For more information, contact the director and/or vice director of FINCA.

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