Award and payment of grants
Assessment and award
Grant applications will be assessed according to the following considerations: whether the Foundation’s purpose is fulfilled; whether the applicant is a young researcher; whether the research is towards a doctoral thesis; how significant the research is in scientific terms; whether the research is clinical; and how much funding the applicant has received in total for the research.
The Foundation’s Board of Trustees decides on the awarding of grants once a year. Grant recipients will be announced every year during the national Parkinson’s Awareness Week in April. Successful applicants will be personally notified of the decision via e-mail.
We will ask grant recipients to provide their personal identity code and bank account details in order to pay their grants. Awarded grants will be payable to recipients in one instalment in April. However, travel grants will be payable in two instalments, the latter of which will be made on the basis of a report filed after the trip.
Tax-free status of grants
As a general rule, grants are awarded as tax-exempt working grants for recipients to cover a leave of absence from other employment. As of March 1, 2024, the amount of the tax-free annual grant is 26 355.60 Euros. At the monthly level, the tax-free amount is 2 196.31 Euros.
Any questions about the taxation of grants should be addressed to the tax authorities. Read more about tax-free status here:
Taxation
Each grant recipient is required to declare the grant on their tax return. The Foundation will file annual tax notifications of the grants paid out, as required by tax regulations. If a grant is used to employ assisting staff, the recipient will be obliged to withhold their taxes and deal with all employer contributions. You can find further information on the tax-exempt amount on the Finnish Tax Administration’s pages here:
Insurance obligations
Grant recipients fall within the statutory earnings-related pension scheme under the Farmers’ Pensions Act (MYEL). The Act requires the awarder of a grant to declare the grants that it has awarded to the insurance institution, the Farmers’ Social Insurance Institution (Mela). Grant recipients are obliged to take out insurance when certain conditions are fulfilled. Further information is available at:
Registration of grant applicants and recipients and verification of details
Grant applicants will give consent:
- for the details of grant applicants and recipients to be collected into registers of applicants and recipients, where the Foundation will record the information required for processing of applications and for payment and monitoring of awarded grants. https://parkinsonsaatio.fi/en/privacy-statement/
- to any publication about grant recipients on the Foundation’s website;
- for the Foundation to verify any grants awarded by other foundations as required.
Notifications to the Foundation and reporting obligations
Grant recipients must notify the Foundation of any changes to their personal and contact details without delay.
Each grant recipient is obliged to report to the Foundation on their use of the grant within 3 months of the end of the grant period or the trip taken and, on request, to present their research at an annual meeting or a presentation event for the Finnish Parkinson Association.
In the event that use of the grant is delayed, an interim report should be submitted annually for any incomplete work. Any possible research publications will be submitted free of charge to the Foundation immediately upon publication.
Mentioning the foundation as a supporter
The Finnish Parkinson Foundation must be named as a supporter in research publications and presentation materials and, wherever possible, the Foundation’s logo should also be included in presentation materials. You can download the logo below. The official name of the Foundation in Finnish, Swedish and English is Suomen Parkinson-säätiö sr, Finlands Parkinson-stiftelse sr and The Finnish Parkinson Foundation sr, respectively.
