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Fulbright-University of Vaasa Scholar Award

Award Autogenerated Code 10566-FI Region Europe and Eurasia Country Finland Award Type Fulbright Scholar Award Number of Recipients Up To 4 Stipend

The stipend includes a monthly grant and free housing for the scholar and his/her accompanying family.

The monthly grant is 4,000 EUR (approx. $4,800) a month, paid out in euro in monthly installments.

Please note: amounts in USD are subject to change due to currency fluctuations.

The University of Vaasa will arrange and cover the cost of housing for the scholar and his/her family. Applicants should communicate their housing needs to the host institution during the application process so that appropriate housing can be arranged for them.

There are no separate allowances for accompanying dependents.

Estimated Travel and Relocation Allowance

A one-time travel allowance of $1,800 is provided.

Dependent Tuition Allowance

No dependent tuition allowance is offered, but K-12 education in Finland is generally free or heavily subsidized.

The Finnish school system is considered one of the best in the world. Finland has been one of the top performers in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), an ongoing study administered every three years that tests the math, reading and science literacy of 15-year-olds in OECD nations. Average group sizes in basic education in Finland have for a long time been below the OECD average.

Instruction in English is available in Helsinki and other bigger cities at kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools, as well as at the university level.

Early childhood education is pedagogically planned education, teaching and care, with carefully considered developmental goals. All early education teachers and caretakers are trained within national guidelines. Families are expected to pay a small fee for public daycare/päiväkoti (approx. €200-400 EUR/month) even though it is heavily subsidized. Private daycares may cost more. Usually, one of the parents stays at home with children until they are nine months old.

Preschool education prepares children for comprehensive school. Children normally enter preschool education at the age of six and comprehensive school at the age of seven. After comprehensive school (grades 1-9), students enter upper secondary institutes that include upper secondary school and vocational institutes. Finnish schools are generally free of charge, although some special schools, such as private international schools, may charge tuition.

In universities, non-EU students pay tuition fees in English-taught Bachelor's or Master's degree programs.

Helpful links: https://www.infofinland.fi/en/living-in-finland/education [1] https://minedu.fi/en/general-education [2]

Candidate Profile

1 Academics, except early career Activity Type Research Teaching/Research Application Deadline Closed Award Activity

The award is intended for conducting high quality research, but some lecturing at the graduate or doctoral level during the visit is also welcomed. The award can be offered for any field represented by the following four schools or the three multidisciplinary research platforms below. Applicants are encouraged to contact the host schools and the research platforms to plan their grant activities.

The University of Vaasa has four schools for research and teaching:

School of Accounting and Finance [3] School of Management [4] School of Marketing and Communication [5] School of Technology and Innovations [6]

In addition, the University of Vaasa has three multidisciplinary research platforms, which combine their strong disciplinary knowledge with prevailing global trends, and advance multi-, cross- and inter-disciplinary research:

Vaasa Energy Business Innovation Centre VEBIC [7]provides international research infrastructure to serve both academic and industrial needs. It brings together know-how from the research and business communities responding to the global needs of efficient energy generation, distribution, and consumption, as well as energy business operations and sustainable societal development. It includes cutting-edge technical laboratories and a program for energy and sustainable development research projects which focuses on the wider business and societal impacts of new energy technologies.

Digital Economy [8] focuses on interdisciplinary research on innovations enabled by new technology and digitalization, as well as their impact on individuals, organizations, industry and society.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship InnoLab [9] focuses on open innovations, user innovations, entrepreneurship, and public sector innovation and renewal. Innolab also encourages the application of citizen science, open science and design thinking.

The Fulbright-University of Vaasa Scholar Award is jointly funded by the University of Vaasa and the Fulbright Finland Foundation.

Award Length Three to twelve months Award Dates

Awards begin in August or September 2022, January 2023, or as separately agreed upon with the host institution and the Fulbright Finland Foundation. The academic year runs from September through mid-May (Fall Semester: September to mid- December; Spring Semester: January to mid-May). There is generally no teaching from June to August.

Locations

The University of Vaasa

Through high-quality research and education, the University of Vaasa creates sustainable solutions for the needs of the future. Their community supports individual development and creates the framework for success – today and in the future. They offer high-quality and relevant education in the fields of business, technology, administration and communication. Their multidisciplinary research programmes and strong disciplinary expertise provide an impactful research and learning environment that serves society and brings together business, management and technology experts.

An excellent working environment for research

The University of Vaasa has been awarded the ‘HR Excellence in Research’ logo in recognition of its development work and commitment to the European Commission's principles regarding the implementation of fair and equal opportunity in the recruitment and appraisal procedures for researchers. By endorsing the principles, the University of Vaasa wants to contribute to the development of the European researcher area (ERA) and an open labor market for researchers.

At the university, researchers have access to two laboratories, which are equipped with modern and latest scientific

2 instruments for conducting experiments and constructing models or prototypes.

Technobothnia - Research and development laboratory [10]

Technobothnia is a wide-ranging laboratory unit which serves as a channel of cooperation between educational institutions, enterprises and other research institutes and technology centers in Finland. It has 25 specialized laboratories of different expertise in a total area of approximately 8000 square meters. Some of the laboratories include e.g. the following:

Construction Engineering laboratory Energy Technology and Smart Grid laboratory Environmental laboratory Electrical laboratories Infomation Technology laboratories Mechanical Engineering laboratories Virtual and Augmented Reality laboratory

VEBIC laboratories [11]

As VEBIC aims at applied solutions, piloting and testing new concepts are vital in this process. For this purpose, a unique infrastructure has been built up. The fuels, engine, smart grid and PAC laboratories are an essential part of the academic and research activities at the University of Vaasa. Important actors such as manufacturers of engines and power plants, automation companies and electrical engineering enterprises are located in the region and the laboratories allow close collaboration with the university and its research teams.

Inspiring Community

The 5,000 students and 500 employees of the University of Vaasa thrive at their maritime campus located close to the city centre. The University of Vaasa embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities for all staff members. 30 percent of their research and teaching staff come from outside of Finland. The students, researchers and other staff members represent more than 80 different nationalities.

Based on the results of our 2019 occupational wellbeing survey, the strengths of their community were perceived to be the work of supervisors and the university's community spirit in particular. They offer the opportunity to build a successful university career in an international science university.

The University of Vaasa is well positioned to interact actively with the surrounding society – internationally, nationally and regionally.

The university is important to its region, just as the region is important to the university. The university operates at the heart of EnergyVaasa, the leading energy and environmental technology competence center in the Nordic countries. EnergyVaasa includes over 160 companies, several of which are global market leaders and employs over 12,000 experts from over 120 nations. Important partners in the surrounding region also includes the business community and municipalities, other universities and polytechnics, and the university consortiums in Seinäjoki and Kokkola.

In the Vaasa region [12], beautiful nature and urban city life can be easily combined. Everything in the Vaasa region is close by, and moving from one sort of atmosphere and experience to another is effortless. Vaasa has excellent connections and it is easy to reach. The airport is only 10 minutes from the centre of Vaasa.

Flex Option No Discipline Type Only applications in the following disciplines will be considered Disciplines Accounting/Finance Business Communication Computer Science Economics Engineering Information Sciences/Systems Marketing Mathematics Public Administration Public Health Special Features

3 The University of Vaasa provides the scholar and his/her family with free housing and working facilities at the University. The scholar will be provided with a monthly grant, round-trip travel, and a supplemental accident and sickness benefit for the grant period.

Additionally, the scholar will receive the full support services provided by the Fulbright Finland Foundation for all Fulbright grantees in Finland.

Degree Requirements Ph.D. (or other terminal degree) required Additional Qualification Information

During the selection process, some applicants may be invited to a Zoom call in mid-January 2022.

A candidate for the Fulbright-University of Vaasa Scholar Award must hold a Ph.D. degree and should have several years of research and teaching experience in his/her field. The candidate must be a U.S. citizen.

In addition to the general evaluation criteria, candidates in all Fulbright programs are reviewed on the project’s contribution to the objectives of the Fulbright Program as well as on the adaptability and suitability of the candidate to act as a Fulbright Ambassador for the U.S. in Finland.

Additional Language Requirement

An international scholar does not need Finnish or Swedish in order to be able to live in Finland. English is widely spoken in academic circles.

All teaching can be conducted in English, and research work usually does not require knowledge of Finnish or Swedish. However, should the candidate’s planned research project specifically require Swedish or Finnish, feasibility of conducting research must be demonstrated in the project statement.

Invitation Requirement A letter of invitation is required. Additional Comments

University of Vaasa

Applicants are encouraged to contact the host department, faculty or research program to work together in designing the grant activities. Please contact the HR department at the university in any general questions about the university or if you need assistance in locating a potential host at the university.

Hanna Turpeinen HR Specialist, International affairs and mobility hanna.turpeinen(at)univaasa.fi [13] +358 29 449 8131

Fulbright Finland Foundation

Fulbright Finland Foundation encourages potential applicants to visit its website [14] for further information and contact the office directly with any questions. Please let us know if we can provide any further information about this grant in particular or about the Finnish-American Fulbright program in general.

Emmi Jelekäinen Program Specialist Email: emmi.jelekainen(at)fulbright.fi [15] Email: office(at)fulbright.fi [16] Tel: +358 44 5535 275

Helpful Links

Fulbright Finland Foundation [17] Information on the Fulbright-University of Vaasa Scholar Award [18] on the Fulbright Finland Foundation website University of Vaasa [19] Guide for incoming researchers [20] University of Vaasa Visitors [21] Vaasa Region [22] This is Finland [23]

Multi-Country/Area Award 4 No Award Length Filter Three to five months Six to 10 months More than 10 months Invitation Requirement Additional Information

Potential hosts can refer to these instructions [24] when writing a letter of invitation.

NOTE: July and August are traditionally summer vacation months in Finland and responses to inquiries may be delayed during this period. Applicants are advised to contact the Finnish host institution well ahead of time if they have any questions about the grant.

Award Code 12538-FI AddThis Award Year 2022-2023 Awards [25] Special Award Benefits

The Fulbright Finland Foundation in Helsinki also arranges a four-dayo rientation seminar [26] for scholars at the end of August, which scholars arriving for the fall semester are expected to attend. An orientation meeting is also arranged for scholars arriving in January. In addition, the Fulbright Finland Foundation organizes seminars and other events throughout the academic year for the Fulbright scholars to deepen their understanding of the Finnish culture.

The grantee will also be eligible, free of charge, to participate in a Fulbright Finland pre-approved summer school in Finland consisting of courses on Finnish language, culture and society, pending availability of suitable programs.

Language Proficiency Requirements None, English is sufficient. However, feasibility of conducting the project must be demonstrated in the project statement. Career Profile Mid-Career Academics Senior Academics Scholars selected for this award will be required to:

Conduct a research project of the applicant’s choosing

Source URL: https://awards.cies.org/content/fulbright-university-vaasa-scholar-award-0

Links [1] https://www.infofinland.fi/en/living-in-finland/education [2] https://minedu.fi/en/general-education [3] https://www.univaasa.fi/en/university/organisation-and-management/school-accounting-and-finance [4] https://www.univaasa.fi/en/university/organisation-and-management/school-management [5] https://www.univaasa.fi/en/university/organisation-and-management/school-marketing-and-communication [6] https://www.univaasa.fi/en/university/organisation-and-management/school-technology-and-innovation [7] https://www.univaasa.fi/en/sites/vebic/ [8] https://www.univaasa.fi/en/sites/digitaleconomy/ [9] https://www.univaasa.fi/en/sites/innolab/ [10] https://www.technobothnia.fi/ [11] https://www.univaasa.fi/fi/sites/vebic/ [12] https://www.vaasa.fi/en/see-and-experience/ [13] mailto:[email protected] [14] https://www.fulbright.fi/ [15] mailto:[email protected] [16] mailto:[email protected] [17] http://www.fulbright.fi/en [18] http://www.fulbright.fi/en/research-and-lecturing-opportunities-scholars-and-specialists/fulbright-university-vaasa-scholar [19] https://www.univaasa.fi/en [20] https://www.univaasa.fi/en/sites/expat/ [21] https://www.univaasa.fi/en/for/visitors/ [22] https://www.vaasa.fi/en/ [23] http://www.finland.fi/ [24] http://www.fulbright.fi/fi/ohjeita-isantalaitoksille/amerikkalaisen-luennoitsijan-kutsuminen-suomeen [25] https://awards.cies.org/award-years/2022-2023-awards [26] https://www.fulbright.fi/about-us/events/arrival-orientation-us-fulbright-finland-grantees

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