Uniarts Helsinki Foundation’s student grant for Academy of Fine Arts students
Grants are for study-related international or Finnish networking or artistic work.
The next student grant application period will be open from 4 December 2023 to 22 January 2024. The application period will end on Monday, 22 January, at 16:00 (Finnish time), and applications submitted after the deadline will not be processed. Applications are sent in an online service. The link to the service is available further down on this page. Decisions on grant recipients will be made by the board of the University of the Arts Helsinki Foundation in February-March 2024. All applicants will be notified of the decision by email.
Read the application instructions below carefully!
Who can apply for the grant?
The student must be a bachelor’s or a master’s degree student who has registered for attendance. Priority is given to students who are advancing in their studies according to the target schedule and students who have not previously been awarded grants for their studies. As for other applicants, the grant must help them in finishing their studies. An applicant can apply for a grant as an individual or as a member of a working group.
Doctoral students at the Academy of Fine Arts are not granted scholarships from the Foundation, as they have their own scholarships available to them.
What can the grant be awarded for?
Study-related international or Finnish networking or artistic work. In principle, for purposes related to bachelor- and master-level studies.
The grant can be applied for covering the following expenses, if the Academy of Fine Arts or Uniarts Helsinki is not supporting them already in other ways:
- participation in a course, studies or artistic work outside of Uniarts Helsinki (in Finland or abroad)
- travel and accommodation expenses if the trip is closely linked to studies. The trip can involve e.g. a residency, a festival or an exhibition that the student has been invited to. Independently organised study trips or field trips/visits are not supported financially.
- production and material expenses incurred in artistic work
- remuneration paid for external contributors/assistants, if the applicant is responsible for employer obligations, such as withholding of tax and indirect costs
- purchase of services (the service provider invoices for the work done)
What can the grant not be awarded for?
The grant cannot be awarded for the following expenses:
- per diem allowance or food expenses
- the applicant’s own wages or a personal working grant
- general living expenses
- Erasmus+ or Nordplus/KUNO grant-supported studies abroad
- a traineeship that is already supported by the Academy of Fine Arts or through an Erasmus or Nordplus/KUNO grant
- acquiring equipment or tools
- rents paid for gallery or exhibition facilities
- expenses that can be covered with a material or a thesis project grant
- expenses incurred from a bachelor’s thesis project or a bachelor’s exhibition
- expenses incurred after graduation.
For which time period can I apply for the grant?
The grant is available for application twice a year:
27 November 2023 – 22 January 2024
26 August – 20 September 2024
The grant can be used by the end of the year following the year when the grant decision was made, which means by the end of 2025 in this application round. It is not possible to apply for the grant for something that has already been carried out before the grant decision. The grant is returned to the fund at the end of the year when the grant has been awarded if the grant recipient has not notified their payment details by that date. After this, the student is no longer entitled to the grant.
What makes a good application?
Provide careful reasoning in your application and explain how the purpose of use of the grant is related to your studies (for example, artistic work or development as an artist). Present the appendices of your application clearly, including the visual material. Do not attach a portfolio or a CV unless they are closely linked to the application.
What is the maximum amount for the grant?
The amount of the grant is determined on a discretionary basis and depends on the funding available for allocation, which is determined each year by the board of the foundation. The average awarded grant is about 100-1,000 euros.
Grant or wage?
The grant recipient may use their grant to hire additional workforce but not for their own wages. Please note that if you apply for the grant to cover remuneration, it is your personal responsibility to take care of the general employer obligations, including withholding of tax and indirect costs. The foundation or the Academy of Fine Arts does not offer guidance in how to pay for employer obligations; the recipient must personally look into them.
Do grant recipients pay taxes for grants?
In principle, income tax is not paid for grants. The University of the Arts Helsinki Foundation is a private foundation, which means that the awarded grants in total are exempt from taxes up until the amount of the annual artist grant awarded by the State (25,547.52 euros in 2023).
If the amount of the grant is at least 1,000 euros, the foundation will report the grant to the Tax Administration. The information is included in the pre-completed tax return. Grants are regarded as income for the tax year in which they are paid.
If the grant is awarded to a group of people, it is usually only shown on the pre-completed tax return of the person who applied for the grant. In this case, the members of the working group report the grant to the tax authorities themselves.
Read more about grants and taxes here
What happens after the application period?
A professor of the student’s degree or master’s programme is asked to give their support for the application.
The foundation officer will assess the selection of applications in relation to the total amount of grants to be allocated each year by the board. The applications are allocated to the funds of the Theatre Academy and Academy of Fine Arts.
The dean makes the final proposal on grant recipients for the board of the foundation, which then approves the proposal. The board meeting where the grant decisions will be made will be held in February-March. Grant recipients are notified of the decision right after the foundation’s board meeting. They are also notified of the date by which the payment details must be submitted. The grants will be paid in one instalment in spring 2024.
Reporting on the grant and other principles
All grant recipients must report on the use of the grant in the Aspicore grant system no later than by the end of the year following the year when the grant has been awarded. The student cannot apply for another grant before submitting the report, and neglecting the duty of submitting a report may lead to the rejecting of any new grant applications.
The grant must be used for the purpose that it has been awarded for. If the grant has been used for some other purpose than what it was originally awarded for, and the student has not been given a permission to do so, the grant will be recovered. Students can apply for a permission to change the purpose of use by sending a freely formulated application to kuva.apurahat@uniarts.fi. Students must provide a new budget and a clear description of why the grant purpose should be changed and how the new proposal would support their studies in their application. Without providing this information, the proposal for changes will be rejected automatically, and the student cannot appeal against the decision. In this case, the sum of the grant must be paid back to the foundation.
Instructions for using the online system for grant applications
Applications are submitted in the online Aspicore system. The application must be submitted by 22 January 2024 at 16:00 (Finnish time). Submit your application in good time to avoid busy traffic in the service!
Register in the service by using your Uniarts email address, which also serves as your username. Your password must contain at least 8 characters, one of which must be a number. If you forget your password, we can send a link to your email address so that you can change your password.
Register in the online system here
Accuracy of information and commitment
The student is responsible for providing all the requested information and for providing only accurate information. Applications that are incomplete will not be considered.
Grant applicants must be committed to following the instructions of the fund and executing the plan that is described in their application.
More information
Purpose of use of the grant and other content-related matters:
Ulla Tissari
Specialist, international affairs
040 86 09 511
kuva.apurahat@uniarts.fi
General information about the foundation’s grants and schedules:
Anni Pokki
Foundation officer for the University of the Arts Helsinki Foundation
050 476 69 61