The application period has ended, and we will select the candidates to be invited for interviews during week 12. We will contact all applicants at the end of week 12.
Dear Early Career Researcher! Do you wish to be part of a multidisciplinary community that aims to promote research and strengthen the status of science and scholarship in society? Are you interested in networking with researchers from different research fields, or in augmenting the impact of the work of young academics in society? Are you excited about promoting science in public schools and colleges, or generating ideas for making an impact? Do you wish to communicate with international colleagues from different research fields?
Young Academy Finland is an academy established in 2017, representing the highest level of young scholars in Finland. This year, again, in addition to members invited by the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, we give the possibility to also apply for membership. We will propose new members for the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, the board of which makes the final decisions about the scholars who will be invited to join the membership for the next 4 years (2026-2030).
Our functional language is Finnish, but Finnish language skills are not a membership criterion. However, we hope that the applicants are motivated to learn Finnish.
Please, read the instructions below and send your application by 28 February 2026! We will choose about 10 applicants to be interviewed in weeks 12-14. The list of new members will be public in the summer of 2026, and the membership period will begin in September 2026.
During the application process, we also offer the opportunity to participate in the Young Academy Finland’s “morning coffee” online meeting, where you can meet current members and coordinators and ask questions about membership and the application process. The coffee morning will take place on 13 February from 9-10 am and can be accessed via this link. The event is in Finnish. Read more (in Finnish).
Application process and criteria:
Applicants must be Finnish or residing in Finland, and they must be able to demonstrate a high level of excellence in their discipline. With early-career researchers, we mean scholars who have had a doctorate within 5 years (first doctorate, degree certificate dated before the application deadline) and who are younger than 40 years of age (both conditions must be met, year of birth 1986 or later / year of doctorate 2021 or later). The board may consider also applicants falling outside these ranges if they can justify why they should be considered (e.g. a career break due to maternity leave, paternity leave, parental leave, full-time childcare leave for a child under the age of 3 or an adopted child, partial childcare leave, military or non-military service, or a long-term illness affecting yourself or a close relative). The justification must be explained in the section “Other merits you consider relevant or issues to be considered in the selection process” on the form.
You may apply through this form (in Finnish or English). The form cannot be saved, so it must be completed in full at once.
We do not accept recommendations.
The information required in the form is the following:
- Name
- e-mail address
- Year of birth
- Gender
- Discipline/disciplines
- Year and place of defense
- Current affiliation
- Motivation to become a member (maximum 300 words)
- Academic merits (maximum 300 words)
- Other merits you consider relevant or issues to be considered in the selection process (maximum 300 words)
- Five most important academic publications with short comments to why they are important (e.g. relevance to the discipline, plus, in multi-author articles, a brief description of your role in the research)
- Webpage (if you have)
- ORCID-number (if you have)
Our board will evaluate whether the applications meet the main criteria in the first phase.
With this call, we aim to cover different research fields, especially disciplines from which we do not have members yet. The suitable candidates will be evaluated in the next phase, emphasizing their motivation. Approximately 10 applicants will be interviewed.
The final decisions will be made based on motivation letters and interviews. The 8 applicants chosen by the board of Young Academy Finland will be proposed for the board of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. The final decisions on approximately 20 selected members are made by the Board of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. Neither the Young Academy Finland nor the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters provides justifications for the selections.
Please, send your applications by 28 February through this form!
Inquiries: riikka.hiltunen[at]yaf.fi