We welcome proposals for research projects from a wide area of sciences, ranging from humanistic to natural sciences. We will accept applications from researchers who are committed to the following criteria:
The Psychosocial Factors and Health Research Group works in a multi-disciplinary context. We use datasets that have multiple Principal Investigators at Finnish universities and institutions, and thus we are able to share limited parts of these datasets. Requests regarding psychosocial variables in the following datasets can be made via our website.
We follow a controlled access model for sharing. For acquiring data, it is recommended that the prospective data user first contacts the Principal Investigators Professor Marko Elovainio (marko.elovainio@helsinki.fi) or Adjunct Professor Laura Pulkki-Råback (laura.pulkki-raback@helsinki.fi) to informally discuss the feasibility of the proposed project.
Researchers should apply for projects aimed at the publication of scientific articles. A new application should be made for each article. It is expected that the article is published within 2 year from acquiring the data. Extensions to the project will be granted contingent on success of the project. The applicant should be the main investigator of the project (for PhD students, the applicant is the supervisor or the project leader). The application requires the submission of two documents:
A team of Principal Investigators meets monthly to evaluate all applications received. A member of the team will be selected as the Contact Researcher for each project. The Contact Researcher will inform the applicant of the decision and will be the point of contact for the duration of the project. Upon approval of an application, applicants will be asked to sign the Data Sharing Agreement. Approval for data use is subject to the applicant signing and returning the agreement.
If the data user applies for funding once the application has been approved, and the grant application is based on our data, they must inform the Contact Researcher before making the funding proposal. For applying funding based on the datasets, the researchers should submit a new application for each funding source or call. This also applies to projects that have been previously approved by the team. For instance, permission to apply from the Academy of Finland in 2016 is not anymore valid in 2017. It will require a new application. Further use of the data outside those specifically stated in the application form will require a new application being submitted and approval by the team of Principal Investigators.
Major changes to the project will require a new data sharing application.
The database does not contain any individual identifiers such as names, addresses, telephone numbers, complete dates of birth and the like. Participants are identified using an anonymised ID. The purpose is to avoid linkages that could potentially result in the identification of individuals. Despite these preparations to protect confidentiality, it will be the responsibility of data users to ensure that no participant’s identity is disclosed under any circumstances. The applicant must be devoted to national and European Union’s laws and regulations regarding data management.