If you cannot find an answer to your question, you can also submit it to the email address prosumers-haku@tuni.fi.
Q: Can an individual person apply for a community grant, that is, act as an applicant?
A: Unfortunately, no. The application is aimed at organisations, and the applicant must have a business ID. However, a private entrepreneur can apply for a grant.
Q: How can I participate in a community project as an individual?
A: It depends on the situation and the project. You can be involved, for example, as a community member or participant in events. If necessary, the recipient of a community grant can hire employees for the project or pay fees or compensation for work to private individuals (see Tax Administration’s guidelines). You can contact potential applicants or project implementers and tell them about your interest in participating in the planning or implementation of the project.
Note: Individual circumstances vary. In uncertain situations, check with the relevant authority whether participation in a community project may affect your possible unemployment benefits, social security benefits, other benefits or taxation.
Q: Can a private individual apply for community funding as a light entrepreneur?
A: A light entrepreneur cannot be the applicant if they do not have their own business ID (Y-tunnus). However, a community project may purchase services, work, or supplies from a a light entrepreneur, who invoices the community project through an invoicing service company. Please make sure to carefully review the guidance on light entrepreneurship, for example on the Finnish Tax Administration’s website.
Q: What kinds of expenses can be covered by a community grant?
A: Acceptable expenses include personnel costs, travel and accommodation expenses, and other purchased services, work, and goods that are necessary for the implementation of the community project (see Application instructions > What can the grant be used for). In uncertain situations, you can justify the necessity of the costs in the application. Please note that as the grant provider, we reserve the right to cut the amount applied for.
Q: How should personnel or salary costs be budgeted in the application?
A: Salary costs are budgeted according to the applicant organisation’s normal salary practices and applicable collective agreements. Salary costs must be directly related to the implementation of the community project, and they must be justified in terms of the objectives of the project. The grant recipient may also pay fees or compensation for work. The grant recipient is responsible for the employer obligations as usual (see Tax Administration’s guidelines).
Q: What are permitted ”small-scale investments”?
A: In this context, small-scale investments refer to concrete purchases necessary for the implementation of the community project, such as equipment, devices, software or materials, which will remain at the community’s disposal also after the implementation of the community project. Make sure to check the allowed investment amounts in the application instructions, section What can the grant be used for.
Q: What happens to purchases made with a community grant after the project, that is, can they be kept?
A: Yes. In principle, investments and purchases made with a community grant remain with the grant recipient, who handles them according to their own organisation’s accounting practices. However, purchases must be related to the implementation of a community project, and they must benefit the wider community.
Q: Can a community grant be used to finance only a part of a purchase?
A: In principle, yes. The applicant can cover part of the purchase or other costs with their own funding. However, the application must clearly describe the project as a whole and the part for which the community grant is being applied for.
Q: Is self-funding required for a community project?
A: No, there is no self-financing part required for a community project. However, the applicant must have sufficient financial and operational capacity to implement the community project as planned and be responsible for its practical implementation and financial management. The grant is paid either as a lump sum at the beginning of the project or in two instalments, depending on the amount of the grant awarded (see Application instructions > Payment and final reporting).
Q: Is it enough that the project only benefits our own community (e.g. a housing company)?
A: The project should benefit a wider community than this. In the case of investments, a broader benefit is a condition for funding. Broader benefits may include, for example, organising events that are open to anyone, training, communications and/or sharing experiences with a wider audience.
Q: Can a community project have commercial objectives?
A: Yes. The project’s results may include, for example, new business opportunities and ideas for the Tampere region. In projects related to business development, the financial potential of the project is assessed separately in the evaluation.
Q: My idea is related to circular economy or wiser use of resources. Is the idea suitable for the call?
A: Possibly, as long as the idea has a clear and justified connection to one of the three themes of the call (energy, mobility, food) and prosumerism, i.e. that people can also act as producers of sustainable solutions. If you’d like to discuss the suitability of the idea in more detail, you can contact our Helpdesk address (prosumers-haku@tuni.fi) or book a personal sparring session with Ecofellows (see contact information on the Community Grant page).
Q: Our company is based in Hämeenlinna. Can we apply for the community grant?
A: Unfortunately not. The community grant is intended for local actors who are domiciled in one of the municipalities in the Tampere region (Tampere, Kangasala, Lempäälä, Nokia, Orivesi, Pirkkala, Vesilahti and Ylöjärvi). You can collaborate with a community project but not act as the main applicant or as an official member of the consortium. Nevertheless, the grant recipient may purchase services, work and goods from your company, if they are necessary for the implementation of the community project (see What can the grant be used for?).
Q: Can a newly established association apply for a grant? How are the applicant’s previous activities and experience assessed in such a case? (cf. Assessment criteria)
A: Yes, it can. The association’s novelty is not an obstacle to applying, and the evidence also can be based on the previous activities and experience of the community’s members. These can be described in free form in the application.
Q: Can the same actor apply for and receive funding for more than one community project / be involved in several applications?
A: Yes, it can, if the projects are clearly different in terms of content and goals. If the applications of the same applicant are very similar, this may affect the evaluation, as the decision is based also on the thematic coverage and diversity of community projects.
Q: How many community projects are funded?
A: Funding will be awarded to at least one project under each theme (mobility, energy and food), but the final amount will depend entirely on the number and quality of applications and the sizes of the grants awarded. Our aim is to fund at least nine community projects, but unfortunately we cannot predict the final number in advance. The amount of an individual grant can range between EUR 5,000 and EUR 60,000. The total funding available is EUR 180,000.
Q: How are potential conflicts of interest taken into account during the application and evaluation phases?
A: Any person or community involved in the preparation or processing of a community grant application must disclose any potential conflicts of interest in the application’s action plan or by contacting our Helpdesk directly at prosumers-haku@tuni.fi. Evaluators sign an agreement in which they commit to declaring any circumstances that may give rise to a conflict of interest or disqualification. The Urban Prosumers project assesses potential conflicts of interests on a case-by-case basis. A community is not eligible to apply for funding if its chairperson, CEO or another person in a comparable position is a member of the Urban Prosumers project staff (see People). In unsure cases, please contact our Helpdesk at prosumers-haku@tuni.fi.
Page updated on 1 September 2026.