Applying for a funded PhD in Finland or Norway from a non-economics background, looking for A-Z advice from people who have done this

Hi all, first time posting here. I am hoping some of you who have gone through a Finnish and Norwagian (or Nordic more broadly) PhD application process can help me sanity check my approach before I burn a few months on avoidable mistakes.

My background: BSS and MSS in International Relations from Bangladesh University of Professionals, almost 5 years at BRAC in Bangladesh, mostly managing microfinance and SME lending portfolios, currently leading the digitalization of BRAC's microfinance systems. I want to research financial inclusion and microfinance institution performance. No economics degree, no formal econometrics training, no academic publications yet.

My spouse is already in Finland on a student permit, so I am specifically targeting Finland or Norway ideally a funded position starting September 2026 or January 2027.

What I am trying to figure out, basically A to Z:

- How people actually approached potential supervisors cold, and what got a reply versus what got ignored

- What a research proposal needs to look like at this pre-admission stage

- The practical difference between a university-funded doctoral researcher position, an EU-funded route like MSCA COFUND (RESDOC at Helsinki for example), and self-funding, and which is realistic to chase first

- Whether a non-economics Master's is a hard wall for programmes that formally require quantitative prerequisites, or whether interdisciplinary tracks are actually workable in practice

- How far ahead of a deadline you started reaching out to supervisors

- Common mistakes or missing documents that slowed people down

- Whether applying to multiple programmes or supervisors at the same university is normal or considered bad form

I am not asking anyone to do the work for me, I just want to stop guessing. Any experience, even a single lesson learned, would help a lot. Happy to answer questions in the comments. Thanks in advance.