Research Council of Finland to open Proof of Concept call to promote utilisation of research results

The Research Council of Finland is continuing its annual funding call to promote the economic and societal utilisation of research results. The Proof of Concept funding scheme has been prepared through a pilot call last year and will be implemented using additional funding allocated by the Finnish Government for research and development. The utilisation idea must arise from research previously funded by the Research Council. This year, the call is open to principal investigators of Academy Projects whose funding period has ended or ends between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2024.

Finland aims to increase the level of research funding to 4 per cent of GDP by 2030. As part of this objective, the Research Council of Finland is opening a new Proof of Concept funding call in 2024. The call has a budget of 10 million euros earmarked for this year. The call complements national funding schemes at the interface of research and innovation and is closer to scientific research than, for example, Business Finland's funding schemes.

The Proof of Concept call is designed to promote versatile utilisation of research results. The funding encourages researchers to, for example, test their research results in practical settings or develop new approaches to address the needs of industry, public administration or the third sector. The benchmark for the scheme is the European Research Council’s Proof of Concept Grant.

The call opens in May and closes in June 2024. The funding decisions will be made in by end of November 2024, and the funded projects can start in January 2025.

The Research Council of Finland decides annually the scope of the call. The pilot call in 2023 was targeted at Finnish Centres of Excellence and Finnish Flagships. The 2023 call resulted in funding for 20 two-year Proof of Concept projects. This year, the call is open to principal investigators of Academy Projects whose funding period has ended or ends between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2024.

An online call info session will be organised on 18 April 2024 at 13.00.