Strategic Research Council discontinues EU matching funds

The national EU matching funds scheme of the Strategic Research Council (SRC) established within the Academy of Finland has been discontinued. 2021 was the last year the SRC granted EU matching funds.

The SRC granted national matching funds to research organisations based on projects that had received funding under the Societal Challenges priority of Horizon 2020, the previous EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. The aim of the funds was to encourage research organisations to participate in preparing projects for EU funding calls under the Societal Challenges pillar.

Horizon 2020 has ended. This means that no new calls will be launched and no new funding decisions will be made under it. This also means that, as of 2022, the SRC will no longer grant matching funds.

The end of the matching funds scheme will not affect funding decisions made earlier. Previously granted funding will be paid following normal procedure.

Between 2015 and 2021 the SRC granted some 4 million euros in annual EU matching funds. The number and volume of individual grants varied considerably. Each year, there were between 42 and 100 individual funding decisions, and the amounts varied from a few thousand euros to hundreds of thousands of euros. The funding recipients mainly included research institutes and universities.

In order to improve the administration and impact of its funding, the SRC will in the future focus on funding large consortia in its research programmes.