Academy of Finland: funding boost of more than €30m for research infrastructures that support excellent science

The Academy of Finland has decided on research funding to the tune of 32.4 million euros for strengthening research infrastructures. The funding will be distributed between 21 infrastructures and 22 organisations. The funding will help build up or upgrade nationally important research infrastructures that promote high-quality scientific research. Two of the funding recipients are new initiatives not included in Finland’s research infrastructure roadmap.

The funded research infrastructures contribute to, for instance, bioeconomy, genomics and quantum engineering research, marine research technology, and services for long-term storage of and access to research data.

The call was open in spring 2018 and attracted 58 applications in total. The applications were reviewed by an international panel of twelve experts. Research infrastructures included in Finland’s roadmap were granted a total of 25.4 million euros, international research infrastructures where Finland is a member were granted 4.8 million euros, and new infrastructures initiatives were granted 3.1 million euros.

The Finnish Research Infrastructure Committee (FIRI Committee) at the Academy of Finland made the funding decisions in its meetings in December 2018 and January 2019. The decisions also took into account the interim review of the research infrastructure strategy and roadmap that was completed last year.

Research infrastructures refer to a reserve of instruments, equipment, information networks, databases, materials and services enabling research at various stages. Research infrastructures may be based at a single location (single-sited), scattered across several sites (distributed), or provided via a virtual platform (virtual). They can also form mutually complementary wholes and networks.

The FIRI Committee monitors and develops Finnish and international research infrastructure activities, provides funding to infrastructure projects and monitors the funded projects.