€25m in funding under Finland’s Recovery and Resilience Plan granted for local and regional research infrastructures

The Finnish Research Infrastructure Committee established within the Academy of Finland has decided to grant funding to 19 research infrastructure projects. The projects will be carried out in different parts of Finland and will have impact both locally and regionally.

The funding supports the upgrading or construction of local research infrastructures and puts emphasis on targets related to the green and digital transition. The funding was granted based on Finland’s national Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP). The plan forms part of the Sustainable Growth Programme for Finland, which supports growth that is ecologically, socially and economically sustainable. The funding granted comes to a total of 25 million euros. The call for applications attracted a total of 103 applications.

The funding will be allocated based on the international peer review to projects supporting the construction or upgrading of locally or regionally significant research infrastructures that meet the criteria of the call and that effectively take into account the objectives of the digital and green transition. The research infrastructures comply with the ‘Do No Significant Harm’ principle, whereby they must not include activities that cause significant harm to European environmental targets.

Riitta Maijala, Chair of the Finnish Research Infrastructure Committee, said: “The funded local and regional research infrastructure projects are of a very high quality, and they meet the needs of research, education, business and other sectors in society.”

Among the projects funded are a research infrastructure project developing a regional snow and ice monitoring network and a research infrastructure project promoting interdisciplinary research on the intersections of law and politics. Funding was also granted for a project supporting research on the circular economy and the utilisation of various waste streams. In addition, the funding will support a research infrastructure project promoting research on micro-organisms and materials as well as projects in the fields of protein research, genetics and immunology.

The funding goes to universities, research institutes and universities of applied sciences that own the local research infrastructures. The research infrastructures are located in different parts of Finland.

The Sustainable Growth Programme for Finland supports growth that is ecologically, socially and economically sustainable. Part of the programme is Finland’s national Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), which includes a package that provides funding for the upgrading and development of local and regional research infrastructures with an emphasis on targets related to the green and digital transition. The Academy of Finland has not previously allocated funding to local research infrastructures.

FIRI 2022: Call for local research infrastructures