RCF readying call for research infrastructures to ramp up regional R&D activity

The Research Council of Finland (RCF) is preparing to launch a call for applications targeted at local research infrastructures to boost regional research and development (R&D) activities. The call will open in April 2025.

The aim of the call is to promote regional vitality and ambitious R&D activity by targeting research infrastructure funding at research organisations, such as universities of applied sciences, that carry out high-quality applied research. The funding will be targeted at building and upgrading local research infrastructures of regional importance.

The funded research infrastructures should create conditions to achieve regional R&D objectives. These objectives have been identified, for example, in ‘smart specialisation’ strategies and other strategies at regional level. In addition, the funded research infrastructures should encourage R&D actors to collaborate and promote the creation of innovations or other societal benefits from R&D.

The funding is applied for by an individual research organisation or a consortium of research organisations. Each research organisation may submit a maximum of three applications to the call, and no single research organisation may be involved in a consortium application with more than one subproject.

Research infrastructures that are or have been included in Finland’s national RI roadmap or infrastructures that have recently received funding in the Research Council of Finland’s FIRI calls are not eligible to apply in the present call. More detailed restrictions will be given in the call text.

The research infrastructures to be funded must be intended for R&D purposes, or R&D activity must be their primary use.

The funding granted for a single research infrastructure project comes to a maximum of 1.5 million euros. The maximum funding for a consortium-based research infrastructure project comes to 2 million euros, and consortium subprojects will be granted a maximum of 1.5 million euros. The total funding budget of the call is 15 million euros. The funding period starts on 1 January 2026.