Research Council of Finland to fund wide range of excellent research in 2025

In 2025, the Research Council of Finland’s (RCF) funding budget for high-quality scientific research will rise to a record high. The government budget proposal allocates around 515 million euros to the RCF to fund new research projects and advance research.

The budget proposal also includes around 28 million euros for contributions to international organisations and around 50 million euros for the implementation of research projects funded by the Strategic Research Council (SRC) and the promotion of the impact of research. The total research funding distributed through the RCF will reach almost 600 million euros in 2025 – more than ever before. The increase in funding is linked to the multiannual plan for the use of government research and development funding.

At its meeting on 7 November, the RCF Board decided on the main lines of RCF research funding for 2025. Funding will be allocated in a balanced way to promote long-term and innovative research, competence clusters and research environments, as well as research that supports thematic priorities in different ways.

Significant funding for innovative scientific research in open competition

With its research funding, distributed through open competitions, the RCF is able to strengthen Finland’s scientific knowledge base and support the growth of the RDI talent pool. The internationally high-quality, innovative and long-term RCF funding package provides funding for the multi-year work of teams led by researchers at different career stages.

In 2025, a significant proportion of this funding will be allocated to the Academy Professor call. A post as Academy Professor is intended for high-calibre scientists whose research promotes scientific renewal, pursues scientific breakthroughs and seeks solutions for the benefit of society. Learn more about the call’s revised objectives and process in the Academy Professor call text.

Funding is also available in the form of Academy Project Funding, Academy Research Fellowships and Clinical Researcher Funding. The RCF Board allocated more than 230 million euros for these calls. This accounts for just over 50 per cent of the RCF’s 2025 budget authority.

The calls are open for application now; see the RCF website. The closing date for applications is 8 January 2025.

Support for world-class research environments and competence clusters

The RCF Board also allocated funding to strengthen competence clusters and research environments. The funding provided for competence clusters and research environments aims at a systemic development of the RDI system. At the same time, the aim is to improve the conditions for international scientific cooperation by increasing Finland’s appeal.

In this framework, the key funding call in 2025 is the call for Centres of Excellence, for which the first call stage has already closed and letters of intent have been submitted. In addition, RCF funding will be used to support Finnish Flagships and research infrastructures. This part of the RCF funding portfolio accounts for some 21 per cent of the 2025 budget authority.

Lots of thematically targeted funding to be launched in spring 2025

The RCF Board targeted funding to strengthen the impact of research knowledge, taking into account the thematic objectives set out in the Government budget for 2025. In the framework of the Climate-Synergy Academy Programme, the RCF will launch a call for energy research in cooperation with Business Finland, as well as an independent call for research on forest biomass in Finland. The RCF will also continue the Proof of Concept funding scheme, now in its third year.

Of these funding opportunities in this framework, the Academy Programme for Sport Science and Physical Activity (ACTIVE) is currently open for applications. The ACTIVE call’s deadline is on 8 January 2025. In spring 2025, the RCF will launch the following calls for applications:

• Proof of Concept
• energy research call as part of the joint energy programme run in parallel by the RCF and Business Finland; the RCF call is part of the Climate-Synergy Academy Programme for Climate Change and Carbon Neutrality Research
• call for research on forest biomass in Finland, as part of the Climate-Synergy Academy Programme
• call for clinical research
• call to strengthen R&D activities in wellbeing services counties
• call for thematic research infrastructures
• special funding for high-performance computing.

In addition to the above-mentioned calls, the RCF will open a call for mobility funding in early autumn 2025. The RCF will also open a number of thematic calls in cooperation with international funding agencies. This part of the RCF funding portfolio accounts for some 24 per cent of the 2025 budget authority.

The thematic funding package also includes several other international calls to be launched in cooperation with foreign funders. The RCF Board earmarked more than 13 million euros for other international cooperation. A significant part of the funding will be used to make funding decisions on calls that were previously open. In addition to these, several calls will open in 2025 in Nordic, European and wider international networks. The first of these is a call within the European Partnership Transforming Health and Care Systems: Better care closer to home: Enhancing primary and community care (1^st call stage closes 30 Jan 2025). The timetables for international collaborative calls will be agreed between the funders separately. The call for full applications will be made via the websites of the foreign funders, and the call documents will also be published on the RCF website.