Funding for research post as Clinical Researcher 2025

At the core of the Research Council of Finland’s activities is to provide funding for excellent scientific research. The research we fund is also expected to have high scientific and societal impact and follow the principles of responsible science.

We fund part-time research by physicians and researchers engaged in clinical practice. The aim is to promote clinical research careers in cooperation with, for example, university hospitals, and to encourage medical doctors and other researchers working in clinical practice to engage in research.

Those eligible to apply are medical doctors with a doctoral degree (DMedSc, DDS or DVM) working in clinical practice or other healthcare professionals with a doctoral degree engaged in clinical practice.

Funding will not be granted to professors or full-time university researchers (career stages I–IV). Those who have received Clinical Researcher funding may have a concurrent Academy Project.

Special terms and restrictions

In the winter call, we will consider (process) only one application per applicant if the application concerns Academy Project Funding (incl. a consortium subproject), an Academy Professorship, an Academy Research Fellowship or Clinical Researcher Funding.

If you submit more than one application for any of these funding opportunities or apply for funding from more than one of them, we will only consider (process) the first application to arrive.

Other special terms

You must immediately notify us if you receive funding from other sources for the same purpose after you have submitted your application to us.

We will not consider (process) an application by a person who has participated in the planning of the call to an extent likely to give them a comparative advantage over other applicants.

We will not consider (process) a funding application if the applicant has been found guilty of research misconduct in the three years preceding the year of the call.

If the application includes cooperation with Russia or Belarus, you must take into account our policies.

If you have not submitted a final report on a completed or ongoing RCF-funded project by the set deadline, we may decide not to consider (process) your application.

An application will not be considered (processed) if the applicant or the application does not meet the competence requirements or other key requirements set for the call, or if there are otherwise no conditions for processing the case.

A scientific council or another decision-making body may decide not to fund an application based on science policy objectives, or if it is apparent for some other reason that the applicant cannot receive funding with the submitted application. Read more about the circumstances that may cause us not to consider (process) an application.

We will not consider (process) an application if the applicant is a member of the RCF Board or scientific councils or the Strategic Research Council.

The RCF Board decides the criteria for the RCF's funding decisions. Also see the policies of our scientific councils before you submit the application.

The application consists of a form completed in the online services and its PDF appendices.

As an applicant, you have the right to submit your application in Finnish or Swedish, but we ask that you to submit it in English to facilitate the international review.

Before the call opens

Check your eligibility

• Read the section Who can apply? to see whether you meet the eligibility criteria.

Plan the contents of your application

• Start drafting your research plan and CV.
• Draft the above appendices on our templates (see ‘Application parts in the online services’). Read the instructions on using the templates. You have access to the templates even before the call opens.
• Read the review guidelines and review form. Write your research plan in such a way that reviewers can easily find the answer to the review questions.
• Contact your collaborators. Request letters of collaboration from national and international collaborators that are relevant to the implementation of the project. The letters must be appended to the application before the call deadline.

Plan the funding of your project

• Draft the budget in line with the guidelines of your organisation. Read more about the amount of funding and the terms and conditions in the call text under ‘Funding to be applied for and funding period’.
• Contact your organisation’s support services now if you have any budget-related questions.
• Also read our funding terms and conditions. If you are granted funding, you are also bound by the terms and conditions.

When the call opens

• Sign up or log in to our online services. Check and update your personal details. Your up-to-date email address is important when we are in contact with you.
• Instructions on how to fill in the application form are available in the online services.

Application parts in the online services

The different parts of the application are listed below. A comprehensive A–Z index of application guidelines is available on our website. Instructions for filling in the application form are also on the tabs of the form.

• Personal details
• General description: topic, keywords and scientific disciplines of the project, details on the site of research
• Scientific council
• Abstract
• Public project description
• Project’s funding and commitment by site of research. See section ‘Funding to be applied for and funding period’ in the call text.
• Collaborators: list of collaborators. The collaboration should be described in the research plan.
• Mobility: list of research visits
• Affiliation with research infrastructures, Centres of Excellence and Finnish Flagships
• Short data management plan
• Research ethics
• Progress report on all RCF-funded projects that have not yet submitted final reports
• Most relevant publications and other outputs: up to ten publications and ten other research outputs that are most relevant to the project; Detailed instructions available on the application form.
• Description of clinical work

Appendices to be appended on dedicated tabs:

You must use our templates for the following appendices:

• Research plan
• Curriculum vitae

Other appendices

• The full list of publications is an obligatory appendix to the application.
• If necessary, append a letter of collaboration.

Submitting the application in the online services

You can submit the application when you have filled in or attached all the necessary information. A red warning triangle tells you that there is an error or information missing.

You can authorise a person to edit or view the application on the tab ‘Authorisation’.

Submit your application in good time. You can supplement and edit the application and change appendices until the call deadline.

The Clinical Researcher funding period begins on 1 September 2025 and covers a maximum of four years.

The funding is granted towards salary costs to support part-time research (20–50% of working hours). The applicant and the site of research must agree the salary based on the pay system at the site of research. You must also agree the working-time arrangements in advance, particularly if you aim to conduct research and clinical work at different sites.

In addition to salary costs, we may also provide funding for research costs. Funding will not be granted for hiring staff. Short-term research, study, or other assignments may also be carried out in the form of outsourced services, if it is deemed necessary for the project.

The average funding amount has been approximately 240,000 euros per Clinical Researcher for four years.

The funding to be distributed through this call depends on the Finnish Parliament’s decision to allocate the necessary funds in the 2025 state budget.

The funding is granted to a Finnish site of research (usually a university or research institute) through which the funding is paid.

Funding plan

As a rule, research funding granted by the Research Council of Finland is co-funding. The RCF’s contribution to the funding is up to 70 per cent of the total costs, and the applicant’s site of research (host organisation) will cover at least 30 per cent of the total costs.

Before submitting the application, you must agree with the administration at your organisation on the contribution of the site of research to the funding of the project. You must check with your organisation whether the funding planned as the own funding contribution suits this purpose.

On the tab ‘Funding for the project’, provide the following information:

• cost estimate including an estimate of the annual amount of funding needed, itemised by type of expenditure
• the annual instalment costs are spread equally (e.g. 70%/30%) over all funding years
• all funding granted for the project as well as funding that will be provided by the site of research if the project is launched.

Only costs that pass through the books of the site of the research must be included in the total costs.

Pay particular attention to ensuring that the cost estimate is realistic and justified for the implementation of the research project. Justify the most significant research costs by type of expenditure in the free-text field.

When drafting the cost estimate, consider the funding policies of the RCF’s scientific councils.

You can apply for funding to cover, for example, the following direct research costs:

• salary costs of principal investigator, no more than six months per year
• essential implementation costs
• travel expenses
• collaboration and mobility in Finland
• international collaboration and mobility
• preparation of international projects.

Our funding cannot be used for economic activity. Read more about the eligibility of economic operators.

Only for compelling reasons can government grants be awarded to cover salary costs in cases where the applicant has obstacles related to illegal employment, as referred to in section 7(2) of the Finnish Act on Discretionary Government Transfers.

Research team salaries

Funding will not be granted for hiring staff. Short-term research, study, or other assignments may also be carried out in the form of outsourced services, if it is deemed necessary for the project.

Mobility aid

The mobility aid is applied for as research costs related to the implementation of the research plan. The aid is applied for in accordance with the practices of the site of research. To obtain further information, you should contact the personnel and financial administration of the site of research.

In the online services, the aid is applied for on the tab ‘Funding for the project’ under ‘Travel expenses’. The mobility aid must be justified. Read more about the mobility aid in the funding terms and conditions.

What is required from the site of research?

The site of research is a Finnish research organisation such as a university or a research institute.

We require that the site of research provides the research project with all necessary basic facilities. These are determined based on the nature of the research and are the same as those available to other research staff at the site: office and laboratory premises, equipment (incl. computer equipment), and telecommunications, telephone, mailing, copying and library services.

The costs of ensuring immediate open access to peer-reviewed articles are included in the overheads of the site of research. The costs associated with storing and sharing research data are regarded as overheads for the project’s site of research. Only exceptionally and for justified reasons can they be accepted as research costs to be covered by RCF research funding.

The site of research also commits to ensuring that the data management plan can be implemented at the site of research, and that the measures to be taken comply with good data management practice. After a positive funding decision, the site of research will also approve the data management plan of the project.

When accepting the funding, the site of research is responsible for ensuring that necessary statements and permits from ethics committees have been obtained before the start of the project. The site of research is also responsible for ensuring that the applicant has not been found guilty of research misconduct in the last three years.

The application must include the overheads percentage, indirect employee costs and coefficient for effective working hours of the site of research. The site of research maintains these in the online services under the site’s details. The information is provided as percentages.

When the site of research is a university or a research institute, as a rule, the funding must be applied for VAT included. Consult the financial administration at the site of research for more information. RCF funding may also cover VAT costs, but only on certain conditions (see Value added tax and read more in our funding terms and conditions).

Read more in the guidelines for sites of research.

How to submit and supplement the application

The deadline is non-negotiable. We will not consider (process) an application that has not been submitted by deadline. The deadline for applications is 8 January 2025 at 16.15 Finnish time.

Make sure to submit the application in good time before the deadline. The system will only accept applications that contain all obligatory information. The applicant is responsible for ensuring that the content of the application appendices is correct.

You can edit and supplement the application until the deadline. For example, you can change the appendices to the application.

If you notice that your application lacks important information after the deadline, immediately get in touch with us via our helpdesk, so that the application can be reopened for supplementation. Once the review process has started, supplementations can no longer be taken into account. Typically, the review of an application starts 1–2 weeks after the call has closed.

We may ask you to supplement the application. In that case, you will receive a supplementation request by email. If you do not supplement the application by the given deadline, or if the application is substantially incomplete even after a request for supplementary information, we may declare it inadmissible (i.e. it will not be processed). Make sure that your email address is up to date.

How the application becomes pending

According to section 17 of the Finnish Administrative Procedure Act and section 8 of the Act on Electronic Services and Communication in the Public Sector, the sender is responsible for the application arriving by the set deadline. An application becomes pending when the online application and the obligatory appendices have been submitted in the online services. The system will confirm a successful submission by sending an email to the address you have provided.

Publicity and data protection

Except for the research plan, plan of intent, abstract and progress report, which are primarily confidential, the application and its appendices are public documents. For example, the CV is a public document and as such must not include any secret information. This publicity is based on the Finnish Act on the Openness of Government Activities.

We are committed to following regulations on data protection. The applicant is responsible for the disclosure of the personal data contained in the application and, where appropriate, for requesting the consent of the parties concerned.

The GDPR-compliant privacy notice concerning the research funding process is available on our website under Data protection.

RCF funding is granted based on peer review. We mainly use foreign experts as reviewers, and they make up the review panels.

The review of applications follows a two-stage process. In the first stage, experts are asked to give at least two individual reviews on the application. If at least one expert has given an overall rating of 5 or 6, the application will proceed to be reviewed by a panel. Applications that receive an overall rating of 5 or 6 from the review panel will be ranked.

The fundamental principles of the review are transparency, integrity, equity, competence and diversity. Read more about responsible researcher evaluation.

Review panel

In the winter call 2025, applications for Clinical Researcher funding will be reviewed in panel number 41. You do not have to select the panel, as your application will automatically be directed to that panel.

Review criteria

• scientific quality, innovativeness and novelty value of the research described in the plan as well as the impact within the scientific community
• feasibility of the plan (incl. responsible science)
• competence of applicant/research team in terms of project implementation, possible researcher training
• quality of research environment and collaboration networks (incl. researcher mobility)
• suitability of the proposed research in terms of the possible special objectives of the funding scheme (incl. societal impact)

See the review questions and guidelines on our website. The review guidelines and forms and the review principles are only available in English.

The funding decisions are based on the review reports and panel rankings. Additionally, the decisions will be prepared considering the RCF’s criteria for research funding decisions and other guiding policies. Read about how funding decisions are made.

The policies of each scientific council will be updated on our website before the call opens. Read the scientific council's policies before submitting your application.

The scientific councils will make the funding decisions in June 2025.

You will receive an email notification after the funding decision has been made. After receiving the email, you can log in to the online services with your user ID to view the decision and its justifications.

In the online services, you will also have access to the review report(s), which may include the panel ranking (panels rank the best applications).

How to receive the funding

A positive funding decision is accompanied by the funding terms and conditions. They include instructions on how to receive the funding (section 1.2).

• Contact us primarily via the helpdesk (select ‘Application guidance, non-thematic calls’).
• Technical issues with the online services? Contact us via the helpdesk (select ‘Online services and other technical questions’).
• Our telephone number (switchboard) is +358 295 335 000.
• See the Ask & Apply webinar schedule and materials.
• Also see the winter call FAQ.