2025 Call to strengthen R&D activities and cooperation in wellbeing services counties

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.

In 2025, the RCF will offer a one-off allocation of 8 million euros to strengthen R&D activities and cooperation in wellbeing services counties. The funding is aimed at strengthening cooperation between collaborative areas for healthcare and social welfare and other research actors in the areas. The funding promotes R&D in wellbeing services counties and strengthens cooperation within the reformed structures of the social welfare and healthcare service system. R&D in the wellbeing services counties and their collaborative areas has been built on the structures of the former specific catchment areas. Research-based knowledge and effective R&D lay the foundation for promoting health and welfare and for developing services.

The funding applied for must be used for R&D activities that are in the public domain. Research and development (R&D) generally refers to systematic activities to increase knowledge and use it in new application areas. The aim is to create something fundamentally new. R&D activities include basic research, applied research and development. Research and development expenditure (R&D expenditure) includes R&D-related salary costs, purchased services, other operating expenditure and acquisition costs.

The aim of the present call is to increase cooperation between wellbeing services counties, universities, universities of applied sciences and government research institutes. This means that only consortia can apply for funding. The consortium must include at least three parties, with the wellbeing services county running the university hospital coordinating the project. In addition, the consortium must include at least one other county and at least one of the following: a university, a university of applied sciences or a government research institute. In addition, the consortium can be strengthened through cooperation with other actors in the region (e.g. organisations, municipalities and businesses).

R&D aims not only at increasing productivity in the health and social services sector, but also at improving the quality of care and promoting the broader societal impact of R&D.

Applications are invited from organisations. The applications are submitted as joint consortium applications between several organisations. The funding is applied for by the consortium PI, that is, a wellbeing services county or the HUS Group that runs a university hospital. The consortium must have at least three parties, including the consortium PI. In addition to the wellbeing services county operating the university hospital, the consortium must include at least one other county and at least one of the following: a university, a university of applied sciences or a government research institute.

The maximum number of consortium applications per area is twice the number of counties (8 in Northern Finland, 8 in Eastern Finland, 6 in Inner Finland, 6 in Western Finland and 18 in Southern Finland). Each collaborative area will ensure that no more applications are submitted than the number allowed. The last applications to be submitted that exceed the permitted number will not be considered (processed).

A consortium application is an application built around a joint project plan, where each party to the consortium applies for funding. The Research Council of Finland treats a consortium application as a single application, although the funding is granted to each subproject separately. Consortium compositions cannot be changed after the call deadline. Read the guidelines for consortium applications.

The application is submitted by the person responsible for R&D in the wellbeing services county running the university hospital or by the county’s authorised representative. The applications of the consortium parties are filled in by the persons responsible for the R&D activities or by the persons authorised by the parties. The consortium’s application is submitted by the person responsible for R&D in the wellbeing services county running the university hospital or by the county’s authorised representative.

The responsible person can authorise one or several persons to read or edit an incomplete application in the online services. The authorisation is given on the tab ‘Authorisation’ in the online services. Please note that the authorisation is valid only when the call is open.

The persons responsible for the R&D activities of the consortium’s subprojects (the PIs) must have obtained a doctoral degree. In addition, the applicants must have a close connection with Finland to support the implementation of a multi-year project. This connection must be evident from the application.

The PI of the application cannot be changed while the application is being processed (after the call has closed but before the decision). The only exception to this is if the PI dies.

Special terms and restrictions

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.

The maximum number of consortium applications per area is twice the number of counties (8 in Northern Finland, 8 in Eastern Finland, 6 in Inner Finland, 6 in Western Finland and 18 in Southern Finland). Each collaborative area will ensure that no more applications are submitted than the number allowed. The last applications to be submitted that exceed the permitted number will not be considered.

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.

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 project 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 project 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.

Read the consortium application guidelines before you start drafting the application.

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.

• General description: topic, keywords and scientific disciplines of the project, details on the site of research
• Consortium parties: In the consortium application, the consortium PI names the subproject PIs.
• 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 project plan.
• Mobility: list of possible research visits
• Affiliation with research infrastructures, Centres of Excellence and Finnish Flagships
• Short data management plan
• Research ethics
• Most relevant publications and other outputs: The consortium PI enters a total of up to ten jointly agreed most project-relevant publications by the persons responsible for the subprojects’ R&D activities (incl. consortium PI) and a total of up to ten of the consortium members’ most relevant own research outputs, with justifications. Detailed instructions available on the application form.

Appendices to be appended on dedicated tabs:

You must use our templates for the following appendices:

• Project plan
• Curriculum vitae: CV for the persons responsible for the subprojects’ R&D activities (one per subproject, incl. consortium PI)

Other appendices

• 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.

The consortium’s application is submitted by the person responsible for R&D in the wellbeing services county running the university hospital or by the county’s authorised representative (consortium PI). They can submit the consortium application only after all subprojects have tagged their applications as complete.

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 funding period starts on 1 January 2026 and ends no later than 31 December 2028.

The maximum funding granted to a single consortium comes to 800,000 euros. The call’s total funding budget is 8 million euros.

It is recommended that the cost estimate be prepared in such a way that the wellbeing services county operating a university hospital or the HUS Group accounts for no more than 50% of the total funding requested and the other consortium parties together account for at least 50%. Any deviations from this must be thoroughly justified in the application.

The funding applied for must be used for R&D activities that are in the public domain. Research and development (R&D) generally refers to systematic activities to increase knowledge and use it in new application areas. The aim is to create something fundamentally new. R&D activities include basic research, applied research and development. Research and development expenditure (R&D expenditure) includes R&D-related salary costs, purchased services, other operating expenditure and acquisition costs.

The funding is granted to a Finnish site of research through which the project’s funding is paid.

The PI of the funded project must have a close connection with Finland to support the implementation of a multi-year project.

The RCF requires audits of the projects. The site of research shall submit to the RCF the auditor’s report on the use of funding in the project. Each consortium party that has received a funding decision shall submit a separate audit report to the RCF. The auditor’s report must be submitted to the RCF Registrar’s Office within three months of the end of the funding period.

Funding plan

The full cost model is applied to the funding. The RCF’s funding contribution comes to 100 per cent, so the sites of research will not be required to contribute to the funding.

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.

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.

The funding applied for must be used for R&D activities that are in the public domain. Research and development expenditure (R&D expenditure) includes R&D-related salary costs, purchased services, other operating expenditure and acquisition costs.

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 Grants.

As a rule, staff hired with RCF research funding must have an employment relationship. Short-term research, studies or other assignments (max. duration six months) may also be carried out in the form of outsourced services.

What is required from the site of research?

The project plan is carried out at a Finnish site of research, such as a wellbeing services county operating a university hospital or the HUS Group, another wellbeing services county, a university, a university of applied sciences or a government 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 R&D activities and are the same as those available to other R&D actors 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).

How to submit and supplement the application

The deadline is non-negotiable and applies to the whole consortium. We will not consider (process) an application that has not been submitted by deadline. The deadline for applications is 14 May 2025 at 16.15 Finnish time.

The maximum number of consortium applications per area is twice the number of counties (8 in Northern Finland, 8 in Eastern Finland, 6 in Inner Finland, 6 in Western Finland and 18 in Southern Finland). Each collaborative area will ensure that no more applications are submitted than the number allowed. The last applications to be submitted that exceed the permitted number will not be considered.

The joint consortium application is submitted by the consortium PI. The PI can submit the consortium application only after all subproject PIs have tagged their applications as complete. While the call is open, the consortium PI may return the consortium’s subproject application to ‘incomplete’ status for supplementation.

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 details after the deadline, immediately get in touch with us via our helpdesk (select ‘Application guidance, thematic calls’), 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 project plan and abstract, which are primarily secret documents, 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. The applications will be peer-reviewed by a panel composed of Finnish and foreign experts.

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 4, 5 or 6, the application will advance to the panel review in autumn 2025. Applications that receive an overall rating of 4, 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: Responsible researcher evaluation

Review criteria

• alignment of the proposed project plan with the special objectives of the call (incl. societal impact)
• added value of collaboration between the consortium parties for the R&D activities of the wellbeing services county
• added value for R&D of strengthening cooperation between the consortium and external actors (e.g. organisations, municipalities and businesses)
• Strengthening R&D cooperation in the reformed structures of the health and social service system
• Quality, innovativeness and novelty value of the research and/or development activities described in the plan as well as the impact within the scientific community
• Feasibility of plan (incl. responsible science)
• Qualifications of R&D personnel in terms of project implementation.

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. One key consideration is to create a cluster of projects that is best placed to further the call’s overall objectives. Additionally, the decisions are prepared considering the RCF’s criteria for funding decisions and other guiding policies. Read about how funding decisions are made.

A subcommittee appointed the RCF Board will make the funding decisions in late 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, 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.