The Academy and strategic centres

Research to be carried out in the thematic areas of the Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation shall be long-term and of a high international standard. The international cutting edge is used as a point of comparison. Active interaction with end-users also creates opportunities for researchers to identify new lines and areas of research and to take risks.

The Academy of Finland is committed to ensuring that innovation development involves a sufficient amount of cutting-edge basic research. The Academy also supports universities and research institutes in making strategic choices once they have decided to participate in the operations of the strategic centres.

The Academy promotes the mobility of researchers between universities, research institutes and the business sector by supporting the operations of the strategic centres in many different ways and through all its funding opportunities. In addition, we may open calls targeted at cooperation with the centres, covering the fields of one or several of our Research Councils.

In all its funding decisions, the Academy follows its normal funding principles and criteria. Scientific quality and the competence of researchers are our absolute criteria for projects to be funded. We also consider possible connections with the strategic centres when launching new research programmes and deciding on new Centre of Excellence programmes. More information on our support for strategic centres is available on our website under For researchers.