Redesigned RCF funding for clinical research available in spring 2026

From spring 2026 onwards, the Research Council of Finland (RCF) will support clinical research with a single comprehensive funding opportunity. The first reformed call for clinical research will open in early spring 2026. The RCF’s previous funding scheme for clinical researchers will not be part of the 2026 winter call.

Starting in 2025, the RCF has received 10 million euros in additional targeted funding annually to strengthen clinical research. In addition, the RCF has funded clinical researcher posts for around 2.5 million euros annually for the past couple of decades.

RCF has decided to combine the current clinical research call and the previous clinical researcher call. The main objectives of both calls will be retained in the new combined call.

The aim of the revised funding scheme is therefore to strengthen clinical research and encourage medical doctors and other healthcare professionals involved in clinical patient work to conduct research on a part-time basis. In addition, the aim is to promote clinical research careers and encourage early-career researchers engaged in part-time clinical work to conduct research.

The funding is also intended to increase cooperation between wellbeing services counties and other organisations and to produce new research knowledge for healthcare and social welfare, disease treatment, diagnostics and prevention, or business activity. Achieving the objectives of the call requires multidisciplinary cooperation, so the call requires a consortium of at least three parties, and one of the parties must be engaged in clinical patient work on a part-time basis. A wide range of stakeholders participated in defining the objectives of the call during the spring and summer.

In future, the RCF plans to open the call for applications every two years, with a 25 million euro budget at a time.

More detailed information about the call will be published on the RCF website in March 2026.