RCF changes principles of Academy Project call, raises ambition level of projects

The Board of the Research Council of Finland (RCF) has adopted a new general principle affecting eligibility for Academy Project funding: applicants will, as a rule, be eligible to apply every other year. At the same time, the Board decided to raise the level of ambition of the project objectives and increase the funding from the current level.

The changes come as a response to a strong increase in the number of applications. The move to applying every other year will enhance the RCF’s ability to develop its review process, helping to ensure that funding is more effectively directed to the highest-quality scientific research.

Academy Project Funding is the RCF's key funding opportunity to ensure a robust scientific foundation for the Finnish research and innovation system. As part of the RCF’s funding category Spark, Academy Project Funding is aimed at identifying researcher-driven bold research ideas and advancing a broad range of innovative research in the long term.

The aim of the reform is to ensure that the RCF is able to identify and fund the best applications and to increase the scientific impact of funded Academy Projects. In order to meet this objective, the RCF will raise the ambition level of the call and increase the funding of the projects.

To ensure a sufficient application success rate and to maintain the quality of the review process, a resubmission restriction will be introduced in the call. In future, the Academy Project call will be open to all applicants who meet the general eligibility criteria every two years. When applying for the funding for the first time, applicants may apply in any given year, but after that, they must wait one year before applying again. However, the restriction does not apply to applicants who received an overall panel rating of 5 (excellent) or 6 (outstanding) in the previous round yet did not receive funding.

The reform will be prepared and implemented in two stages during 2026–2027. The review results of the call to be opened in autumn 2026 will determine the eligibility to apply in the 2027 round.

The call to be opened in 2026 will also introduce a revised call objective and updated review criteria. The second stage of the reform will involve further developing the review methods, such as the review scale used and the panel structure. The revised review methods will be introduced in the call to be opened in 2027.