Research Council of Finland to open call for applications to support research utilisation

In August 2023, the Research Council of Finland will launch a new call for applications to promote the utilisation of research results with a view to boosting commercialisation and other societal impact. The funding encourages researchers to, for example, test their research results in practical settings or develop new approaches to address the needs of industry, public administration or the third sector. The benchmark for the scheme is the European Research Council’s Proof of Concept Grant.

The Research Council of Finland’s Proof of Concept Funding can be applied for by principal investigators (CoE directors and CoE subproject PIs) working with Centre of Excellence funding and Finnish Flagship researchers authorised by flagship directors. Applicants must hold the position in question at the call deadline. A director of a Finnish Flagship may authorise up to five applicants to apply for funding from this call. The applicant must have a doctoral degree.

The funding budget for the call is 10 million euros. Individual projects may be granted a maximum of 300,000 euros. In consortia, the maximum project size is 450,000 euros. The funding period starts on 1 January 2024, and the project duration is two years.

Applications can be submitted starting on 1 August 2023. The call closes on 6 September. The funding decisions will be made in mid-December.