Funding call to boost recruitment of international experts to Finland enters next stage

The Research Council of Finland (RCF) has decided which plans supporting the recruitment of international experts will be invited to the full application stage and how many recruitments the universities can make with the funding. The RCF’s funding call is part of national funding initiatives aimed at strengthening Finland’s position as a leading country in science and innovation.

Finland is significantly increasing public funding for research and development. Alongside this upturn in public funding, the aim is also that the private sector will increase its RDI investments so that Finland’s overall R&D spending as a percentage of GDP will reach 4 per cent by 2030.

The Research Council of Finland (RCF) has allocated 50 million euros, a considerable sum even by international standards, to support Finnish universities in the recruitment of researchers from outside Finland. The call, which opened in April, is one of the first of its kind in Europe, and the total amount of funding available is significant.

The call is implemented under a funding scheme that aims to strengthen the research profiles of Finnish universities (Profi). The profiling is supported by enabling universities to recruit international, high-level researchers from outside Finland, for example from the United States.

Mari-Leena Talvitie, Minister of Science and Culture, said: “I’m pleased with the swift action taken by the Research Council of Finland to support the recruitment of researchers to Finnish universities from countries where the freedom of science and higher education is under threat. Considering its size, Finland is investing in this area more than its European counterparts in the long term, and this will hopefully increase Finland’s appeal among researchers considering relocation.”

In a country the size of Finland, developing world-class expertise requires top international experts

Eleven Finnish universities are invited to the next stage of the call. More details on the number of planned recruitments is available in the appendix.

Professor Kimmo Nuotio, Chair of the RCF Board, said: “Universities have responded well to the challenge. Within a short timeframe, they have prepared convincing plans on how targeted international recruitments would strengthen their research profiles, which have been identified and funded previously.”

The second call stage opens on 29 October 2025. Universities invited to the second stage must submit a separate application on each planned recruitment. An important focus in the review of applications is on the university’s plan for integrating the foreign researchers into Finnish society. The second-stage funding decisions will be made in two sets: the first in January 2026 and the rest in June 2026 (TBC).

A single funding decision comes to 2.5 million euros per recruited researcher for five years. The funding period starts by 1 January 2027 and runs for five years. Those recruited must be placed in the universities’ profiling areas already funded by the RCF.