The utilisation idea must arise from research previously funded by the Research Council.
The benchmark for the scheme is the European Research Council’s Proof of Concept Grant.
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 Proof of Concept funding scheme has been prepared through a pilot call and will be implemented using additional funding allocated by the Finnish Government for research and development. Ten million euros have been reserved for the 2024 call.
The Research Council of Finland decides annually the scope of the call. The pilot call in 2023 was targeted at Finnish Centres of Excellence and Finnish Flagships. The call resulted in funding for 20 two-year projects. In 2024, the call is open to principal investigators of Academy Projects whose funding period has ended or ends between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2024.
The funding complements Finnish national funding to support cooperation between research organisations, businesses and other societal actors.
