The Strategic Research Council (SRC) established within the Research Council of Finland funds high-quality research with great societal relevance and impact. SRC-funded research seeks concrete solutions to grand challenges that require multidisciplinary approaches. An important element of the research is active and ongoing collaboration between knowledge producers and knowledge users.
Each year, the SRC prepares a proposal on key strategic research themes and priorities to be approved by the Finnish Government. The Government determines the research needs and decides the final themes, which the SRC then formulates into research programmes. SRC programmes run for 3–6 years. The SRC’s annual funding budget is some 55 million euros.
The Strategic Research Council's (SRC) funding programmes are based on changing themes. Proposals on new themes are formulated annually through an interactive theme process. At the end of the process, the SRC submits a proposal to the Finnish Government on the next themes and priorities of strategic research. Through its decision on the themes, the Government steers high-quality and long-term research into solving major societal challenges.
