Review and decision-making

The Research Council of Finland is committed through its strategy to promoting excellent, responsible and high-impact research across all scientific disciplines. Our aim is to ensure that society can make the best possible use of the results of the research we fund.

We want to contribute to advancing the renewal, diversification and internationalisation of Finnish scientific research. High-level international peer review is our key tool for identifying the best and most promising research projects.

The Strategic Research Council (SRC) is an independent body established within the Research Council of Finland that funds solution-oriented and phenomenon-driven research. The projects to be funded must have societal relevance and impact and be of a high scientific standard. Interaction with society is of key importance throughout the projects’ funding periods. The scientific quality and societal relevance of projects are peer reviewed by both national and international experts.

To be considered and reviewed, an application sent to the Research Council must meet the eligibility criteria. The eligibility criteria are provided in the call text.

Applicants may be asked to complete their applications if necessary. If the application or the applicant does not meet the eligibility criteria or other essential requirements of the call, the application will not proceed to the review and will be rejected. Learn more about the circumstances that may cause us not to process or review an application.

How applications are processed and reviewed depends on whether they are submitted in call with a one-stage or two-stage application or review process. As a rule, applications are peer-reviewed by international panels. The panels of the winter call are announced and determined in advance. After the review, members of our decision-making bodies go through the applications and the review reports on them.

The funding decisions are prepared in preparatory meetings. The decision proposals are then presented to the decision-making bodies, which make the final funding decisions. The funding decisions are based on the peer review of the applications and the science policy objectives of the Research Council.

In all our research funding, we are committed to following responsible procedures with regard to disqualification, secrecy and responsible science, that is, equality and nondiscrimination, research ethics, open science, sustainable development and responsible research assessment.

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Figure 1. Application review and decision-making at the Research Council of Finland; example shows a one-stage call.

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