Government decides strategic research themes for programmes launching in 2025

The Finnish Government has decided the themes of strategic research programmes to be launched in 2025:

• Economy and welfare in an era of strategic competition
• Skills, labour supply and migration in future Finland.

The cross-cutting priority for the upcoming research programmes is artificial intelligence.

The Strategic Research Council (SRC) is an independent body established within the Research Council of Finland. The SRC is tasked with providing funding for long-term excellent research that is aimed at finding solutions to the major challenges facing Finnish society. In addition, strategic research strengthens the regeneration and competitiveness of business and industry and supports the development of work and the public sector.

SRC Chair Anu Kaukovirta said that the SRC is preparing to open one six-year research programme per theme, as in recent years: “From the viewpoint of Finnish society, these two themes form a very relevant combination, seeking solutions to the challenges of the economy and work from different perspectives.”

Kaukovirta added: “Our future welfare is built on Finland’s sustainable economy and a successful labour market. In the first theme, we challenge researchers to find novel and effective ways to support favourable economic development and thus prosperity in an era of strategic competition. The second theme focuses on labour: How can we ensure in the near future that we have a sufficient supply of versatile, adaptable skills and enough employees? And how is migration linked to these questions? In both themes, it’s also essential to consider how AI can help solve the challenges facing the economy and work.”

Strategic research funding is intended for extensive, interdisciplinary research consortia that carry out research with an emphasis on active interaction and engagement with knowledge users. Strategic research strengthens societal problem-solving capacity and improves the knowledge base of decision-making. From the projects to be funded, the SRC expects active interaction between knowledge producers and knowledge users, covering the entire life cycle of the research, in order to disseminate high-quality research to knowledge users across society.

Kaukovirta said: “Given the complexity of the challenges under investigation, it’s also crucial that scientists tackle the themes with an open-minded multidisciplinary approach.”

The call text and guidelines will be published in early November (TBC) on the Research Council of Finland’s website. The first call stage will be open until mid-January 2025.