Funding by Research Council of Finland brings international top researchers to Finnish universities

The Research Council of Finland (RCF) has allocated a total of 27.5 million euros for the recruitment of top-level researchers from outside Finland. With the funding, eleven international researchers will transfer to Finnish universities to take up professorships and establish their own research teams. The funding covers a five-year period starting in 2026.

The funding decisions were made under a funding scheme that aims to strengthen the research profiles of Finnish universities. In this funding round, the profiling will be supported by enabling universities to recruit international, high-level researchers from outside Finland, for example from the United States. The decisions now made cover the first half of the total amount of 50 million euros earmarked for the Profi call.

The funding will be distributed among seven universities; the backgrounds of the researchers transferring to these universities are an excellent match with the objectives of the call. Four researchers are from the United States and two are from the United Kingdom. Other countries of origin include Brazil and Australia. The funding will also help bring expertise back to Finland. Among those recruited are also two Finnish returnees who have pursued international careers. The funding is allocated to the researcher’s host organisation, which will enter into an employment relationship with the researcher.

Jussi Vauhkonen, Executive Director of Funding Opportunities at the RCF, said: “The high level of interest in the call shows that Finland is seen as an attractive research environment around the world. The high international standard of research conducted in Finland and the consistent increase in government research funding further enhance this appeal. Top-level expertise is crucially important for Finland. We need the best expertise from a wide range of fields to keep the innovation path wide.”

The RCF’s investment in recruiting top experts to Finland is considerable even by international standards. The funding call, which opened in April 2025, was one of the first European calls for applications aimed at attracting international researchers. The call gained additional international visibility through cooperation with Business Finland’s Superposition talent attraction campaign. The second set of funding decisions will be made in June 2026, and the rest of the recruited researchers will arrive in Finland during the latter part of the year.

The funded researchers transferring to Finland and their teams will work in the universities’ profiling areas, which have been previously developed with funding granted by the RCF. This was the ninth round of RCF funding aimed at strengthening the research profiles of Finnish universities.

Inquiries and more information:

• Competitive funding to strengthen university research profiles (Profi 9), funding decisions 8 January 2026 (PDF)
• More information about the decisions: Questions and feedback
• Learn more: Competitive funding to strengthen university research profiles (Profi)