Record number of applications for 2027 grants – evaluation begins

The Instrumentarium Science Foundation’s 2027 grant call closed on 15 September 2026. The Foundation received 518 applications, compared with 399 in the previous call. Applicants requested a total of approximately EUR 18.9 million in funding, up from approximately EUR 15 million the year before.

The Foundation has allocated EUR 2 million for its 2027 grants. Grants are awarded for research in medicine and for research on instruments and methods in engineering and the natural sciences. The Foundation may also fund economic research related to these fields.

“The evaluation process will begin in October. The applications will be assessed by experts from outside the Foundation, and the evaluations will be completed in early December. The Foundation’s Board will make the final grant decisions in January 2027, after which all applicants will be notified,” says Markku Lämsä, Attorney of the Foundation.

Medicine attracted the largest number of applications: 234 applications requesting a total of approximately EUR 8.4 million. The Foundation received 179 applications in the natural sciences, requesting approximately EUR 6.8 million, and 100 applications in engineering, requesting approximately EUR 3.5 million. Five applications concerned economics.

Applications by grant type were as follows:

• Fellowship: 31 applications, approximately EUR 4.4 million requested
• Postdoc – researchers coming to Finland: 33 applications, approximately EUR 2.2 million requested
• Postdoc – researchers going abroad: 26 applications, approximately EUR 1.8 million requested
• Silmu: 15 applications, approximately EUR 890,000 requested
• Doctoral research: 413 applications, approximately EUR 9.5 million requested

“Doctoral research grants were once again the most sought-after grant type. The number of applications increased by approximately 35% from last year. Demand for grants for postdoctoral researchers coming to Finland also rose markedly: we received more than 30 applications, compared with fewer than 20 a year earlier,” Lämsä says.

The 2027 grants will be announced at a ceremony at Astoria Hall in Helsinki on 10 February 2027.