Research and Innovation Council to hear stakeholders’ views on implementation of strategic choices

The Research and Innovation Council has launched a stakeholder survey on the implementation of the national strategic choices for RDI policy and activities. The survey will be open until Wednesday 29 April 2026. The main target group for the survey consists of key organisations for implementing the choices and putting them to use, including public and private RDI financiers, research organisations, businesses and branches of government, regional actors and other stakeholders.

The stakeholder survey explores ways and opportunities to deepen the national strategic choices and make them more concrete. The responses to the survey can be used to support the implementation and monitoring of the strategic choices by the Council and the relevant branches of government. The survey serves as a follow-up to a stakeholder event held at the beginning of February.

The national strategic choices aim to boost sustainable growth, promote renewal and strengthen comprehensive security. The strategic choices published by the Research and Innovation Council in January 2026 are:

• data and data-based value creation
• disruptive technologies
• health and wellbeing
• climate, environment and the Arctic dimension, and
• security, resilience and defence.
• Two spearheads were defined for developing the RDI system to support the implementation of the strategic choices: increasing risk-taking capacity in RDI and attracting RDI investments to Finland.

A common direction for strengthening resources and competence

The strategic choices offer a common direction for strengthening RDI resources and raising the level of competence while providing opportunities to build cooperation and partnerships. The Research Council of Finland and Business Finland, for example, are implementing the choices in their own funding activities. 

For the Government and ministries, the strategic choices provide an opportunity to allocate R&D funding when making decisions related to the General Government Fiscal Plan and the Budget, and serve as a starting point for developing the regulatory environment. The strategic choices also support Finland’s efforts to influence EU policy and give us opportunities to communicate our national strengths and our ability to solve common challenges more clearly in international forums. The strategic choices will be deepened and outlined in concrete terms by a variety of actors. The Research and Innovation Council is responsible for coordinating and monitoring their implementation.

The Research and Innovation Council is an advisory body led by the Prime Minister. Its goal is to support the Government in developing its long-term comprehensive research and innovation policy, present initiatives for national strategic choices and put forth proposals for the allocation of R&D funding.