Develop the competence, products or services of your SME or Midcap company through R&D funding

You can apply for funding for research, development or piloting when your company is committed to seeking international growth, and

Your product, service, production process or business model needs to be updated

• Your company aims to accelerate product development or update products, services, production methods or business models, or develop completely new ones.

You want to gain a new competitive edge through competence

• Your company requires such new know-how that gives it a competitive edge in international markets.

You want to prove the effectiveness of your solution in a real environment

• Your company wants to test and demonstrate the effectiveness of a solution close to the commercialization phase in a real environment through a piloting project.
• Your company requires feedback from customers on the effectiveness of your innovative solution..

Your company can receive Business Finland's aid or loan for development activities, the goal of which is:

Information acquisition and research (Grant)

Creating new information that gives your company an international competitive edge in cooperation with universities or research institutions, for example.

Development of a product or service (Loan)

Significantly updating your current products, services, production methods or business models, or developing completely new ones. Development means the acquisition, merger, editing and use of existing know-how. However, routine or regular activities are not regarded as development.

Verifying the effectiveness of an innovation at the threshold of the commercialization phase through piloting and collecting feedback from potential customers or users. The aim is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed solution, increase credibility, and accelerate the commercialization phase. Piloting means verifying the effectiveness of a new solution at the threshold of the commercialization phase on a sufficiently large scale considering the solution's commercial potential in situations where significant uncertainties are still associated with the effectiveness of the solution. The piloting project must consist of research and development activities. Piloting can also be carried out in a customer's facilities, provided that it cannot be regarded as a commercial delivery and the customer does not provide funding for the project directly or indirectly. In other words, your company must always carry the risk of the piloting project's success. 

Ensure sufficient total financing

• The prerequisite for Business Finland's financing is that the company has a credible overall financing plan for the duration of the project.
• In addition to the self-financing portion of the development project, the company must be able to pay the costs incurred for the development project before it can use the grant or loan granted by Business Finland.
  • Business Finland's financing is paid afterwards on the basis of reports and cost statements, with the exception of the first installment paid in loan financing.
  • At least 10% of the granted grant and 20% of the capital of the granted loan will be paid only after the final report has been approved and if sufficient acceptable costs have accumulated for the project.
• The company must have the financial prerequisites for commercial exploitation of the project's results and for continuing operations after the end of the project.

Also consider the following

We cannot grant your company funding if:

• your company has not submitted the financial statements to the Finnish Patent and Registration Office, or the financial statements have not been audited in accordance with the Auditing Act,
• your company has not submitted an up-to-date statutory notification of beneficial owners to the trade register
• your company has tax debts for which a payment plan has not been agreed with the tax authorities,
• your company has arrears, payment defaults or other outstanding financial obligations from previous Tekes or Business Finland loans.
• Funding granted by Business Finland is discretionary and, in addition to the company's financial standing and the content of the project, the assessment covers the company's resources to carry out the R&D project alongside other business operations, the proportion of public funding from the company's R&D investments in previous years, and the implementation of previous projects, as well as the use of their results.

Read more about the funding terms and conditions

The funding terms and conditions describe the costs for which Business Finland can provide funding, how we monitor your project costs, and how you should report on the progress of your project.

Funding terms and conditions

Send your application and attachments via our online service. You can also keep track of the processing of your application in the online service.

Go to the online service

Set goals for your project

Set 2–5 concrete and measurable goals for your project in your application. The goals must be linked to concrete outcomes of the project and the development of your business. The project goals will be recorded in the funding decision, and Business Finland will monitor their achievement. The achievement of the goals set is a significant factor in deciding whether your company can receive possible further funding from Business Finland.

Examples of project goals:

• Creating new business models and solutions
• Productivity growth
• Creating a new management or operating model
• Strengthening your partner network
• Increasing the number of customers
• Increasing turnover

APPENDIX 1: Project plan

A sufficiently detailed and clear project plan must be presented as an integral part of the application. The plan can be either entered directly in the application form fields or attached to the application as a separate file.

The project plan must include at least the following:

• Your company's growth or renewal vision, and the role of the project funded by Business Finland in achieving it
• Project implementation, resources and schedule
  • Goal
  • What will be done and how
  • Who will carry out the project, and the estimated workload in person-months
  • Any external services your company needs: what kinds of skills or activities does your company need to buy, what are potential service providers, and what is the estimated price of the purchased services
  • Schedule
• Next steps: what will be done after the completion of the project, how will your company use the project's results, what results are expected from the project, and what are they based on.

APPENDIX 2: Information about the company's finances

SMEs must also submit the following financial information with the application:

• An income statement dating back no more than two months
• A balance sheet for the current financial period from the accounting ledger
• A monthly cash flow forecast (from 1 month before the start of the project to 2 months after the end of the project)
• An annual forecast of profit and funding (closed financial period and three forecasts)

You can submit this information using our calculation templates available in the information box below or otherwise, e.g., as part of your business plan.

To make the funding decision, we may ask your company for additional information, if necessary.

Eligible costs

The content and goals of your project determine which project costs can be accepted.

In research and development projects, eligible cost types include:

• Salaries and wages
• Indirect personnel costs (at most 50% of salaries and wages allocated to the project)
• Overheads
  • less than 10 persons:
    • 10% if the company's overhead costs are small (for example, the company has no premises)
    • 20% if the company has premises for which it pays a fair price and its accounting is outsourced)
  • 10–19 persons: 20%
  • 20–49 persons: 30%
  • 50 persons or more: 50%
• Travel expenses
• Costs of materials and supplies
• Equipment purchases
• Equipment depreciation
• Equipment rents
• Purchased services

R&D funding is intended to cover the costs of research and development. As part of the project, Business Finland may fund customer and market analyses related to the solution being developed, as well as other measures supporting the utilization of the solution being developed, such as the development of the organization's operations or management. The portion of these measures cannot exceed 20% of the approved cost estimate.

Costs of piloting projects may include:

• Costs of materials and supplies
• Facility design costs
• Productization services
• Operating costs during piloting
• Costs of R&D activities related to the piloting or demonstration project
• Removals or rentals of land, buildings and machinery and equipment during the project

The following costs cannot be accepted as piloting project costs:

If you receive income from a prototype, demonstration project or production testing created in your project during or immediately after your piloting project, it must be reported to Business Finland immediately or no later than during the final report. If the income is significant, we may refuse to accept any costs related to commercial activities.