The Finnish Cultural Foundation supports science and arts all around Finland through its seventeen regional funds. The regional funds award grants to applicants residing or born in the region, as well as to academic or artistic work and diverse cultural projects taking place in or focused on the region. 

The Uusimaa regional fund is not included in this round of applications, as it only gives grants every other year. The next applications for the Uusimaa fund will be accepted in January 2026.

The January 2025 round includes EUR 1 million in Discover Science grants, which were previously under the Finnish Cultural Foundation’s October Round of applications. The purpose of the Discover Science grant is to spark the curiosity of school-aged children and adolescents to engage with science, and to ensure equal access to science education regardless of their place of residence or background. Applications for the grant are accepted from all regions, even Uusimaa.

Other special areas of focus of the January Round are local culture projects and spearhead grants, which are given out each year for larger-than-customary projects. Each region may also have its own special-purpose grants.

In the January Round, each individual or working group may only submit a grant application to one regional fund.

The results of the October Round will be announced a few days before the end of the January Round of applications.

Grants available in the January Round

• Working grants (all regions except Uusimaa)
• Expenditure grants (all regions except Uusimaa)
• Discover Science (separate application form; available nationwide in all regions)
• Local culture projects (all regions except Uusimaa)
• Spearhead grants (all regions except North Karelia and Uusimaa)
• Spearhead grant for arts (North Karelia only)
• Major grant for forest sciences (South Savo only)
• Speak Finnish Boldly! (South Ostrobothnia only)
• Planning grant (Pirkanmaa only)

Please read the application guidelines carefully. Specific instructions are available on each grant’s web page. 

Further information and enquiries

Advice for applicants is provided by each regional fund’s contact person, whose contact details can be found at the bottom of each regional fund’s page or by filtering by region on the Contact Us page.

The regional funds will hold a joint grant information webinar in Finnish on Tuesday 28 January 2025 between 3 and 4 pm, and in English on Wednesday 29 January 2025 between 3 and 4 pm. You can join the events from the links below. The links have been included in the grant newsletter. Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.

In the January round, the regional funds give out grants to support the arts and sciences in their own regions. The regional funds award grants to applicants who live or were born in the region, as well as to scientific or artistic work and diverse cultural projects taking place in the region.

Special-purpose grants common to all the regional funds include projects related to each region’s heritage, Art for Everyone grants and spearhead project grants.

Some regions have their own special-purpose grants and focus areas.

Regional special-purpose grants

Speak Finnish Boldly!

The South Ostrobothnia Regional Fund has a Speak Finnish Boldly! grant in addition to its usual funding for artistic or scientific work. The grant sum is EUR 3,000 and the applicant must undertake to improve their Finnish language skills during the grant period.

Planning Grant

Applications may be made to the Pirkanmaa Regional Fund for planning and developing a spearhead or major project for the 2024 application round. The grant sum is EUR 2,500 and its purpose is to facilitate the planning and development of large-scale and exceptionally demanding projects.

A joint project for sciences

A joint science grant of EUR 100,000 from the North Karelia and North Savo Regional Funds is available for a high-quality project combining different scientific disciplines. The working group of the project must involve participants from both regions, from universities or other research institutions.

Art Together

Instead of Art for All grants, the Uusimaa Regional Fund distributes Art Together grants. The aim of this form of support is to increase the well-being, becoming visible by their own volition, and the participation of minorities, those in need of special support or care, or people otherwise living in socially vulnerable contexts, through means of ethically sustainable and dialogic art and culture.

Further information and Grant Info

For more information on the regional funds’ grants, please refer to each regional fund’s web page.

There will be a joint grant information event online for all the regional funds on Thursday 25 January. The English part starts at 2.15 pm and the Finnish part at 3 pm. You can access through the participation link below when the event starts, and the link will also be sent in the grant newsletter.

To the Grant Info