The Finnish Cultural Foundation awards €29 million to science, research and the arts – a major grant to the National Museum of Finland
As in previous years, October 2025 saw a record number of applications from those working in science, research, art and culture. The Finnish Cultural Foundation awarded a total of 784 grants, totalling €29 million.
The foundation awarded the largest grant of this application round, €800,000, for the National Museum of Finland’s reopening exhibition. The museum, located in Töölö, Helsinki, will be reopening to the public in spring 2027, following an expansion and renovations. The iconic and overhauled main building; the monumental extension, designed by JKMM Architects and situated largely underground; and the more open courtyard will ensure the museum is a unique cultural destination.
The first major exhibition to take place in the new premises will be based on the museum’s extensive cultural history collections sourced from Finland and other countries. The underlying perspective of the as-yet unannounced theme exhibition will be the link between cultures and people. The exhibition will be realised in a way that ambitiously brings together original items and new technology for showcasing them. The foundation’s support is focused in particular on new technological opportunities that can be used to enrich the content of the exhibition and incorporate its stories into the visitor experience in a memorable way.
Elina Anttila“We feel particularly fortunate to have the Finnish Cultural Foundation by our side at this point in our history, with this national institution more important now than ever before in an unstable world.”
“The facilities in the new part of the museum will allow us to create the kinds of impressive exhibitions we are keen to offer. The support of the Finnish Cultural Foundation will allow us to fully make use of the latest technology in unparalleled ways, to convey both content and meaning in the space,” explains Director General of the National Museum of Finland Elina Anttila. “We feel particularly fortunate to have the Finnish Cultural Foundation by our side at this point in our history, with this national institution more important now than ever before in an unstable world.”
“The opening of the extension to the National Museum of Finland will be a historic event. The museum is elevating how it showcases cultural heritage to a level that is sure to draw interest both within Finland and beyond its borders. This is exciting not only from the perspective of new audiences, but also from a professional standpoint. I believe that this reopening will seal the museum’s position as a pioneer in the museums sector,” states CEO Susanna Pettersson of the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
Application numbers continue to grow
Over the last four years, the number of applications received by the Finnish Cultural Foundation in its October round of applications has reached new heights every year. October 2025 saw 11,425 applications, of which 784 were awarded grants. The proportions of applications that were successful fell from last year: 8.2% of research and science applications and 5.9% of art applications were ultimately awarded grants. Artistic work and doctoral dissertation work received the most funding.
“In recent years we have seen application volumes grow in both science and research and in art. From a longer-term perspective, the number of applications for artistic work in particular has grown, increasing by over 50% in the last 10 years. The tough situation in terms of funding explains the increase in application numbers, but it also attests to the status of the Finnish Cultural Foundation as one of Finland’s biggest financiers of science, research and art,” states Deputy CEO Juhana Lassila of the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
Applications in the October round are peer-reviewed by nearly sixty panels of experts from different research, scientific and artistic disciplines.
Number of applications: 2017–2026
Development of the number of applications in the October application round from 2017 to 2026.
Covering all of Finland
One of the foundation’s key objectives is to ensure that science, research and art can be carried out and experienced throughout Finland.
“Science, research and art help growing urban municipalities and sparsely populated areas alike to thrive and the grants we have awarded span 83 different municipalities. We also support cultural equality, inclusion, communality, and dialogue in society,” states Susanna Pettersson.
Publishing house Tammi will be using funding of €70,000 to pilot an operating model for books in Easy Finnish. There is a significant need for Easy Finnish literature, with up to 800,000 people requiring Easy Finnish. There are a number of structural and financial challenges when it comes to publishing books in Easy Finnish, and so production is dependent on state support. Tammi’s goals are to find a permanent way of making Easy Finnish books part of normal business operations, to transform the whole sector in Finland, and to offer tools for literacy work.
With the support of the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Silva Belghiti is translating and adapting song lyrics into Finnish Sign Language. Petra Portaala and the Diabolos working group are producing a touring puppet theatre piece that explores themes to do with unemployment. Baraka Paul Issabu and the MUDA-Finland working group are organising rhythm and dance workshops for young people from the African diaspora in Helsinki. Joensuu will be hosting Parafest, an annual cultural event for a wide variety of people with disabilities.
Supporting young talent is also a key focus point of the foundation.
The Finnish National Opera and Ballet will be using a grant of €180,000 to implement a summer academy for young Finnish dancers with potential to make it on the international ballet scene. The dancers will be taught by experts from leading ballet companies and schools.
“Talented young dancers will get the chance to expand and deepen their skills in a professional context. They will also have the chance to form the strong network of contacts required to succeed amidst international competition in today’s world,” says Susanna Pettersson.
Minority languages and cultures receive funding
The Finnish Cultural Foundation has a sustained approach to supporting art, science and research focusing on endangered cultural capital.
For example, Ilia Moshnikov and his working group have received a grant of €200,000 to create an online dictionary of modern Karelian and to develop and research language technology tools to support the revitalisation of the Karelian language. Anna Brück and her working group will be realising a series of events and artworks exploring transnationalism, belonging, loss and new connections through Karelian identity.
The foundation is also providing funding for the Ihajis Idja festival focusing on indigenous music (Anára Sámisearvi) and the development and pre-production phases of a dance film that draws on the Sámi storytelling tradition (Laura-Maria Feodoroff). Support from the foundation will also help with researching the societal impact of a full-year education programme on North Sámi language and culture (Sari Valkonen), the impacts of the militarisation of Sápmi on the Sámi people and their relationship with the defence administration (Sara Vanhanen) and the interaction of Sámi people’s use of land and forest fires in Lapland since the year 450 (Niina Ryzhkova).
Helsinki Summer University is organising education on Romani language and culture, while Kanta-Hämeen romaniyhdistys seeks to strengthen the vitality of the spoken Romani language in Romani families.
Funding for the natural resources sector, sharing one’s life’s works, and popularised non-fiction
In addition to general grants for research, science and art, the Finnish Cultural Foundation allocates funding for some specific themes. In the October round of applications these included research that addresses carbon dynamics and climate coupling of soil processes or that explores the economic links of ecosystem services in agriculture and forestry.
The foundation has granted a total of €1 million to five projects researching the following topics: social and ecological perspectives on the hunting of moose and white-tailed deer (Jon Brommer and working group, University of Turku), the impacts of restoration burning and other forest restoration methods (Kajar Köster and working group, University of Eastern Finland), key species playing a significant role in carbon regulation (Carlos Alejandro Aguilar Trigueros and working group, University of Jyväskylä), microbial communities in woodlands (Taina Pennanen and working group, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)) and the impacts of climate change on the dynamics of the soil-river system (Anu Kaakinen and working group, University of Helsinki).
Additional €1 million for science
Tracing forest carbon pools
Small soil invertebrates and soil fungi regulate whether carbon is released into the atmosphere or remains in the soil for centuries. Researchers at the University of Jyväskylä are seeking species with the greatest influence on carbon sequestration. Carlos Alejandro Aguilar Trigueros and working group, from the University of Jyväskylä, are researching the key species that play a significant role in carbon regulation. Photo: Emmi Virtanen
The Finnish Cultural Foundation’s Eminentia grant is intended for sharing in written form a person’s research-related, scientific or artistic life’s work. These grants have been awarded to Romani music collector and performer and Academic Hilja Grönfors; former secretary general of the Finnish Literature Society, Professor Tuomas Lehtonen; Emeritus Professor of Sociology Anssi Peräkylä; and Emeritus Professor of Geriatric Medicine Timo Strandberg.
The foundation awards numerous grants each year for non-fiction and popularisation of science, research and art. Non-fiction books coming out in the next few years include those on the following topics: mental crisis resilience in an era of polycrisis (Pasi Mäenpää), Author and Visual Artist Hannu Väisänen (Ida Pimenoff), Author Maria Jotuni (Helena Ruuska), Conductor Jorma Panula (Jari Sinkkonen), archaeological research on Turku Cathedral (Liisa Seppänen), the key fights for equality in the USA (Iida Tikka) and how Finns have become the third heaviest people in Europe (Iida Ylinen).
Long-term grants help grantees dedicate themselves to their work
The Finnish Cultural Foundation seeks to promote opportunities for long-term research and scientific and artistic work. Longer-term grants support grantees in their work for a period of 1–4 years. A total of 160 multi-year grants were awarded, of which six cover four years. One-year grants accounted for just under half of all the grants awarded.
Recipients of multi-year arts grants include: Dance Artist Auri Ahola, Visual Artist Baran Caginli, Kantele Artist Senni Eskelinen, Composer Sebastian Hilli, Sculptor Laura Könönen, Author Taina Latvala, Live Action Roleplay Artist Pihla Lehtinen, Author and Musician Tommi Liimatta, Film Director and Screenwriter Mikko Mäkelä, Circus Artist Jani Nuutinen, Musician Mikko Perkola, Composer and Musician Lauri Porra, Author Jukka Viikilä, and Visual Artist Yujie Zhou.
Multi-year research grants were awarded to projects on themes such as: expanding random walk approximation in several dimensions (Irfan Durmić), comprehensive ecosocial safety (Raisa Foster), consumer decision-making (Lauri Hietanen), the origin of neutron stars’ electromagnetic radiation (Olavi Kiuru), the history of research into and study of the Finnish language from the 1960s to the 1990s (Teemu Palkki), the desertion of rural and industrial locations (Noora Perälä), identifying interactions between cancer medications using biomarkers and artificial intelligence (Negar Pourjamal), and the impact of changes in technology on reindeer management traditions and heritage (Ningning Sun).
Grants of the Finnish Cultural Foundation in 2026
Science, research and art help growing urban municipalities and sparsely populated areas alike to thrive. In year 2026 we awarded grants to 83 different municipalities.
Altogether
€29 millionAwarded grants
784Multi-year grants
160Applications
11 425
