The University is strengthening its research in environmental policy, international law, sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, and zoonotic virology through new international recruitments.
The Research Council of Finland (RCF) has awarded the University of Helsinki €10 million . With the funding, four international researchers will transfer to the University of Helsinki to take up professorships and establish their own research teams.
The decisions made now cover the first half of the funding call. For the next phase, the University of Helsinki will apply in May for funding for two additional recruitments, with the related decisions due in June 2026.
The researchers will begin their work at the University of Helsinki during 2026 and the funding will cover a five-year period. All professors will nevertheless be recruited into permanent positions.
The funding decisions are part of a scheme aimed at strengthening the research profiles of Finnish universities through competitive research funding (Profi). In this funding round, profiling is supported by enabling universities to recruit international, top-level researchers from outside Finland.
The researchers transferring to Finland and their research teams will work in the universities' profiling areas, which are currently being developed with funding already granted by the Research Council of Finland. The University of Helsinki's profiling areas include, for example, research on:
diversity in society and life (linguistic, cultural, religious, biological);
resilient and just systems for systemic recovery;
interaction of Earth components underpinning climate-environment solutions.
The areas are multidisciplinary and unite research across various faculties and institutes.
In total, the Research Council of Finland allocated €27.5 million in this funding round, distributed among seven universities.
The objective of the Profi funding scheme is to support and accelerate profiling in line with universities' strategies in order to enhance the quality of research.
