Background information

Through EU's support instrument RFF - Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), Finland will be granted approximately €2 billion to support sustainable growth and recovery. In Finland, the funding will be used to boost competitiveness, investments, competency of the workforce as well as research and innovation.

In Finland, the state-owned innovation and internationalisation service provider Business Finland is responsible for granting €530 million of this funding.

The guiding document for this funding is the Sustainable Growth Programme for Finland.

Content of measure

The RFF- funding administrated by Business Finland supports Finnish companies' research and innovation activities and promotes sustainable development.

Business Finland's RFF-funding divided into several separate instruments. These include for instance targeting companies developing and manufacturing batteries, health and wellbeing technology, circular economy, sustainable and digital growth of the tourism industry and support for the creative sector.

The eligibility criteria for RFF-funding is that the measure funded through RFF shall follow the "Do No Significant Harm Principle". In other words, measures that are expected to cause significant harm on climate, hinder circularity etc. cannot receive funding through RFF.

Some parts of the funding have already opened, some will open in 2022 and 2023.

Use of measure

Between 2021 and 2023, almost €317 million worth of funding have been granted through the scheme. The biggest portion (31.6%) to leading companies, as a challenge for them to solve significant future challenges and to increase their research, development and innovation investments in Finland, according to the Business Finland website.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Applies to all businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government EU (Council, EC, EP) Public support service providers	European Funds National Recovery and Resilience Facility

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Consulted	Consulted
Form	Direct consultation outside a formal body	Direct consultation outside a formal body

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• No involvement
• Main level of involvement: Peak or cross-sectoral level

Involvement

According to the Finnish Sustainable Growth Programme, the social partners' were consulted during the design phase. There is no information available in regards to whether the consultation concerned the RFF-funding as a whole or whether the individual components of the funding were discussed.

Views and reactions

During the planning stage, the Confederation of Finnish Industries EK stressed the need to focus on innovation and renewing the economy, not just recovery. Hence, the funding should focus on innovations and boosting companies' competitiveness.

Akava, the Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff in Finland, criticised in August 2021 the Government's plan to cut funding from research. Akava stressed that RRF-funding cannot be used to replace the regular research funding.

Sources

• 08 October 2020: EU:n elpymispaketi ja Suomen kestävän kasvun ohjelma [EU's recovery package and Finland's sustainable growth programme] (ek.fi)
• 27 May 2021: Suomen kestävän kasvun ohjelma: elpymis-ja palautumissuunnitelma [Finland’s Recovery and Resilience Plan] (julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi)
• 25 August 2021: Määräaikainen rahoitus ei korvaa pitkäjänteisiä panostuksia tutkimukseen [Temporary funding does not replace long-term investments in research] (akava.fi)
• 08 September 2021: Business Finland ja Suomen kestävän kasvun ohjelma [Business Finland and Finland's sustainable growth programme] (www.businessfinland.fi)
• 05 July 2023: Business Finland (2023) Funding granted database (tietopankki.businessfinland.fi)