Business Finland Challenge Competition for Leading Companies 2026: An €80 Million Round Awarding Up to €20 Million to a Single Company and Around €50 Million to Its Ecosystem — First-Phase Proposals Close 11 September 2026

Business Finland Challenge Competition for Leading Companies 2026: An €80 Million Round Awarding Up to €20 Million to a Single Company and Around €50 Million to Its Ecosystem — First-Phase Proposals Close 11 September 2026

Most corporate R&D grants ask what you plan to build. This one asks a blunter question: how much more will your group spend on research and development in Finland, in euros, every year until the project ends — and who else will you pull along with you?

Business Finland’s challenge competition, known in Finnish as the veturikilpailu or “locomotive competition,” has run since 2020. Across the rounds so far, 32 leading companies have been selected, and those companies have collectively committed to increasing their own R&D investments by more than three billion euros. More than 1,000 R&D projects at other companies and research organisations have started inside the ecosystems those leading companies built. The 2026 round opened on 1 April and closes its first phase on Friday 11 September 2026 at 23:59.

The planned budget for this round is €80 million. That figure covers the leading companies’ own projects; the partnership funding that flows to the ecosystems around them is separate and considerably larger.

Key Details

What the Money Actually Funds

There are two funding streams, and confusing them is the fastest way to misjudge whether this fits you.

The first is funding for the leading company’s own R&D project: up to €20 million in category 1, up to €10 million in category 2. For projects that mainly involve industrial research, the grant covers up to 40 percent of total eligible project costs. Business Finland’s normal R&D funding criteria apply, with one notable relaxation — a large company’s own project is not required to include purchased services from research organisations or SMEs, which is otherwise a standard condition on large-corporation R&D funding.

The second stream is partnership funding for the ecosystem the leading company assembles. Business Finland states it is prepared to grant approximately €50 million to a category 1 ecosystem over the life of the project, and roughly €20–30 million for category 2. If a returning category 1 company raises its own project funding to €35 million, the ecosystem figure can rise to approximately €75 million. This money does not go to the leading company. It goes to individual partner companies’ R&D projects, to Co-Innovation joint projects between several companies or between companies and research organisations, and to Co-Research funding for research organisations working on the leading company’s roadmap.

That structure is the point. The leading company is being paid partly to be a hub — to activate partners, publish a roadmap, and make it easy for SMEs and universities to attach their own funded projects to a shared mission.

The Two Competition Categories

Category 1 is for companies that already operate globally, have the capacity to make major additional R&D investments in Finland, and need an ecosystem to deliver on them. This is the heavyweight track.

Category 2 is for companies striving to grow into global players, solving a more focused challenge together with an ecosystem, developing genuinely new business openings, or strengthening their role within an internationally operating group. The additional R&D investment promises expected here are described as “slightly smaller” than in category 1.

Two companies working on a common large challenge may apply together in either category. The competition is not limited to any theme or technology topic — Business Finland’s named contacts span bioeconomy and natural resources, consumer and creative industries, electronics and industrial solutions, energy transition, health and food, ICT/AI/data/quantum, intelligent machines and maritime, and space, defence and connectivity.

One constraint worth reading carefully: the same company may receive leading company funding several times, but in a maximum of two consecutive competitions. Business Finland states this openly as a way of limiting the risk of concentrating public innovation funding.

Who This Genuinely Fits

Be honest about the promise you can make. The instructions say plainly that the greater the absolute R&D increase promise, the more competitive the entry. And that promise is not rhetorical — payment indicators are attached to it during the funding application stage, with defined weights:

• R&D increase in Finland by the leading company, measured in millions of euros: weight 70 percent
• Ecosystem developed by the leading company: weight 30 percent, made up of the number of co-innovation projects, the number of EU applications, and the number of partners

If the promised additional R&D investment or ecosystem development does not materialise, funding may be suspended or payments reduced. The R&D figure is not a self-defined number either — it is the R&D expenditure the company reports to Statistics Finland.

So this fits a company that (a) has a board-level intention to grow its Finnish R&D base substantially over three to five years, (b) can name a mission big enough that it credibly needs partners, and (c) is willing to be measured on both. It does not fit a company looking for a subsidy for work it was going to do anyway at the same scale.

Business Finland also examines wider impact — effects on the national economy, on society, and on the creation of new knowledge and expertise. It monitors these, but they do not affect payment.

What the First-Phase Proposal Must Contain

The first-phase submission is not a funding application. It is a declaration of participation in the competition. It may be written in Finnish, Swedish, or English, and it must use the template in Appendix I of the call instructions.

The format is tight: a cover page plus a maximum of ten pages, accompanied by a preliminary pitch deck following Appendix II. Notes and additional information are permitted, but reviewers are only committed to assessing the ten-page proposal — so anything load-bearing belongs inside the limit.

The cover page carries a summary of up to 2,000 characters (not public), the tentative funding request for both the company and the ecosystem, and an impact table projecting the group’s R&D personnel in Finland and the group’s R&D expenditure in Finland from a 2025 reference year through 2027, 2028, and on to the project’s end year. It also asks for the project name, the company’s business ID, the accountable manager and contact person, and the three most suitable pitching times.

The ten pages are structured in five sections:

1. Mission and situation overview — the challenge and future need, the uniqueness of the idea, market potential, the competitive situation in Finland and internationally, Finland’s competitive advantage, the mission’s place in company strategy, and why an ecosystem is needed at all.
2. Impact and indicators — development of R&D investment as reported to Statistics Finland, possible green transition and digitalisation effects, other benefits to Finland such as new clusters, new companies, competitiveness, tax revenue, environmental and health impacts, and top management’s commitment.
3. Necessary funding — estimates of Business Finland and other funding for both the leading company and the ecosystem, and specifically what change Business Finland’s money would enable.
4. Tentative roadmap — what must be done, whose input is needed, what existing initiatives can be joined (particularly in the EU), what national and international measures would help including legislation and standardisation, and a preliminary schedule with milestones.
5. Project plan of the leading company — a concise preliminary description covering the team, resources, ecosystem-strengthening and competence measures, and a communication plan.

Business Finland notes that sections 1 and 2 in particular are examined during the first-phase evaluation.

Timeline and the Pitch

The schedule is unusually compressed after the deadline, so plan diaries early:

• 1 April 2026 — competition opens (an info webinar was held on 21 April; a recording is linked from the call page)
• 11 September 2026, 23:59 — first-phase proposals due
• 18–28 September 2026 — oral presentations, on the named dates 18, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 28 September, morning or afternoon
• By 23 October 2026 — selection for further negotiations
• October–December 2026 — sparring discussions with selected companies
• Q1 2027 — funding decisions

In principle every company that submits a proposal by the deadline is invited to pitch. A proposal that is clearly incomplete or does not meet the competition’s objectives may not be. The presentation runs 20 minutes plus at least 30 minutes of questions, and it must follow the Appendix II structure. A representative of the company’s top management is expected to attend and to describe how the locomotive project connects to company strategy and how committed leadership is to it. Everyone presenting must be an employee, manager, or owner of the applicant company — no external consultants at the podium.

That is why the proposal asks for three preferred pitching slots. Nominate them with the executive’s real calendar in hand.

How the Panel Evaluates

A panel of Business Finland experts assesses all written and oral material. The first-phase evaluation is explicitly focused on impact, against these criteria:

• Increased R&D investment in Finland (as reported to Statistics Finland) and the effectiveness of that increase
• Clarity and novelty of the mission and its goals, and the genuine need for an ecosystem to achieve them
• Export business potential for the leading company and the ecosystem
• Integration of the project into the core of the company’s strategy, and top management commitment
• Finnish interest — benefits to the Finnish economy, added value remaining in Finland, other positive social impacts
• The importance of Business Finland’s funding in sharing R&D risk

Business Finland also assesses the credibility and realism of what you claim, whether your schedules are feasible, and what could go wrong in implementation. All companies receive evaluation feedback. Proposals and evaluations are confidential; the names of participants and of those advancing are not published.

The second phase adds feasibility to impact. Roughly two rounds of negotiation and sparring let applicants refine their proposal, and assessment covers the quality of the draft R&D project plan (including whether resources and a committed team genuinely exist), the planned actions and commitment to ecosystem development via the roadmap, and a plan for using other domestic and international R&D funding. That phase ends with the best-matching companies being asked to submit an actual R&D funding application, with a project plan, cost estimate, and an appendix specifying payment indicators and target figures. Being asked does not bind Business Finland to fund — funding is always discretionary.

Obligations After a Win

These are not afterthoughts; they are conditions written into the call.

The funded leading company must launch a dedicated website within one month of the funding decision, clearly describing the roadmap, the ecosystem’s goals, who the ecosystem suits, and contact details. It must organise at least one open event per year to publicise results and attract new participants. It must communicate actively about ecosystem events, project progress, and especially new partners — and all communications must name Business Finland as the financier.

Applicants must also demonstrate measurable, significant cooperation with research organisations and/or SMEs, support those partners in running parallel projects, prepare a roadmap for domestic R&D cooperation, create concrete plans for EU cooperation, and describe connections to Research Council of Finland flagships and comparable national and international research collaborations. Business Finland expects European and other international sources — Horizon Europe, Eureka, ESA, CEF, InvestEU, the EIB and EIF, and Nordic instruments such as Nordic Innovation, NordForsk and Nordic Energy Research — to be used as effectively as possible alongside its own funding.

Preparation Strategy

Start with the Statistics Finland number. Pull your group’s actual reported R&D expenditure and R&D headcount in Finland for the 2025 reference year. Every impact claim in the proposal builds on that baseline, and the panel will test whether your projected curve is credible against it.

Get the CFO and the CEO in the room before you write. The 70/30 payment indicator split means the R&D increase promise is a financial commitment, not a marketing statement. Underpromising loses the competition; overpromising risks suspended funding later.

Design the ecosystem, don’t list it. “Number of co-innovation projects, number of EU applications, number of partners” is what gets measured. Name candidate SMEs and research groups, describe the projects you expect them to run, and show why those projects only make sense inside your mission.

Frame a mission, not a product roadmap. The call points to the European Commission’s report on mission-oriented research and innovation as the reference model. A mission is a problem large enough that no single firm can close it alone — which is precisely what justifies the ecosystem funding.

Respect the ten pages. Reviewers commit only to the ten-page proposal. Appendices are optional reading.

Common Mistakes

• Treating the first phase as a funding application and submitting a full project plan and cost breakdown. It is a competition entry; the funding application comes much later.
• Sending the proposal by ordinary email. Business Finland asks for secure email at https://secure.businessfinland.fi/suojaposti, with the subject line formatted as NAME OF APPLICANT ORGANIZATION: Leading Companies Competition 2026 - Veturikilpailu 2026. Post and hand delivery to the Porkkalankatu 1 reception (weekdays 08:00–16:15) are also accepted, with receipt dated by arrival.
• Nominating pitch slots without checking whether a top-management representative is actually free between 18 and 28 September.
• Presenting an ecosystem that is really a supplier list. Partnership funding exists for partners’ own R&D projects, and the roadmap has to give them something worth applying for.
• Ignoring international funding. The call explicitly expects you to show how EU, Nordic, and EIB instruments will be used alongside Business Finland’s grant.
• Assuming a previous win guarantees a repeat. Increased amounts for returning leading companies are conditional on committing to further increase total R&D expenditure in Finland, and consecutive participation is capped at two competitions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a theme or sector restriction? No. The competition has no restrictions on the industries or R&D topics of participating companies. Business Finland lists thematic contact persons across eight areas to help applicants find the right expert.

Can two companies apply together? Yes, in both categories, where they are working to solve a common large challenge.

How much of my project costs will the grant cover? For projects mainly involving industrial research, up to 40 percent of total eligible costs.

Does the leading company receive the ecosystem money? No. Ecosystem funding is granted directly to partner companies and research organisations through R&D, Co-Innovation, and Co-Research instruments, aligned with the leading company’s roadmap.

Will my participation be public? Not during the competition. Proposals and evaluations are confidential and the names of participants or those advancing are not published. After a funding decision, the recipient’s name, the funding amount, and a summary of the mission and impacts are published.

In what language should I write? Finnish, Swedish, or English.

Official Links and Contacts

The call page is at businessfinland.fi/en/services/funding/calls/2026/leading-company-challenge-competition-2026/, which links the full call instructions PDF, the April 21 info webinar recording, and background on previously funded leading companies and ecosystems.

Thematic contacts, using the pattern [email protected]: Janne Peräjoki (bioeconomy, natural resources and minerals), Ella Kylmäaho (consumer and creative industries), Harri Laajarinne (electronics and industrial solutions), Tiina Rajamäki (energy transition), Eeva Salminen (health and food), Sami Heikkiniemi (ICT, AI, data and quantum technologies), Juha Suuronen (intelligent machines and maritime), and Kimmo Kanto (space, defence and connectivity). General customer service is on +358 29 50 55000, weekdays 08:00–16:30.

With the deadline on 11 September 2026 and pitching starting a week later, the practical window for assembling a credible R&D commitment, a named ecosystem, and an executive sponsor is now measured in weeks rather than months. Confirm every figure against the official call instructions before you submit — this page summarises them, but Business Finland’s own documents govern.