BF's Public Research funding is only granted to research organisations.

A research and dissemination organisation is an entity (such as universities or research institutes, technology transfer bodies, innovation brokers, research-oriented physical or virtual collaborative communities), regardless of its legal status (public or private) or the method of funding, whose main objective is to independently carry out basic, industrial or experimental research. or disseminate the results of such activities through training, publications or knowledge transfer.

Where such an entity also carries out economic activities, separate accounts must be kept of the financing, costs and income of such economic activities. In such an entity, companies exercising decisive influence, for example as shareholders or members, must not have a privileged right to the results achieved by it.

The research organisations are: 

Research institutes within the scope of the state's on-budget finances:

• Finnish Institute of International Affairs (EK) VATT Institute for Economic Research (VM)
• Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE) (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry)
• Finnish Food Authority (MMM)
• National Land Survey of Finland NLS (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry)
• Finnish Meteorological Institute (LVM)
• Geological Survey of Finland (GTK)
• Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) 
• National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL)
• Finnish Environment Institute SYKE (Ministry of the Environment)

An organisation that has been assigned the tasks of a research and dissemination organisation described above as its main objective by law, decree or other rule applicable to it. It must be possible to verify that the activities in accordance with the main objective are also financially identifiable:

• Higher education system (universities and universities of applied sciences)
• VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd
• Finnish Institute of Occupational Health TTL
• Some other research organisations

Note. The organisation cannot assign itself the task of a research and information dissemination organisation, nor can the organisation give e.g. to his daughter a task that she herself has not been given