Difficult decisions on the discontinuation of funding services

Many of our customers and representatives of our stakeholders are disappointed with our decision to pause or discontinue funding services important to them. 

On October 3, 2025, Tempo funding call will be closed for the rest of the year, and Exhibition Explorer and Market Explorer funding services will be permanently discontinued. Talent funding, which was previously closed, will also be permanently discontinued.

For example, the Exhibition Explorer trade fair grant has been actively used, and it is natural to ask why the decision has been made to end it. After all, the need for Finnish companies to introduce themselves to foreign customers has not disappeared, on the contrary.

Tempo funding has also been an important service for companies targeting international markets. The intention was to keep it open for applications, but as the details of next year's state budget proposal became clearer, we had to conclude that, due to cuts in the funding authorization, Tempo would have to be suspended for the rest of the year.

For the future of Finland, the Government has made wise decisions to increase funding authorization for research and development, as it is a clear fact that R&D is an investment in growth. The goal is to increase Finnish companies's investment in research and development.

To counterbalance this additional funding, funding authorization for innovation activities has been radically cut in next year's state budget. The funding services that are now being closed or terminated are part of Business Finland's innovation funding.

Faced with this difficult situation, we have carefully weighed different options and have decided to primarily remove funding services that do not clearly increase our customers’ R&D activity. The decision does not mean that the funding services to be closed were unnecessary, but everything must now be brought to bear – in accordance with the task assigned to us – in order to promote economic renewal and increase productivity.

We still consider it important to also support the internationalization of companies. With these decisions, we have sought to ensure that despite the cuts in innovation funding authorization, we can continue to offer funding services that accelerate internationalization to start-ups and companies aiming for strong international growth, as well as to deep tech companies. It is also good to remember that internationalization and growth activities can be promoted as part of research and development projects in the future as well.