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Funding for Research Collaboration between Finland and Southern African Countries: A Mixed Outlook

04.06.2025

Funding for Research Collaboration between Finland and Southern African Countries: A Mixed Outlook

There are both promising and less encouraging news when it comes to funding for research collaboration and researcher mobility between Finland and Southern African countries. In this update, we highlight some currently open opportunities and share insights into what may lie ahead in the coming years.

Funding awarded under Horizon Europe to date
Finland’s investment in research collaboration and researcher mobility with Southern Africa is mostly channeled through the European Union (EU). A key instrument for this is Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation programme for the period 2021–2027. 

Horizon Europe focuses heavily on applied research based on calls with themes that are of strategic interest for the EU. Less emphasis is put on funding basic science, with priorities emerging bottom-up from the scientific community. This is reflected in the funded projects that include both Finnish and African institutions (along with organisations from other EU countries and globally). A search to the CORDIS portal funding reveals that a minority of them have been funded under Horizon Pillar I, which focuses on basic research. Under this pillar, approximately €1 million has been awarded to 5 Finnish higher education institutions who coordinated or participated in projects, where some of the partners or participants were organisations based in Sub-Saharan Africa. Altogether these were 6 projects. 

In comparison, approximately €20 million was awarded to Finnish higher education institutions and state research institutes for such projects under Pillar II, Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness. This entailed roughly 20 Finnish organisations in approximately 40 projects and participant / partner organisations from 23 different countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

A majority of organisations, which participated in these projects were based in South Africa. Other countries engaged in several projects were Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Congo DRC, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Senegal and Rwanda. 

Should one want to look only at the projects that entailed collaborations with organisations based in the Southern Africa area, which is covered by the Team Finland Knowledge Network (Rwanda and the 16 countries that form the Southern African Development Community), Pillar I funding included 4 projects and €780 000 shared between 6 Finnish HEIs, while Pillar II funding included roughly 30 projects for approximately €17 million. 

70% of all this Africa-related Horizon funding awarded to Finnish research organisations was awarded to 15 HEIs, while 30% was awarded to 5 state research institutions. The top 5 Finnish organisations in terms of funding received were University of Oulu (3236473 €), University of Helsinki (3033829 €), Tampere University Foundation (2812890 €), Geological Survey of Finland (2492635 €) and Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT (1212063 €).

Due to time constraints, it was not possible to extract funding information for the African organisations participating or partnering with the projects identified above. Neither does this piece do much to discuss the broader issue of making research funding available to African researchers and research organisations. For a reference, please see for example the UniPid Ethical guidelines for responsible academic partnerships with the Global South (link at the end of this newsletter article). 

Africa Initiative III (Africa-focused projects within the recently opened Horizon call)
Horizon Europe funds are allocated based on competitive calls, which are published as annual work programmes once a year, typically around middle of the year. The 2025 work programme was published on 15 May 2025. According to Laurent Bouchereau, the EU Science Counsellor to the African Union, late this year we will also see the publication of the final call under the current Horizon Europe programme, and this call will cover the rest of the Horizon funding through 2027. 

The new work programme for 2025 includes an exceptionally large amount of funding for Pillar II projects, which address challenges relevant to African countries and require the involvement of partners based on the African continent. As in previous Horizon work programmes, these calls are marketed under the common label Africa Initiative. 

The Africa Initiative embedded in the Horizon 2025 work programme – Africa Initiative III – amounts to €500 million. As such, it is significantly larger than its predecessors. (The first one covering years 2021–2022 had a budget of €350 million and the second one covering years 2023–2024 had €300 million.) 

The calls under the initiative channel funding to support the themes of the EU–AU Innovation Agenda, which serves as the guiding framework for EU-AU collaboration in science, technology, and innovation cooperation:
•    Public Health – €50 million
•    Green Transition – €241 million
•    Innovation & Technology – €186.5 million
•    Capacities for Science – €3.5 million
•    Cross-cutting Issues – €19.5 million

Altogether, the initiative entails a total of 24 Horizon calls, all under Horizon Pillar II. They are bit difficult to spot on the EU Funding and Tenders portal (but see a link to a handy at-a-glance list at the end of this newsletter).

Most of the 24 calls are single-stage calls and will close between early September and mid-October 2025. Detailed information is available on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, through which applications must be submitted. As usual, the portal also includes a partner search function, where organisations can express interest in specific topics and look for collaboration partners. Additionally, the European Commission’s EURAXESS portal is making available webinar recordings and slides on the initiative. (See links list at the end of this newsletter article for links to all resources.)
In addition to the calls flagged under Africa Initiative III, several other calls under Pillar II may also be suitable for the participation of African entities as part of project consortia. Likewise, other EU programmes, such as entities under its external collaboration framework NDICI–Global Europe provide some opportunities for research funding. For example, the Regional Teachers Initiative Africa (under Gateway Africa) is likely to open a new call for research projects in 2027. Through its first call, the programme funded six 18-month projects with budgets ranging from €400 000 to €800 000. These included one project with a Finnish higher education institution. (Häme University of Applied Sciences as the coordinator for the project titled Supporting Teacher Education, Wellbeing, and Retention via Informing Feasible Educational Policies and Incentives in Africa" with a total budget of €680 000 shared between HAMK and five partner universities in Kenya, Tanzania, and South Sudan.)

Future of EU research funding for research with African counterparts? 
Both Horizon and the NDICI are coming to an end with the conclusion of the EU’s current long-term budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021–2027. As the EU prepares for the next MFF (2028–2034), there are growing concerns that it may increasingly shift its external funding focus toward its immediate neighbourhood. This could happen at the expense of broader engagement with Africa. 
According to one foresight paper, The Future of Europe–Africa Relations: Mapping Strategic Trends for 2030 by Karoline Eickhoff and Denis M. Tull (for link to the publication, see at the end of this newsletter article) African countries are likely to remain important for the EU, but future funding is  expected to be increasingly shaped by geopolitical considerations – such as stabilising neighbouring regions, managing migration routes, and securing supply chains. This could reduce the share of funding directed toward African-led development and research initiatives unless they align closely with EU strategic interests.

On the other hand, Eickhoff and Tull also predict the African agency growing. This despite the African countries being heavily dependent on external funding for academic research. Even South Africa and Rwanda, the leading countries in the region, currently use less than 0.8% of their GDP in research and development (World Bank). Reflections around decoloniality are taking a stronger hold and Africa will be also benefiting from a more multipolar world, engaging pragmatically with China, the Gulf states, and others. Europe is no longer seen as a privileged partner but one among many, with declining diplomatic leverage. For example, Europe’s green transition policies may be perceived as protectionist or extractive, especially if political instability in Europe leads to policy reversals.

A big unknown is the relationship between African countries and the United States and the impact this may have on relationships between Africa and its other partners. The Trump administration's recent funding cuts have had significant and immediate effects on scientific research in Africa, particularly in health-related fields. Many African health research institutions have relied on partnerships with U.S. universities and agencies for funding, training, and access to cutting-edge research. America is now considered as an unreliable partner in the eyes of many African researchers. 

Finnish government agencies and higher education institutions 
With applicants from across the EU and associated countries, and the need to build broad consortia, Horizon funding is highly competitive and requires extensive preparation. This makes successful applications challenging. For many Finland-based researchers, Finland’s own funding instruments for global South collaborations have therefore been important avenues for mobility and for establishing connections with colleagues in Southern Africa. As the recent Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI) report on HEI-ICI funding concludes, they have also provided some opportunities for research – although most of them have not been designed with research in mind. 

It is not clear whether the global South specific instruments will be continued, discontinued, or replaced by something else. This is unfortunate not only for scientific advancement and researchers in Finland and the African countries, but also from the point of view of Finland’s science diplomacy and country branding efforts in Africa. Most of our peer countries have funding instruments dedicated to research collaboration and researcher mobility with African countries – in addition to their active participation in the EU research programmes.

Finnish foundations – new possibilities? 
In the midst of the otherwise bleak prospects of much of the research funding applicable for Africa collaborations, Finnish foundations offer a glimpse of hope. 

Some Finnish foundations – such as the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Kone Foundation – already support Africa-related research related to food security and agriculture. Recently, however, a group of foundations, convened by Minttu Jaakkola, Executive Director of Puistokatu 4 and a Board Member of the Association of Finnish Foundations, has begun exploring how they might take a more active role in building bridges between Finland and African countries in the fields of science and the arts.

Jaakkola explains:
“Finnish foundations do have the potential to support research and researcher mobility in Finnish–African partnerships, but this depends on each foundation’s statutes and mission. Since there are currently no dedicated Africa-related calls, researchers need to be proactive in identifying suitable funders for their work. Fortunately, foundations are composed of people – dialogue is possible. The grant process is always two-way: researchers can also bring forward important new ideas and initiatives.” She sees foundations as agile actors that could take a leading role in bringing the world’s most significant continent of our time into societal debate. In this, science and art play a key role.

This domestic boost would be much welcome for the Finnish research funding scene. Although some Finnish universities have benefited from funding from large international foundations, such as the Gates foundation, expertise on these is yet emerging. And even once it is widespread, a similar logic applies as with EU funding compared to funding from the Finnish government. While more funding woulud be available internationally, this is also more competed, does not necessarily support the current Afro–Finnish discussions on collaborative ethics – not to mention the Team Finland country branding aspirations. 
For more ideas on potential funding sources, see also tiedejatutkimus.fi, the Aurora Funding portal, and UniPid (links below).  

Links
•    The easiest way to find the Africa Initiative III calls: links to all calls under their respective clusters (by the UK Research Office in Brussels) Africa Initiative III now open for proposals
•    The EU Funding & Tenders Portal, through which applications must be submitted. Here you also find a partner search function, where organisations can express interest in specific topics and look for collaboration 
•    EURAXESS page on Africa Initaitive III webinar video links and slides
•    HEI-ICI and HEP programmes: (see links list at the end of the page for the 2025 report Synthesis of the results of the Higher Education Institutions Institutional Cooperation Instrument (HEI ICI) projects 2020−2024)
•    Eickhoff, K., & Tull, D. M. (2024). The future of Europe–Africa relations: Mapping strategic trends for 2030 (Megatrends Afrika Working Paper No. 13). Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP). 
•    Aurora funding database – implemented by the University of Turku. Funded by the Rectors’ Conference of Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences (Arene ry), Universities Finland (UNIFI ry), and the Council of Finnish Foundations (SRNK) : https://arene.fi/julkaisut/raportit/aurora-tietokanta/ 
•    UniPid external funding directory: https://www.unipid.fi/funding/external-funding/ 
•    UniPid Ethical guidelines for responsible academic partnerships with the Global South 

Takaisin