Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, a part of Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy, is the most important public funding agency for research funding

Research funding

Research funding is a term generally covering any funding for scientific research, in the areas of both "hard" science and technology and social science. The term often connotes funding obtained through a competitive process, in which potential research projects are evaluated and only the most...

 in Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

. In 2009, Tekes invested €579 million in 2,177 projects, of which €343 million was directed to enterprise projects and €236 million to universities, polytechnics and public research institutes. Tekes is a part of the Finnish innovation system, and functions as a funding agency only.

"Tekes" is derived from Tekniikan edistämiskeskus (Center for Advancement of Technology).

In enterprise projects, funding is given to transform research-stage ideas into viable businesses, and may combine direct unconditional funding with Tekes-guaranteed loans conditional on the success of the resulting business.