Finland spends a significant share of GDP on public RD&D, and is known for integrating public and private RD&D activities. The strong support for energy efficiency RD&D is related to the country’s strengths in energy intensive industry, such as paper and pulp. The county is also world leader in bioenergy, and their prioritisation of this field of research is clear in the figure.

The steep increase in RD&D funding in 2007 was due to the start of a TEKES-funded programme, Functional materials, amongst others. The programme aims to develop new applications and competitive advantage through materials technology for Finnish industry.

The graph is expected to show an upward trend in the coming years since in 2011 TEKES started three new programmes focusing on green growth and renewable energy. The graph only covers years from 1990 to 2011 due to lack of data.

Thanks to its strong history in machine industry, Finland has established itself as a sub-supplier of wind energy technology, exporting generators, gearboxes, bearings and drives. This however is not evident in the statistics due to the way RD&D budgets are categorised – as many of these technologies are not energy-specific.

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Note: Figure shows million Euros with 2014 prices and exchange rates.

Data source: IEA