Minister rejects funding for top-ranked research projects

Minister of Social Affairs and Health Wille Rydman (Finns Party) rejected research funding for nine projects that had received top evaluations from independent reviewers, documents obtained by Yle show.

Rydman claimed he was not shown the detailed scoring of the peer-review process, though ministry officials confirmed to Yle that no scoring was presented to him. He added that peer review is “not divine truth” and suggested that the ministry should end such grants entirely.

The rejected applications came from universities in Helsinki, Eastern Finland, Jyväskylä, Lapland, Tampere, and Turku. All nine institutions have filed appeals against Rydman’s decision.

The ministry had planned to distribute €8 million this year to 18 projects ranked highest by experts. Instead, Rydman approved funding for only nine projects, citing strained state finances. His selections did not follow the peer-review ranking, leaving projects ranked second, fourth, and fifth unfunded.

The ministry sent nearly identical rejection letters—all signed by Rydman—to the affected universities, prompting criticism for the lack of tailored reasoning.