Sitra to accelerate the productivity transformation of the public sector with EUR 10 million in 2026 – Several funding calls will be made

Sitra will accelerate the productivity leap in the public sector in 2026 with a total of EUR 10 million in funding. The calls for funding opening in late 2025 and early 2026 are aimed at public sector organisations and their consortia. Companies can also apply for funding if they have the prerequisites to disseminate solutions that improve public sector productivity. 

In particular, the new funding opportunities support the preparation of significant breakthrough reforms and the wide dissemination of productivity-enhancing solutions in the public sector. 

The calls for funding are linked to Sitra’s special investment, which will enable Sitra to increase its investment tenfold (link to news) in improving the productivity of the public sector. In total, Sitra will spend EUR 50 million on accelerating the productivity transition by the end of 2028. 

The work is carried out in cooperation with public sector partners and companies developing productivity solutions. At Sitra, the work is led by the Productivity for the Public Sector programme, which, in addition to funding, provides partners with leadership coaching, foresight information, and expert support. 

The aim is that the development of productivity in the public sector will result in direct productivity gains of EUR 500 million by 2030, and indirect benefits of up to EUR 5 billion by 2035. In addition, the goal is for the Finnish public sector to become a forerunner in productivity and the utilisation of technology by 2030. 

Aiming for significant breakthroughs in productivity

The long-term call for funding, to be opened in late 2025, will focus on supporting breakthrough reforms that will significantly improve public sector productivity. These are reforms whose immediate productivity benefits are at least EUR 10 million, and whose benefits can be scaled up at least tenfold. 

A breakthrough reform must therefore be able to generate productivity gains, through scaling, of at least EUR 100 million in the public sector by 2030. 

The call for funding will be carried out in such a way that, in the first phase, applicants will apply to participate in the preparation carried out in cooperation with Sitra. The purpose of the preparation phase is to assess and specify the implementation of the breakthrough reforms.  

The preparation phase will utilise both Sitra’s own internal and externally facilitated expert support. During the preparation phase, opportunities for expanding the funding base of the reform will also be assessed. The reforms that have been found to be sufficiently significant and credible will proceed to the financing negotiations. 

The call for funding is aimed at public sector organisations implementing breakthrough reforms and the consortia they have assembled.

Funding to scale the best solutions

In early 2026, Sitra will also open a long-term call for funding to support the dissemination of productivity solutions. Funding is available for projects that focus on solutions that have already been implemented and have demonstrated proven productivity impacts in Finnish public organisations.  

The criterion for the projects is that the productivity impact can be scaled at least tenfold by disseminating the same solution to different public sector actors or to different use cases within the same organisation. 

Spreading solutions that improve productivity may require, for example, the creation of a scaling plan, deployment support, change management, or the construction of a technical infrastructure. 

With the goals and criteria described above, we opened the first call for funding on 18 November. In 2026, funding application rounds structured in the same way will be continued.

Several funding applications available for the wellbeing services counties

The Productivity for the Public Sector programme is also aimed at the wellbeing services counties. Sitra is working on a separate Digisote project (in Finnish) to accelerate the productivity and effectiveness of social and health care services. 

In early 2026, Sitra will also open a call for funding specifically for social welfare and health care. The call will focus on supporting and expanding the deployment of AI solutions that have already been proven to work. The application tailored to the wellbeing services counties aims to increase the quality and productivity of health and social services by utilising digitalisation, health data and artificial intelligence. 

We provide information about funding applications on our website, LinkedIn and in a newsletter.