Research Council for Biosciences and Environment: policies for 2011

The Academy of Finland’s Research Council for Biosciences and Environment promotes leading-edge research through quality-based and long-term funding, which it grants for a fixed period. Other tools at the Research Council’s disposal include reliable evaluation, science policy expertise and versatile international cooperation.

Key science policy and operational goals for 2011

The Research Council for Biosciences and Environment supports top-level, innovative and multidisciplinary basic research with capacity for renewal. The objective is to provide long-term funding for projects within the Research Council’s remit. As a rule, the funding is sized according to the projects’ needs.

The Research Council’s goals in terms of science and innovation policy are to strengthen the quality of research, to develop research careers, to promote strategic partnerships and to improve the status and exposure of scientific research.

Strengthening the quality of research

The primary criterion for any decisions the Research Council makes is scientific quality and innovativeness. In supporting the scientifically best and most innovative research projects, the Research Council strengthens and promotes research within its area of expertise. The overall goal is to raise the quality of research and facilitate the efficient use of research results in innovation work. In all Academy funding opportunities, the Research Council aims to support new scientific initiatives and breakthroughs. The Research Council also wants to provide funding to sufficiently large projects and consortia.

Identification of the scientifically most high-quality projects is guaranteed through international peer review. The Academy of Finland uses reviewers who have broad expertise in their respective fields. If relevant, reviews may also be carried out using joint panels between several Research Councils. The Research Council for Biosciences and Environment, for its part, wants to ensure the equal treatment of applicants and monitor and assess the implementation of its decisions.

In all its activities, the Research Council makes good use of information received from application reviews, discipline assessments, programme evaluations and project final reports.

Developing research careers

One of the Research Council’s goals is to ensure the supply of well-resourced researchers in the field of biosciences and the environment, at all stages of the research career. As far as possible, the Research Council aims to direct unallocated research funding to support the third research career stage (Academy Research Fellows/Team leaders), which is in most need of funding in the Research Council’s field. In its decisions, the Research Council takes into consideration a number of issues, such as equality, promotion of young researchers’ careers, and the creation and maintaining of top-level, versatile and international research teams.

As for researcher training, the Research Council aims to take into account key global issues that require solid expertise in biosciences and environmental sciences. Accordingly, the Research Council will support research training in these fields.

The Research Council also wants to encourage researcher mobility, which is an important part of research, whether it is national or international mobility, or mobility between industry and academia and the public and private sector. Particularly important is the mobility of postdoctoral researchers, which is why the Research Council encourages young researchers to go abroad early in their postdoctoral periods, for at least 1–2 years. Postdoctoral mobility is critical for both career development and networking. International experience allows researchers to become highly professional in their own fields. Further, the Research Council wants to promote the potential of universities, research institutes and researchers/research teams to create internationally attractive research environments and networks.

Improving the status and exposure of scientific research

The Research Council for Biosciences and Environment encourages researchers it has funded to publish their results to as wide an audience as possible, in addition to publishing in high-quality journals. By doing this, the Research Council wants to motivate the researchers to become more active in society.

Promoting strategic partnerships

Forming strategic partnerships is an important tool in strengthening the quality of research, developing research careers and improving the status and exposure of scientific research. To this end, the Research Council, among other things, aims to develop its partnership with universities, where the bulk of the research the Research Council has funded is carried out.

In order to advance strategic collaborations, the Research Council’s members participate in Centre of Excellence follow-up groups and actively monitor the progress of funded projects. During the course of its term, the Research Council also aims to visit key universities, research institutes and research stations in its field and thereby pursue an active dialogue with its partners, for example, in the form of workshop-based meetings.

The Research Council also works to promote the activities of the Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation by supporting cutting-edge research related to the Strategic Centres’ fields.