Impact
The Centre of Excellence programmes of the Academy of Finland have effectively contributed to the advancement and development of top-quality Finnish research environments and researcher training. In addition, the objectives set for the CoE programmes have been successfully attained. These are among the findings of the 2009 evaluation report on the societal impact of the Finnish national CoE programmes.
The evaluation set out to study the societal impact of the national programmes for Centres of Excellence in 2000–2005 and 2002–2007. The objective was to examine how the national CoE programmes have advanced the societal objectives and the practical benefits called for in the National Strategy for Centres of Excellence in Research (Academy of Finland Publications 6/97). In planning the CoE programme evaluation, it was noted that a CoE is, by definition, of high scientific quality and that this had already been established in the programme process. The evaluation of scientific quality was therefore excluded from the evaluation.
The greatest added value in the programmes has come from the development of top research environments and significant investments in researcher training. The recommendation following from the evaluation is that the Finnish Programmes for Centres of Excellence in Research should be continued and that scientific quality should remain the primary selection criterion for the CoEs. However, the evaluation goes on to recommend that future programmes should aim at a smaller number of CoEs with more public funding per unit.
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The evaluation report Impact Evaluation of Finnish Programmes of Centres of Excellence in Research 2000–2005 and 2002–2007 is available in PDF format on the Academy’s website at www.aka.fi/publications > Publication series.