Background

The idea of establishing Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation goes back to 2004, to a report (Finland’s competence, openness and renewability) by the Finnish Prime Minister’s Office, which stated that reaching a high international standard in teaching and research would require the creation of sufficiently large concentrations of expertise to form a critical mass. The ideal goal, as suggested in the report, was to create a few clusters of competence of high international quality in Finland.

Another 2004 report, Internationalisation of Finnish Science and Technology, approved in November 2004 by the Science and Technology Policy Council (as of 1 January 2009, Research and Innovation Council), recommended that Finland create internationally more visible and attractive high-quality research units, R&D clusters and programmes.

The resolution on the structural development of the public research system adopted by the Finnish Government in April 2005 required that the Science and Technology Policy Council of Finland take the lead in drawing up a national strategy for creating and reinforcing internationally competitive science and technology clusters and centres of excellence.

In June 2006, the Science and Technology Policy Council approved a report on the development potential of strategic centres of excellence (as they were called in the report) and national infrastructures. Work was started on establishing international strategic centres for science, technology and innovation as recommended in the report, in areas of expertise that were considered crucial for the future of the business sector and Finnish society at large.

According to the report, business companies, universities, research institutes and funding organisations participate in launching the operations of strategic centres. The strategy was to start up centres during the first phase in the following areas:

• Energy and the environment
• Metal products and mechanical engineering
• The forest cluster
• Health and wellbeing
• Information and communication industry and services.

Later, a sixth centre was established in the field of built environment.