Academy of Finland Newsletter, January 2008
The Academy of Finland newsletter will keep you updated on basic research funded in Finland and on other news from the Finnish world of science and research. In case you wish us to send this to someone else in your organisation or if you do not want to receive these newsletters in the future, please let us know at viestinta@aka.fi.
Features:
Finland’s Antarctic Research Strategy sets goals for 2015
Academy strengthens cooperation with Russia
Academy collaboration started with Chile
Brochure on cooperation between the Academy and India
Academy launches two new research programmes
ERA-NET funding available to consortia researching pathogenic microbes and plant genomics
17 consortia receive funding within the European WoodWisdom research programme
PhD Laura Raaska appointed Director of the Biosciences and Environment Research Unit
DSc (Tech) Susan Linko continues as Director of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Unit
Scroll down for more on these stories
FINLAND’S ANTARCTIC RESEARCH STRATEGY SETS GOALS FOR 2015
The Finnish Ministry of Education has published Finland’s Antarctic Research Strategy, which defines the vision for the state of Finland’s Antarctic research in 2015. In order to achieve the set goals, Finland should invest in selected strong areas of research, increase research collaboration, maintain a research station and expedition efforts, provide funding to larger projects, and use national and international funding opportunities more effectively.
Finland shall take part in the decision-making of the Antarctic Treaty System and support and actively develop the comprehensive protection of the Antarctic region’s environment. Finnish Antarctic research aims to produce internationally high-quality and recognised scientific data and to be open to new breakthroughs. Researchers shall take advantage of both national and international funding opportunities, and interaction between Antarctic and Arctic region researchers shall be active. Research in the field shall be well coordinated nationally and national funding for research and associated logistics at a level suitable for quality research operations.
The Academy of Finland has reserved two million euros for Antarctic research mainly four-year projects. The projects to be funded will be decided in autumn 2008. The projects shall involve both national and international collaboration. Researchers are encouraged to carry out extensive multidisciplinary projects and apply for carrying out research at research stations of other countries as well. For more information, see the Academy’s international evaluation report published in 2006 (Publication 13/06 Antarctic Research in Finland 1998-2005: International Evaluation) as well as Finland’s Antarctic research strategy Finland’s Antarctic Research Strategy.
ACADEMY STRENGTHENS COOPERATION WITH RUSSIA
The Academy of Finland and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) jointly fund research on materials technology and biosciences. The Academy and the RFBR received 51 joint applications, of which eleven were funded for three years. The Academy allocated 2.23 million euros for this joint call, which is the largest so far between the two funding bodies.
Since 2003, the Academy and the RFBR have launched joint calls in Baltic Sea research, optical materials research, and addiction research. Within the framework of such joint calls, the Academy funds the Finnish side of the research team and the RFBR the Russian side.
The Academy and the Russian Foundation for the Humanities (RFH) have published a joint call for proposals, the aim of which is to promote Finnish-Russian research collaboration in the field of linguistics. The theme of the call is the use of the Finnish and Russian languages in a multicultural world. The research may focus on these languages and their status in a multi-language environment either from the individuals’ or the communities’ point of view. Other aspects include the teaching and learning of Finnish and Russian as a second or foreign language. The goal of the call is to support long-term, systematic research collaboration as well as the establishing and strengthening of research collaboration networks between Finland and Russia.
In spring 2008, the partners will launch another joint call within the framework of the Academy of Finland Ubiquitous Computing and Diversity of Communication Research Programme. The Academy and the RFH also plan to organise an international meeting on addiction research. The meeting will take place in Moscow on 25–28 October 2008.
ACADEMY COLLABORATION STARTED WITH CHILE
The Academy of Finland’s cooperation was started with Chile in 2007 with a joint call for research projects with the Commission for Scientific and Technological Research CONICYT, the Academy’s sister organisation in Chile, within the framework of the Academy’s Sustainable Energy Research Programme. The Academy is presently also negotiating with the Brazilian research funding organisation National Council for Scientific and Technological Development CNPq regarding a call for joint research projects. Plans include at least a joint call as part of the Academy’s Sustainable Energy Research Programme. Other themes will be negotiated at a later stage.
The Academy is also a partner in the EULARINET project of the EU Seventh Framework Programme. EULARINET is committed to increasing cooperation between Latin America and Europe, for instance.
The Sustainable Energy Research Programme was launched at the beginning of 2008 and will run until the end of 2011. An energy workshop attended by Finnish and Chilean researchers active in the field was held in Santiago in August 2007. On the basis of the workshop, a joint call was arranged in October 2007. A total of seven Chilean-Finnish research project proposals were submitted both to CONICYT and the Academy. It was jointly agreed to fund four projects. The Academy provides about one million euros in funding and CONICYT 0.5 million euros.
Cooperation with Chile is about to start also in the social sciences, especially in advanced research on learning and education. This was spelled out by CONICYT in the talks with representatives of the Academy of Finland in Helsinki in May 2007 and in Santiago in August, as one of its priority areas of development and support. An exploratory workshop on learning and education to be arranged in Helsinki in April 2008 by the Academy’s Research Council for Culture and Society will discuss and map out current research and topics of joint research interest as a preparation for a joint call to be opened in January 2009 in the context of the thematic research programme on ‘Child Welfare and Health’. Among the joint topics will be the impact of research on educational policy and evidence-based research on the quality and results of teaching and learning.
BROCHURE ON COOPERATION BETWEEN THE ACADEMY AND INDIA
The Academy of Finland’s brochure ‘Research Collaboration with India’ describes, among others, joint research projects, opportunities for international researcher mobility, the Finland Distinguished Professor (FiDiPro) programme and general research grants. The brochure is available on the Academy’s website at www.aka.fi/eng > Publications > Research Collaboration with India (pdf) or can be ordered from viestinta@aka.fi.
ACADEMY LAUNCHES TWO NEW RESEARCH PROGRAMMES
At the beginning of January, the Academy opened a call for funding for two new research programmes: Responding to Public Health Challenges (SALVE) and Ubiquitous Computing and Diversity of Communication (MOTIVE). The overall goal of SALVE is to provide applicable knowledge for responding to current and future key public health issues. Instead of applying a disease-centred approach, the programme places emphasis on early intervention before the onset of disease hazards.
The Academy has reserved a total of eight million euros in funding for the SALVE programme in 2009–2012. A particular aim is to fund extensive, multidisciplinary projects. Another aim is to bring together approaches applied by public health research as well as behavioural sciences, social sciences and biosciences. The programme is divided into four thematic areas: Health-protecting and health-promoting factors; Life-course approaches and critical periods of life; Health inequalities and clustering of ill health; and Predicting future health.
The goal of MOTIVE is to generate basic knowledge and solutions based on it to serve as a foundation for realising ubiquitous citizen-centred information technologies. It aims to produce high-level expertise and know-how, generate new knowledge on communications, the diversity of messages and their place in the lives of people as well as to engage researchers from a variety of fields in a dialogue and to support the establishment of competence centres in the communications sector.
Ubiquitous computing, communications, information retrieval and personal contact are proliferating in every conceivable form. Technological development has multiplied the forms of communication. Communications have also altered the economy, the way we spend our time and the possibilities for individual participation. Print media are losing readers and advertisers, whilst networks and mobile technologies convey messages everywhere and offer personalised usage. One of the most prominent trends in the development of modern information technology is the growth of ubiquitous computing. This has been made possible by computers embedded in the environment and new modes of interaction.
A key element of the MOTIVE programme is to examine citizens and how communications and various media shape work and leisure as well as create principles and technological solutions, based on which it is possible to promote the desired influences. Different applications can be used in the actual exchange of information, training, culture and entertainment as well as the production of numerous health care and educational services.
ERA-NET FUNDING AVAILABLE TO CONSORTIA RESEARCHING PATHOGENIC MICROBES AND PLANT GENOMICS
The Academy of Finland participates in the second multilateral, three-year ERA-NET PathoGenoMics network programme ‘Applied Pathogenomics: Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment and Monitoring of Infectious Diseases’. Funding is provided to transnational, collaborative projects with a high degree of innovation and scientific and technical risk. Project proposals should focus on prevention, diagnosis, treatment or monitoring of diseases caused by bacterial and fungal pathogens of humans. The projects must be based on genome-wide approaches.
The Academy also participates in the call ‘Strengthening the European Research Area in Plant Genomics – Informing New Technologies in Plant Science’ of the ERA-NET Plant Genomics (ERA-PG) funding programme of European research funding agencies. Funding is provided to international consortia researching plant biology with methods of genomics.
The aim is to support plant genomics-based techniques to answer the topical biological questions so that the European bio-economy would be reinforced and its competitiveness improved. Particular focus will be placed on European innovativeness and excellence, and support will be given to high-level basic research for purposes of building a knowledge base for the bio-economy.
17 CONSORTIA RECEIVE FUNDING WITHIN THE EUROPEAN WOODWISDOM RESEARCH PROGRAMME
The projects included in the WoodWisdom Research Programme focusing on wood material research have been selected. The projects to be funded are international consortia. The research is related to wood production and properties as well as new wood products, effective processes and sustainable forestry. The selected projects represent both basic and applied research and part of the research also involves corporate collaboration.
The Finnish partners in the research programme are the Academy of Finland, the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (as coordinator). Other partners include research funding agencies from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the UK and France. Each organisation provides funding to the researchers of its own country. The Academy of Finland funds the Finnish projects within the consortia with a total of about one million euros.
The European WoodWisdom-Net project (Networking and Integration of National Programmes in the Area of Wood Material Science) was launched at the beginning of 2004. The project is part of the ERA-NET scheme of the EU Sixth Framework Programme for Research.
PhD LAURA RAASKA APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF THE BIOSCIENCES AND ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH UNIT
The Academy of Finland has appointed Ms Laura Raaska, Doctor of Philosophy, as Director of the Academy’s Biosciences and Environment Research Unit. Raaska will start work at the Academy at the beginning of February 2008. Previously Raaska has worked at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland where, she headed the bioprocessing centre of expertise at Biocluster.
Raaska is particularly qualified in research activities coordination, project work and human resources management. The Academy funds biosciences and environmental research with an ample 40 million euros in 2008. Among the Academy’s four Research Councils, the scope of the Research Council for Biosciences and Environment covers the key fields in terms of the well-being and future of society: natural resources and the environment as well as biosciences. The Council decides on research funding within its own field of expertise. The Biosciences and Environment Research Unit is responsible for preparing, presenting as well as executing and monitoring matters within the scope of the Research Council.
DSC (TECH) SUSAN LINKO CONTINUES AS DIRECTOR OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING RESEARCH UNIT
The Academy of Finland has appointed Ms Susan Linko, Doctor of Science (Technology) and Adjunct Professor, as Director of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Unit as of the beginning of March 2008. Linko has previously worked as fixed-term Director and Secretary General of the same Unit, headed in her capacity of Academy of Finland Senior Fellow a research team of her own at Helsinki University of Technology and worked at the industrial secretary office in London under the Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry. Linko, who at 32 transferred to administrative tasks, has a total of 62 refereed articles with some 500 citations.
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