Academy of Finland Newsletter, June 2011
The Academy of Finland newsletter keeps you updated on leading-edge scientific research funded in Finland and on other news from the Finnish world of science and research. If you want 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.
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Academy identifies grand challenges and priorities for research policy
The Board of the Academy of Finland has identified a series of six grand challenges currently faced by humankind that will be given priority focus in research policy over the next few years. These challenges are named as the Northern Climate and Environment; Sustainable Energy; Dialogue of Cultures; A Healthy Everyday Life for All; Knowledge and Know-how in the Media Society; and the Ageing Population and Individuals. Having reviewed the existing global challenges, the Academy Board chose to identify research themes and areas where Finland has relevant expertise and where it can therefore make a significant research contribution. The Academy is keen to be involved in addressing broad social and global issues and in resolving those issues by means of scientific research. By choosing to focus on these challenges, the Academy wants to strengthen the role of researcher-driven basic research, to enhance the competitiveness of researchers and increase their opportunities to collaborate internationally, and to demonstrate the significance and impact of the research it finances.
The priority areas of research focus are reflected in the Academy’s long-term planning as well as in the start-up of new research programmes. Nonetheless, the bulk of Academy funding will continue to go to research that is not thematically defined and prescribed in advance. The main criterion on which the Academy bases its funding decisions is the assessment in international peer reviews of the quality of research and researchers. The same will continue to apply to research that tackles the grand challenges.
Academy selects 15 new Centres of Excellence in Research
The Academy of Finland has selected new Centres of Excellence (CoE) in Research for 2012‒2017. A total of 15 units, involving research teams from eleven universities or research institutes, were selected to the new Centre of Excellence Programme. The new CoEs will be conducting research in a wide spectrum of research fields, ranging from the interaction between cells and intercellular substance, molecular systems immunology and physiology and Russia’s modernisation to the history of the structures of Finnish society. At present, the Academy has two ongoing CoE Programmes, 2006–2011 and 2008–2013.
The Academy has reserved a total of EUR 45 million for the first three years of the six-year programme term. The CoE call attracted a total of 135 letters of intent, of which the Academy Board selected 36 to submit full applications. These applications were reviewed by international expert panels.
Nine new Academy Professors
The Academy of Finland has selected nine new Academy Professors for the period 1 January 2012–31 December 2016. The new Academy Professors are Professors Dennis Bamford (University of Helsinki), Ilkka Hanski (University of Helsinki, in the photo), Olli Ikkala (Aalto University), Risto Ilmoniemi (Aalto University) Howard Jacobs (University of Tampere), Martti Koskenniemi (University of Helsinki), Olli Raitakari (University of Turku), Riitta Salmelin (Aalto University) and Juha Sihvola (University of Jyväskylä). They represent a wide range of research fields: biological and soft matter physics, cell and molecular biology, clinical medicine, ecology and evolutionary biology, medical engineering, microbiology, law, philosophy, and systematic and cognitive neuroscience.
An Academy Professor is a person who has demonstrated his/her skills and competencies in research and can be regarded as contributing to the progress of research within his/her own field. Academy Professors are in an employment relationship with the universities where they work.
Finnish Science Prize to Professor Simo Knuuttila
The Finnish Science Prize 2011 has been awarded to Professor Simo Knuuttila. Professor Knuuttila has been Professor of Theological Ethics and Philosophy of Religion at the University of Helsinki since 1982. The Finnish Science Prize, worth EUR 85,000, is awarded every other year in recognition of high-standard and internationally significant scientific research. The winner is selected by the Minister of Education and Science, on proposal by the Academy of Finland.
Future looks bright for Finnish nanoscience research
Finnish nanoscience research has developed in leaps and bounds over the last ten years or so. This scientific progress has also spilled over to the education sector, where we have seen considerable improvement in the availability of nanoscience and nanotechnology education programmes. Thanks to targeted state funding, Finland has been able to turn ‘nano’ into a brand, which involves not only leading-edge research but also high-level research infrastructures. In the future, nanoscience will continue to be a forefront research field with great potential for nearly all Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation. These are the conclusions of the Nanovisio 2020 report, which has been compiled by a group of experts within the Academy of Finland’s Research Programme on Nanoscience (FinNano).
According to the report, the investments made in nanoscience have contributed to increasing international cooperation in the field, laying a new kind of foundation for future transdisciplinary research. The report foresees that future nanoscience research will most likely pay more attention to the health and environmental impacts of nanoparticles and nanomaterials at the R&D stage. By 2020, the experts anticipate, nanotechnology and nanotechnology research will have become established features of our daily lives, and the transdisciplinary research approach so characteristic of all things ‘nano’ will have evolved into a sophisticated practice. At the same time, nanoscience education will have become naturally integrated into education in medicine, engineering and the natural sciences, for example.
The experts further expect the balancing between science and technology – a typical feature of nanoscience – to level out by 2020, leading to a stable balance between researcher-driven and commercially applicable research. In 2020, it is likely that nanotechnology will be used in products and items that are part of our daily lives, and we will use them with full knowledge of what kind of use involves risks and what kind does not.
Academy to review the state and quality of scientific research in Finland
The Academy of Finland has launched its latest review of the current state and quality of scientific research in Finland. The purpose is to identify key areas of strength and potential areas for development in various disciplines and to prepare recommendations for strategic development in those disciplines. The review will be completed in December 2012. The Academy has conducted reviews of the state and quality of scientific research regularly at three-year intervals since 1997.
The review consists of three parts. Part I consists of an assessment of the impact of the Finnish science and research system. In Part II, the Academy will identify areas of strength and areas of development in different disciplines and prepare recommendations for strategic development within those disciplines. Part III will provide a thematic overview of the state and quality of Finnish science and research within selected fields that address the grand challenges faced by society and humankind. The aim is to identify major areas of strength and opportunities in Finnish scientific research as they tackle large-scale grand challenges.
One novel feature of the ongoing review compared to those conducted in previous years is that a portal will be set up with constantly updated information on progress in individual disciplines. This information will be available for use in national science policy decision-making as well as in strategic planning and strategy implementation by the Academy, universities and research institutes. In addition to this online data, the project will produce a summary report to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of scientific research in Finland. The review will make use of statistical and bibliometric sources as well as various qualitative datasets. Workshops with invited experts and stakeholders from the disciplines concerned will play a prominent part in the review process. More information is given by Ms Leena Treuthardt, Director of Strategy, at the Academy.
EUR 25 million to Academy Projects researching culture and society
The Academy of Finland’s Research Council for Culture and Society has granted Academy Projects a total of some 25 million euros in funding. In the October 2010 call, the Research Council received 235 applications for Academy Project funding. Fifty of these were granted funding, which was slightly fewer than in previous years. On the other hand, the overall funding increased, the average per-project funding being some 600,000 euros.
Academy Projects are the key funding opportunity provided by the Academy in that they offer funding for projects where the researchers themselves have selected the topics. Such non-tied project funding is a way to guarantee renewal in scientific disciplines as well as the freedom of scientific research. Academy Project funding provides researchers with an opportunity to carry out scientifically ambitious research, to achieve new breakthroughs and to engage in high-risk research. Most of the researchers in these projects have completed their doctorates and the research is carried out in international cooperation that may involve researcher mobility to and from Finland.
Academy invests EUR 28 million in biosciences and environmental research
The Academy of Finland’s Research Council for Biosciences and Environment has decided to grant funding to 33 Academy Projects and 29 Postdoctoral Researchers. The total funding volume comes to some 28 million euros.
In the October 2010 call, the Research Council received 153 applications for research posts as Postdoctoral Researcher. About 75 per cent of the funding was granted to ecologists, evolutionary biologists and bioscientists. The rest of the funding went to researchers in environmental sciences and forest sciences, for instance.
The Research Council received a total of 185 applications for Academy Project funding. The total funding applied for amounted to 115 million euros. On average, the projects received 600,000 euros in funding. About 20 per cent of the funding was granted to research in ecology and evolutionary biology, 45 per cent to biosciences research and 35 per cent to environmental research.
The funding decisions are based primarily on an international evaluation of the proposed research plan and the applicant’s scientific merits, but also on other research-policy objectives adopted by the Academy.
EUR 35 million to Academy Projects in natural sciences and engineering
The Academy of Finland’s Research Council for Natural Sciences and Engineering has decided to grant Academy Projects some 35 million euros in funding. In the October 2010 call, the Research Council received 433 applications for Academy Project funding. Of the applications received, 70 were granted funding. The average per-project funding was some 500,000 euros. Most of the research that received funding will be carried out in international cooperation.
Of the total funding, some 5.5 million euros was aimed as support for the Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation, where cutting-edge research teams and units work together with companies that apply their research results.
The Research Council also supports a number of international research infrastructures that are included in the European research infrastructures roadmap drafted by ESFRI, the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures. For example, one of the funded Academy Projects utilises the MAX-lab synchrotron radiation facility in Sweden.
Support for clinical research careers
The Academy of Finland’s Research Council for Health has decided to provide funding to eight clinical researchers, for a three-year term. The objective of the funding is to support researchers in clinical practice by providing funding for part-time research. The aim is also to promote clinical research careers in cooperation with, for example, university hospitals, and to encourage medical doctors working in clinical practice to engage in research so that they can continue to pursue their research career while in specialist training and, upon completion of that training, alongside with clinical practice.
Development research promoted with close on EUR 3 million
The Academy of Finland and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs have granted seven projects carrying out development research a total of 2,920,000 euros in funding. The projects will primarily run for four years between 2011 and 2015. The funding is granted for problem-oriented and multidisciplinary development research across all scientific disciplines. In the October 2010 call, the Academy received 40 applications for development research funding, and the total sum applied for amounted to 24.4 million euros. Applications were submitted in all disciplines. The applications were reviewed in terms of their relevance to Finnish development policy and its objectives.
The funded projects cover a wide range of topics: the aetiology, prevention and consequences of preterm birth in rural Malawi; livelihood security in rapidly changing socio-economic environments; and intimate partner violence and use of alcohol.
Universities Finland to investigate need for structural development
Universities Finland (UNIFI) has launched a coordination project to support profiling and structural development at Finnish universities. The project will involve an assessment of the following fields: the humanities, education, the natural sciences and social sciences. Each field will be reviewed by a working group that will take a closer look at the subject range, admission procedures and intake levels in the field. The objective is to clarify the distribution of work between universities, strengthen the preconditions for different fields of education, and support the profiling of universities. In addition, UNIFI wants to ensure that disciplines will not disappear from a given field of education and that they will not be insufficiently covered. The working groups are set to carry out their tasks by late October 2011.
According to UNIFI, Finnish universities are facing ever-fiercer international competition, which has contributed to an increased need for university profiling and for pooling resources to each university’s areas of strength. A strategic profiling of university education and research, together with an overall development of the university system, requires that each university’s goals are set in a wider, national context. Universities in engineering sciences, economic sciences and the arts have already started discussions to clarify the distribution of work between them. In addition, universities in other fields have launched internal and joint projects on structural development needs.
Lehikoinen to head Higher Education and Science at Ministry of Education, Science and Culture
Ms Anita Lehikoinen, Counsellor for Higher Education, has been appointed Director of the Division for Higher Education and Science at the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. The term of the appointment is 1 June 2011–31 May 2016. Lehikoinen has headed the Division for Higher Education and Science, part of the Department for Education and Science Policy, since March 2007. The Division is further divided into two units: Higher Education and Research. The Higher Education Unit is responsible for the development of higher education policy and deals with matters relating to institutions of higher education. The Research Unit is responsible for science, research and innovation policy and deals with matters relating to scientific activity.
Academy of Finland at a glance
The Academy’s objective is to promote scientific research of a high standard through long-term quality-based research funding, research and science-policy expertise, and efforts to strengthen the position of science and scientific research. In 2011, the Academy makes decisions on research funding worth 340 million euros. Each year some 5,000 people benefit from Academy research funding. For more information, go to www.aka.fi/eng or send a message to maj-lis.tanner@aka.fi.