Academy of Finland Newsletter, March 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:
Academy of Finland funded the very best research with 260 million euros in 2007
Finland’s R&D expenditure totalled six billion euros in 2007
Government favourable to research in its budget spending limits for 2009–2012
Roadmap for Finland’s research infrastructures underway
Finland and India signed agreement on science and technology cooperation
Academy increased cooperation with India in 2007
Academy participates in Nordic NORIA-nets
Asia NORIA-net to generate Nordic added value
Academy committed to continuation of EU Baltic Sea Programme
Academy’s research programme studies the future of work and well-being
Academy Professor Simo Knuuttila awarded Swedish Gad Rausing Prize
Scroll down for more on these stories

ACADEMY OF FINLAND FUNDED THE VERY BEST RESEARCH WITH 260 MILLION EUROS IN 2007
The Academy of Finland allocated a total of 264 million euros to promote high-quality research, researcher mobility and research career development. The corresponding figure from 2006 was 238.7 million euros. The Academy’s financial situation in 2007 was quite strong, as funds available increased in real terms by 10 per cent. The extra funding was invested in upgrading the quality of research and developing research environments by supporting the 2008–2013 Centre of Excellence programme and the forest cluster within the framework of Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation, as well as in promoting internationalisation and research career development by increasing the number of Postdoctoral Researcher’s projects. The Academy emphasised the importance of supporting emerging new fields of science and research arising from current research problems and scientific advances, as well as scientific breakthroughs that have greater than usual potential to produce long-term impacts.

The Academy’s key funding instruments in 2007 were research project funding, programme funding (research programmes, Centres of Excellence programmes), research posts (Academy Professors and Academy Research Fellows), Postdoctoral Researcher’s projects and support to graduate schools and researcher mobility in working life.

As in previous years, the value of applications received far outstripped the amount of funds available. The Academy received a total of 4,824 funding applications worth 1.1 billion euros. The additional funds made available to the Academy made it possible to defuse some of the increasingly intense competition for funding. For example, 27 per cent of all applications for general research grants were successful, and the overall figure for all funding applications was 21 per cent.

The breakdown of funding decisions by research site shows that some 80 per cent of Academy funding went to universities to finance research projects and programmes as well as Centres of Excellence in research.

In 2007, the Academy had 14 ongoing research programmes. There were two ongoing national programmes for Centres of Excellence in research, in which funding was provided to 39 Centres of Excellence. The Academy contributed to the funding of five Nordic Centre of Excellence programmes, two of which started up in 2007.

The Annual Report (in English) will be available on our website in late April.

FINLAND’S R&D EXPENDITURE TOTALLED SIX BILLION EUROS IN 2007
Statistics Finland has updated its statistics on 2007 research and development expenditure. The research and development expenditure in 2007 totalled 6,016 million euros. Of this, business enterprises accounted for 71 per cent and universities 19 per cent.

Source: Statistics Finland, Science and technology statistics, 2008

GOVERNMENT FAVOURABLE TO RESEARCH IN ITS BUDGET SPENDING LIMITS FOR 2009–2012
When agreeing on its budget spending limits for 2009–2012, the Government underlined Finland’s key success factors which include education, cutting-edge research and excellence. In its previous spending limits decision, the Government increased universities’ core funding allocations with 80 million euros by 2011. In addition to previous increases, an additional ten million euros for 2011, and a further 30 million euros for 2012 will be allocated for universities’ operating expenses. With an amendment of the university law, universities are due to become institutions of public law, having more economic autonomy. Correspondingly, the Government is prepared to acquire private funding for other universities on the basis of the survey to be done. 

The establishment of an innovation university is an integral part of the Finnish university reform. The Government is prepared to allocate a total of 500 million euros by 2010 to the foundation funds of the innovation university, provided that other funding partners make a legally binding commitment of a minimum investment of 200 million euros. The innovation university’s core funding will be increased with a total of 100 million euros a year by 2012, in addition to the funding allocated to the present three universities to be merged. This additional funding will be gradually transferred to be competed for by all Finnish universities in 2015– 2020.

R& D funding will be increased with 13 million euros in 2011 from the previously agreed, and with an additional 32 million euros in 2012. According to the Government, the additional funding to universities is not sufficient to upgrade the level of scientific research, if work as a researcher in the scientific community is not an attractive career option.

ROADMAP ON FINNISH RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURES UNDERWAY
The work is underway in Finland to review existing major national research infrastructures as well as Finnish participation in international research infrastructures. The aim is also to prepare a Finnish Roadmap that identifies emerging new needs for research infrastructures (major research facilities, instruments, databases and services). The review and the preparation of the Roadmap will be carried out in 2008. The Finnish Ministry of Education has set up a steering group for the project composed of representatives from various administrative sectors and research authorities, involving also the Academy of Finland.

The review project is divided into two parts. The first will focus on reviewing existing major national-level research infrastructures and commitments to international research infrastructures (bilateral treaties, memberships in international research infrastructures). The second project part will focus on drafting proposals for updating and upgrading major national research infrastructures, launching new infrastructure projects and participating in new international projects including projects on ESFRI Roadmap.

The review will provide a database on national level major research infrastructures in Finland as well as Finnish commitments to international research infrastructures through bilateral treaties or memberships. After compiling the basic material and preliminary analyses, experts will assess which projects meet the criteria for national-level research infrastructures.

The wide questionnaire will provide proposals that may be introduced to the national Roadmap. The national Roadmap is a plan of new national-level research infrastructures that will be needed during the next 10–20 years or major updating and upgrading of existing infrastructures, but it also includes participation in new international projects or major updating and upgrading of existing infrastructures.

The review report and a proposal for a Finnish Roadmap on research infrastructures will be submitted to the Ministry of Education by the end of this year.

FINLAND AND INDIA SIGN AGREEMENT ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COOPERATION
The Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy and the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology signed an agreement on science and technology cooperation between the nations. The aim of the agreement is to reinforce the mobility of companies, communities and researchers. The agreement confirms the contracting parties’ attempt to develop and promote cooperation in the fields of science and technology. 

Following the agreement signed with India, Finland now has bilateral science and technology cooperation agreements with all the world’s key drivers of technology such as the US, Korea, Japan and China. “The agreement with India is very important for Finland, since the Indian level of basic research is high, particularly in biotechnology and information technology. The cooperation agreement facilitates Indian organisations’ allocation of resources to cooperation with Finland,” stresses Mauri Pekkarinen, Finnish Minister of Economic Affairs.

Currently, Finland is extending its international network of innovation centres and is investigating the operating conditions of an innovation centre to be potentially established in India. The Nordic countries together, as well as the EU, are also planning the foundation of technology centres in India.

Promising areas of cooperation between the two nations include the software industry, applications of biotechnology, and the environmental and energy industry, which display the best matches between the Finnish and Indian expertise and their markets’ needs.

At the enterprise level, the interaction between Finland and India is clearly becoming more lively. Indian companies have gained ownership of several Finnish technology companies, and Finnish companies’ research and development activities in India are increasing. The agreement also promotes the mobility of researchers. Finnish and Indian higher education institutions and research institutes already have many cooperation agreements with Indian players, and a new boost and increase in practical action are now expected for these agreements.

The Academy of Finland has implemented targeted joint calls with its Indian research funding partner for proposals in the field of biotechnology research. In addition, new tools for the exchange of experts have been developed by the Academy of Finland, Tekes and Sitra, which last year brought a distinguished researcher and 20 postgraduate students from India to Finland.

ACADEMY INCREASED COOPERATION WITH INDIA IN 2007
The Academy has agreements of cooperation with three Indian organisations: the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) under the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology, and Tooltech Ltd. In the framework of these agreements, the Academy hosted a Finnish-Indian research seminar in 2007, conducted two calls for joint research projects and awarded mobility grants.

The Academy joined forces with the DBT to organise a joint call for project proposals in the field of plant and crop biotechnology. The Academy awarded funding worth a total of one million euros to the Finnish partners of five three-year projects in plant biotechnology. In October 2007, joint calls were opened in the fields of environmental biotechnology and conservation biology of wild or endangered animal species. Funding decisions will be made in spring 2008.

ACADEMY PARTICIPATES IN NORDIC NORIA-NETs
NordForsk, the Nordic research board, launched in 2007 a new call targeted at Nordic research funding agencies. In this NORIA-net call, funding could be applied for the preparation of Nordic joint projects, for launching cooperation among research programmes and research-policy joint projects. The Academy was successful in the call, and is now involved in four NORIA-net projects granted funding. The projects started at the beginning of 2008. The funding is granted for two years and amounts to around one million NOK per project. The Academy coordinates the project committed to developing research funding cooperation between the Nordic countries and Asian countries. The kick-off meeting of the Asia-NORIA-net was held in late February at the Academy in Helsinki. In other projects receiving funding the Academy is a partner.

The projects include the Nordic-Asian Research Funding Cooperation, (coordinated by the Academy of Finland); The Use of Bibliometrics in Research Policy and Evaluation Activities (coordinated by the Swedish Research Council); Development of Peer Review in the Nordic Context (coordinated by the  Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation); and The Nordic eScience Initiative (coordinated by the Research Council Norway).

Information on other projects funded through the 2007 NORIA-net call and more information on NordForsk and NORIA-nets is available at www.nordforsk.org.

ASIA NORIA-NET TO GENERATE NORDIC ADDED VALUE
The kick-off meeting for the Asia NORIA-net (Nordic-Asian research funding cooperation NORIA-net) was held in late February 2008 at the Academy of Finland. The two-year NordForsk-funded project is coordinated by the Academy of Finland. The other partners of the Asia NORIA-net are the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (FAS), the Research Council of Norway (RCN), the Danish Agency of Science, Technology and Innovation (DASTI) and the Icelandic Centre for Research (Rannis).

The Asia NORIA-net is one of seven NORIA-nets funded by NordForsk, where Nordic research funding agencies join forces to launch joint activities, such as research programmes or joint projects on research policy. The Asia NORIA-net is set to explore what kind of cooperation Nordic research funding agencies have with organisations in India and China. Also, the aim is to identify future opportunities and prepare a model for joint activities.

Representatives from NordForsk also attended the kick-off meeting. At the meeting, NordForsk Director Liisa Hakamies-Blomqvist expressed her hopes for the Asia NORIA-net to work as an active initiator and facilitator of Nordic collaboration in order to prepare concrete measures with which to increase cooperation with Asian countries.

ACADEMY COMMITTED TO CONTINUATION OF EU BALTIC SEA PROGRAMME
The Academy of Finland allocates funding for the joint Baltic Sea Research Programme of the EU and the Baltic Sea countries. The decision of principle by the Academy Board indicates that the Academy will continue its long-term commitment to funding Baltic Sea research. The allocation of five million euros will be reserved for 2012–2016 for the Article-169 programme. The European Parliament and the Council of Europe will decide on the programme by co-decision procedure.

The Academy Board has earlier allocated five million euros for the joint Baltic Sea Research Programme. The call within the first joint Baltic Sea Research Programme in autumn 2007 was implemented with ERA-NET Plus funding, with the Baltic Sea countries and the European Commission as funding agencies. In the call, a special focus was on the interaction between human activity and the Baltic Sea ecosystem. Finnish researchers who are successful in the call will be granted a maximum of three million euros during 2008–2011. In addition, the Academy’s Research Council for Biosciences and Environment has targeted a maximum of one million euros for the call of the Baltic Sea Research Programme. Decisions on the projects to be funded will be made in June 2008.  The Baltic Sea Research Programme is funded by all Baltic Sea countries including Russia, as well as the European Union.

ACADEMY’S RESEARCH PROGRAMME STUDIES THE FUTURE OF WORK AND WELL-BEING
The Academy of Finland has launched an extensive multidisciplinary research programme to explore the issues of work, changes in working life and well-being. Under the name Research Programme on the Future of Work and Well-being, the four-year programme focuses on how the Finnish model for employment and well-being is to be organised in future.

The research programme examines a number of topical themes: life course changes, the appeal and diversification of working life, structural unemployment and the precariate, relationships between work and health as well as the significance of work as an economic foundation of welfare. One of the research challenges is to transcend the boundaries between research in the humanities, social sciences, economics, psychology and health and to strengthen multidisciplinary research into work and well-being.

The programme investigates, among others, the effects of early risk factors and living habits on occupational health and depression, the connection between working hours, sleep, stress and health as well as the middle ground between work and unemployment, that is, part-time and fixed-term work in the Nordic countries. Also under scrutiny will be the changing values and lifestyles of the young temporarily unemployed. 

The Research Programme on the Future of Work and Well-being is funded besides the Academy of Finland, also by the Ministry of Education and the Finnish Work Environment Fund. The total budget is just over nine million euros, of which the Academy’s share is eight million euros.

ACADEMY PROFESSOR SIMO KNUUTTILA AWARDED SWEDISH GAD RAUSING PRIZE
Academy Professor Simo Knuuttila has been awarded the 2008 Gad Rausing Prize by the Swedish Roayl Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities. This Prize worth around 85,000 euros is awarded for an outstanding achievement in the fields of humanities. Knuuttila was awarded for his studies related to the concepts of the possible, the impossible and the necessary and their roles in Western thinking.

Simo Knuuttila has worked as Professor of Theological Ethics and the Philosophy of Religion at the University of Helsinki since 1982 and also heads the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Philosophical Psychology, Morality and Politics: Human Conduct in the History of Philosophy, for which the Academy of Finland provides funding in 2008–2013. Knuuttila also holds one of the 40 Academy Professorships. Academy Professors as well as Academy Research Fellows work at universities, research institutes and other organisations.

Academy of Finland in brief: The Academy’s objective is to promote high-level scientific research through long-term quality-based research funding, research and science policy expertise and efforts to strengthen the position of science and scientific research. The Academy makes decisions on research funding worth about 280 million euros. Each year about 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.