Academy of Finland Newsletter, May 2007
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:
Riitta Mustonen appointed Academy Vice President, Research
One-fifth of Academy funding to breakthrough research
Corporate investment 70% of Finnish R&D spending
New Science and Technology Policy Council appointed
Finland to advance professional research careers
International cutting-edge research commercialised in Finland through local efforts
Forest Cluster Ltd – The first Strategic Centre for STI
Finnish Science Prize to Academy Professor Ilkka Hanski
City of Helsinki Science Prize to Professor Esko Ukkonen
Scroll down for more on these stories.
RIITTA MUSTONEN APPOINTED ACADEMY VICE PRESIDENT, RESEARCH
Docent, PhD Riitta Mustonen is the Academy of Finland's new Vice President, Research, responsible for science policy planning and the development of research funding. Her five-year term runs until 31 May 2012.
The tasks of the Vice President, Research, include managing issues related to the Academy's science policy cooperation and international research funding projects. Besides international experience, the Vice President is required to have experience in science policy planning and working in various research environments as well as in management.
Dr Mustonen has been Director of the Academy's Health Research Unit since 2003. According to Mustonen, the Academy's key objective for the next few years is to bring the ongoing projects and planned development activities to a conclusion as well as to investigate how to best achieve the goals laid down in the Academy's new strategy.
"The Academy must also in the future be able to respond to the challenges it is faced with," Mustonen says. "These include long-term funding allocated to top-level research, issues related to the research career and infrastructures, the internationalisation of research, university cooperation and further development of research programmes."
ONE-FIFTH OF ACADEMY FUNDING TO BREAKTHROUGH RESEARCH
The Academy of Finland has published a report on new scientific breakthroughs. According to the report Breakthrough Research – Funding for High-risk Research at the Academy of Finland, one-fifth of Academy-funded research projects may be categorised as high-risk or breakthrough research. They represent scientifically innovative projects characterised by breakthrough potential, but also by conscious risk-taking. The report shows that about half of the projects identified as breakthrough research have been granted funding.
"The Academy will continue to support new initiatives with breakthrough potential. Researchers are encouraged to present scientifically high-quality and exceptionally innovative and high-risk proposals, regardless of their field of research. Efforts will also be made to better accommodate breakthrough research in the Academy's reviewing and reporting processes," says Senior Adviser Maunu Häyrynen, the author of the report. Please contact Senior Adviser Häyrynen at firstname.lastname@aka.fi for the English-language version of the report.
CORPORATE INVESTMENT 70% OF FINNISH R&D SPENDING
Finnish R&D investment in 2006 stood at a total of 5.7 billion euros, according to recent figures from Statistics Finland. Enterprises accounted for four billion euros of the total sum, i.e. 70.7 per cent, while public sector R&D spending totalled 566 million euros (9.9%). Source: Statistics Finland, Science and technology statistics.
NEW SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY COUNCIL APPOINTED
The Finnish Government has appointed the new Science and Technology Policy Council of Finland for its term corresponding to the parliamentary term. The Council is chaired by Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and vice-chairs are Minister of Education and Science Sari Sarkomaa and Minister of Trade and Industry Mauri Pekkarinen.
The council members are Minister of Finance Jyrki Katainen, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sirkka-Liisa Anttila, Minister of Labour Tarja Cronberg, Minister of Health and Social Services Paula Risikko, Minister of Culture and Sport Stefan Wallin, Development Manager Eija Hietanen (Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions, SAK), President and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo (Nokia Corporation), CEO and President Erkki Leppävuori (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland), Vice Rector Marja Makarow (University of Helsinki), President Markku Mattila (Academy of Finland), CEO Pekka Mattila (Finnzymes Oy), Director General Veli-Pekka Saarnivaara (Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation), Rector Marja-Liisa Tenhunen (Central Ostrobothnia Polytechnic), Professor Päivi Törmä (University of Jyväskylä) and Rector Keijo Virtanen (University of Turku).
The Science and Technology Policy Council of Finland advises the Government and ministries in important matters concerning science and research, technology and their application and evaluation.
FINLAND TO ADVANCE PROFESSIONAL RESEARCH CAREERS
The Finnish Ministry of Education has launched an action programme on the advancement of researcher training and professional careers in research for 2007–2011. The aim is to build a research career system that would give access to a professional career in research and enable researchers to advance in their careers. Closer cooperation between universities, research institutes and companies would mean more predictable and attractive postdoctoral careers.
The research career system would guarantee a high-quality and sufficient supply of researchers to fulfil the needs of the entire research and innovation system as well as society. The proposed four-stage research career would cover the time from doctoral student to postdoctoral researcher, to university researcher or Academy Research Fellow, and on to Professor.
Academy of Finland President Markku Mattila sees improving the quality of the research career and increasing its appeal as urgent tasks to be addressed during the next few years. During the past decade, Finland has stepped up R&D investment, placing the country at the very top in international comparison. Mattila says this is sign that the number of researchers has increased and researcher training has progressed. OECD figures show that the share of research personnel of the labour force in Finland is the highest of all OECD countries.
"The development of research careers is linked to providing research mobility opportunities between universities, companies and public administration, and it's also an essential element in increasing international mobility. At present, we're improving the graduate school system to better cater for the development of professional abilities and preparedness. Companies and public administration now have an extraordinary opportunity to accept the challenge of increasing researcher mobility and doctoral recruitment," Mattila emphasises.
INTERNATIONAL CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH COMMERCIALISED IN FINLAND THROUGH LOCAL EFFORTS
Universities carry a great deal of responsibility for developing Finland's knowledge-based economy. Although they have succeeded in this task remarkably well, the expectations for commercialising the research results remain unfulfilled in terms of quantitative results. The rate of setting up new research-based companies is approximately the same in Finland as elsewhere in the world, but their financial success has remained modest and is lagging behind that of others. These findings have been published in the Sitra report Tutkimustulosten kaupallinen hyödyntäminen (The Commercial Exploitation of Research Results). Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund, is one of the three public funding agencies for science and research in Finland, the other two being the Academy of Finland and Tekes.
For the first time in Finland the report compiles university-specific commercialisation figures and compares them with corresponding data from the US and the UK. "Looking at the figures, the consulting activities related to the commercialisation of research results at Finnish universities are of good international standard. This doesn't mean, however, that we should settle for what we now have, particularly as the financial figures – licensing income, net sales of established companies and the development of results – are modest," says Kari Kankaala, one of the authors of the report.
On average, Finnish universities produced 40 invention notifications per 100 million euros spent on research, whereas the corresponding figures in the UK and the US are 28 and 87, respectively. Accordingly, Finnish universities were awarded seven patents per 100 million euros spent on research, whereas the corresponding UK and US figures are 15 and 11, respectively. The licensing income of universities per 100 million euros spent on research was approximately 250,000 euros in Finland in 2005, the corresponding figures being 1.6 million euros (2004) in the UK and seven million euros in the US (2004). Finnish universities produced five spin-out companies per 100 million euros spent on research, when the corresponding figures in the UK and the US are six and one, respectively. For more information, please contact Director Anu Nokso-Koivisto at Sitra, firstname.lastname@sitra.fi.
FOREST CLUSTER LTD – THE FIRST STRATEGIC CENTRE FOR STI
The first Finnish status of Strategic Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation (CSTI) has been granted to Metsäklusteri Oy (Forest Cluster Ltd). The cluster company comprises enterprises, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, the Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) and four universities. The company will launch and allocate resources to research programmes carried out within the framework of the strategic centre by channelling private and public funding to them. The objective is to establish the centre as the internationally most substantial innovation environment in the forest industry.
The forest cluster is one of the Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation to be set up in Finland, in accordance with the policy definitions of the Science and Technology Policy Council of Finland. The other fields to host these CSTIs are energy and the environment, metal products and mechanical engineering, health and well-being, and the information and communication industry and services.
"Setting up these strategic centres is a new, important stage in developing the Finnish innovation environment to better meet the challenges posed by globalisation," says Erkki Virtanen, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The CSTIs represent a new way of piecing together scattered research resources to areas important to both enterprises and society. In a strategic centre, enterprises, universities and research institutes will agree on a joint research plan, which will fulfil the enterprises' application-orientated needs on a 5–10-year period. The public funding organisations involved have committed to long-term funding for the strategic centres.
Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, is responsible for the practical issues concerning the preparation of setting up Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation. The other responsible agency is the Academy of Finland. An executive group appointed by the Ministry of Trade and Industry issues the proposal to grant CSTI status, directs the operation of the centres and evaluates their impacts. The executive group's proposals are sent to be treated by the Science and Technology Policy Council of Finland, chaired by the Prime Minister. For more information, please contact Executive Director Jussi Kivikoski at Tekes, firstname.lastname@tekes.fi or Director Ritva Dammert at the Academy, firstname.lastname@aka.fi.
FINNISH SCIENCE PRIZE TO ACADEMY PROFESSOR ILKKA HANSKI
The Ministry of Education awarded the 2007 Finnish Science Prize to Academy Professor Ilkka Hanski. Academy Professor Hanski heads the Centre of Excellence in Metapopulation Research at the University of Helsinki. The centre is one of the Academy of Finland's national Centres of Excellence (CoE) in research for 2006–2011. The Finnish Science Award is awarded every other year in recognition of high-standard research of special significance and international relevance.
Hanski's research field is ecology and he is one of the world's leading scientists in the field; his research team conducts some of the world's most outstanding research on theoretical and experimental population biology. His is an enticing research and educational environment, which attracts researchers and doctoral students from all over the world.
Today, Hanski is an internationally acclaimed pioneer who has changed the way of thinking in his field. Hanski and his team have had a major impact, not only on metapopulation research, but also on the emergence of metapopulation biology as an important field in population biology. A metapopulation is a large population divided into several individual populations, the survival and growth of which depend on the extinction risk of the sub-populations and recolonisation. For more information on Hanski's CoE, go to www.helsinki.fi/science/metapop.
CITY OF HELSINKI SCIENCE PRIZE TO PROFESSOR ESKO UKKONEN
Professor of Computer Science Esko Ukkonen is this year's recipient of the City of Helsinki Science Prize, awarded each year for significant scientific work done in Helsinki. Ukkonen heads the research unit From Data to Knowledge, an Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence (CoE) in research for 2002–2007. The CoE develops computer methods for the processing of large and complex data materials. After this CoE's term comes to an end, Ukkonen will start running a new one, the Finnish Centre of Excellence (FCoE) in Algorithmic Data Analysis Research (2008–2013).
The research is focused on a number of subjects, including data mining and machine learning, computational methods in medical genetics, combinatorial pattern matching and information retrieval, and computational structural biology. The data processing and analysis methods to be developed can be used to extract desired information from large data sets and sequences, such as DNA, or from natural language and the Internet. The results may thus be applied in many different fields. Several Finnish universities are taking part in Ukkonen's research projects, and he also has partners from abroad, from Europe, the US and Israel, for instance. For more information on the CoE, go to www.cs.helsinki.fi/research/fdk.
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 260 million euros. Each year about 5,000 people benefit from Academy research funding. For more information, go to www.aka.fi or send a message to maj-lis.tanner@aka.fi.