Academy of Finland Newsletter, May 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 Annual Report 2007 out now
Academy to launch cooperation with Brazilian CNPq
Academy’s Future Electronics Research Programme yielded outstanding scientific results
ERA-NEURON proceeding at a brisk pace
Katariina Salmela-Aro to head international human research organisation
Markku Laakso to receive Kelly West Prize
Scroll down for more on these stories
ACADEMY OF FINLAND ANNUAL REPORT 2007 OUT NOW
The Academy of Finland’s Annual Report describes the Academy’s operations and tells about Finnish science in 2007. As the prime funding agency for scientific research in Finland, the Academy allocated a total of 264 million euros to promote high-quality Finnish research in 2007. 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 terms of research policy, 2007 saw an exceptionally large number of significant development projects in Finland. In the areas of innovation strategy, sectoral research, Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation, as well as in national and international infrastructure policy, the Academy continued to emphasise the key importance of maintaining the highest possible standards of scientific research.
President of the Academy of Finland, Professor Markku Mattila writes in the Annual Report that in 2007 there were signs that the importance of science and research to our future welfare and well-being is more and more widely recognised. It is understood that answers are urgently needed to the tough questions and challenges faced by humankind: the state of the environment, climate change,
clean water, energy production and globalisation. None of these questions can be properly answered without the knowledge, know-how and understanding that come with scientific research. At the same time, research is used to an increasingly extent to inform decision-making in business and industry and other sectors of society as well. The growing importance of science and research further underscores the Academy’s key role in the Finnish research system. Increasing effort must be devoted to promoting, facilitating and funding high-level research and international scientific cooperation.
The Annual Report is available on the Academy’s website at www.aka.fi/publications and it can also be ordered at viestinta@aka.fi.
ACADEMY TO LAUNCH COOPERATION WITH BRAZILIAN CNPq
The Academy of Finland has signed an agreement on scientific cooperation with the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) of the Federative Republic of Brazil. Preparations for the agreement have been underway for a couple of years. At first, cooperation will focus on four different fields: energy research, forest research, plant breeding and micro- and optoelectronics.
Cooperation will in practice be initiated in July when a ten-member group consisting of Finnish top researchers from different fields will travel to Brazil to participate in workshops to agree on joint themes for cooperation. The cooperation agreement provides both countries an opportunity to acquire new scientific knowledge and know-how. In addition, Finnish research can also be applied to a new environment. Brazil is one of the priority countries of the Academy of Finland.
ACADEMY’S FUTURE ELECTRONICS RESEARCH PROGRAMME YIELDED OUTSTANDING SCIENTIFIC RESULTS
The scientific results obtained within the Academy of Finland Research Programme for Future Electronics (TULE) are outstanding. This is the view of an international evaluation panel, whose report Research Programme for Future Electronics Evaluation Report 2003–2006 has now been published. The panel was impressed by the TULE programme; a number of the programme’s projects produced patent applications and led to the start-up of companies. Collaboration between different consortia was also very active and generated significant added value.
The TULE programme was carried out in 2003–2006 with the objective to promote long-term and high-level basic research and to support research and development activities in the Finnish electronics field. Another objective was to strengthen scientific knowledge and know-how and reinforce research environments in sub-fields of key importance to the Finnish electronics industry. The programme consisted of 18 research projects that were granted funding worth around 7.5 million euros. Nationally, programme cooperation was active with Tekes’ Miniaturising Electronics Technology Programme (ELMO, 2002–2005). International cooperation focused on the ERA-NET MATERA, a European network project for organisations funding the field of material science and technology.
The evaluation report (Academy Publications 2/08) is available in pdf format on the Academy’s website at www.aka.fi/publications > Publications series. The report can also be ordered at viestinta@aka.fi.
ERA-NEURON PROCEEDING AT A BRISK PACE
The Network of European Funding for Neuroscience Research, ERA-NEURON, is having a very active year. The first joint project call has now been closed and a new call is being planned for the next year. The Academy of Finland has been involved in the first call by funding Finnish projects. “From the very start, NEURON has been a clearly defined, practical and exceptionally well prepared ERA-NET project. The fact that NEURON in less than one year was able to launch its first joint call for research projects was an impressive feat indeed,” says Programme Manager Mika Tirronen from the Academy of Finland. “NEURON runs until 2010, and I believe it has a very rosy future ahead,” he adds.
The theme of the first call that closed in April was neurodenegerative diseases that torment the whole ageing Europe. Funding decisions will be made in late 2008. “Some sixty European research teams submitted their applications and also Finnish researchers were actively involved,” Tirronen explains. In the ERA-NET call processes, the most successful are research teams with a common history behind them. “Finnish neuroscientists, for instance, had a little less than two months to react to the first call. To gather up a European research team within such a tight schedule isn’t possible without existing research collaboration or otherwise close contacts among researchers.”
The thematic focus of the first call was on the pathogenesis and aetiology as well as diagnosis, therapy and rehabilitation procedures of neurodegerative diseases of the central nervous system. “I think the theme of the call was very well defined,” Tirronen says.
KATARIINA SALMELA-ARO TO HEAD INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESEARCH ORGANISATION
Professor Katariina Salmela-Aro, a member of the Academy of Finland Research Council for Culture and Society, has been selected Secretary General of the International Society for Behavioral Development for a five-year term as from July 2008. Salmela-Aro is Professor of Psychology at the University of Jyväskylä and also a member of the Academy of Finland’s Centre of Excellence on Learning and Motivation.
ACADEMY PROFESSOR MARKKU LAAKSO TO RECEIVE KELLY WEST AWARD
Academy Professor Markku Laakso has been awarded the esteemed Kelly West Award. Laakso will receive the Award at the American Diabetes Association meeting to be held in San Francisco in June. The annual Kelly West Award is given to an outstanding diabetes epidemiologist. Laakso has distinguished himself particularly in studies on the genetics and cardiovascular diseases of type 2 diabetes. In the US, most attention of Laakso’s studies has received the study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. This study showed that type 2 diabetic patients with no coronary heart diseases have as high a risk of dying of coronary diseases as patients without type 2 diabetes with prior myocardial infarctions. On the basis of this study, it was recommended that patients with type 2 diabetes be treated as aggressively for cardiovascular risk factors as patients who have had myocardial infarctions. Based on the findings of the study, it was decided in the US to revise lipid recommendations, for instance.
The Academy of Finland has two types of research posts: Academy Professors and Academy Research Fellows. Academy research post holders work at universities and research institutes and in other organisations.
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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 276 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