Academy of Finland Newsletter, May 2010
The Academy of Finland newsletter will keep you updated on high-quality scientific 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 supports Europe 2020 Strategy
Finland participates in developing the European Grid Infrastructure
Nine million euros to photonics research from the Academy of Finland
Inverse Problems Initiative: Trilateral call between Finland, Germany and China
Ministry of Education is now Ministry of Education and Culture
Ilkka Hanski elected foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences
Markku Kulmala third most cited scientist in his field
Academy of Finland at a glance
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Finland supports Europe 2020 Strategy
Finland is generally satisfied with the European Commission’s Communication on the Europe 2020 Strategy. The Finnish Government supports the Commission’s view of a strong strategy. Global challenges (economic crises, globalisation, climate change, ageing) put Europe in a position that calls for a number of structural changes. In this situation, we need political commitment by Member States and concrete actions. The Finnish Government also notes that the issues that are important to Finland, such as a stronger, deeper and extended single market, heavy innovation investments and the external dimension, all receive a great deal of attention in the Communication. Finland also welcomes the Commission’s acknowledgement of the significance of education.
The Academy of Finland is particularly pleased that the Education and Culture Committee of the Finnish Parliament supports the priority themes for strategic research proposed by the Commission. The Committee finds it important to strengthen the whole innovation chain from basic research to commercialisation. The Committee further highlights the need for high-standard basic research that generates new knowledge. Free scientific basic research provides a cornerstone for striving to achieve unexpected results and major breakthroughs, which in turn will create a solid base for growth, competitiveness and employment. The future of Europe cannot be built on existing knowledge and technology. The world faces great challenges in terms of public health, social well-being and environmental health that all call for long-term research.
The Committee notes that too short-term expectations will erode the attractiveness of Europe from the perspective of both researchers and business companies in need of top-level knowledge and know-how. The EU should invest more in extensive phenomenon-based research programmes. The process from innovative basic research to practical applications takes years, and it is therefore important to develop procedures for funding high-standard innovative breakthrough research at the interface of scientific fields. It is also important to be able to identify centres of excellence in research at EU level. This is closely linked to the creation of predictable career paths in research. Europe needs high-quality universities and research institutes that attract top researchers and are attractive partners to business companies.
Finland participates in developing the European Grid Infrastructure
Finland has joined the European Grid Initiative (EGI.eu) through the CSC–IT Center for Science. The objective of EGI.eu is to develop and maintain a more reliable and service-based pan-European Grid Infrastructure for distributed computing. The infrastructure will contribute to boosting scientific and industrial research by combining different computing resources, data resources and measurement devices that can be used as joint resources in a flexible, coordinated and integrated way.
Grid technology will enable the use of geographically distributed, extensive computing and software resources. The datasets and resources connected to the grid are an increasingly important part of modern scientific work. According to the CSC, EGI.eu is a major step towards a permanent and jointly coordinated pan-European e-infrastructure. E-infrastructure refers to a research environment where researchers have common access to scientific resources such as data, instruments, computation efficiency and data networks.
The multi-year and multiphase EGEE project (Enabling Grids for E-SciencE), which represented the European grid community, came to an end in late April. CSC underlines the need for a more stable and permanent pan-European Grid Infrastructure now that the EGEE project has ended. The new EGI.eu is a response to this challenge. The aim of the organisation that combines national grid projects is to secure a high-quality e-infrastructure for European researchers by administrating and operating the pan-European Grid Infrastructure in cooperation with national grid actors.
According to the CSC, the next important step in Finland is to expand the national grid infrastructure as to support all scientific fields and to secure its operations for years to come.
Nine million euros from the Academy of Finland to photonics research
The Academy of Finland has selected the projects to be funded within the Research Programme on Photonics and Modern Imaging Techniques. Funding is granted to eleven research consortia and two individual projects. In addition, international joint projects are funded with Japanese, Brazilian, Chinese and Russian research funding agencies. The Academy funds the research programme with a total of nine million euros.
The research programme will strengthen the joint call arranged by the Academy, Tekes and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) in the field of photonics, optoelectronics, solar cells and batteries in materials research. Under this call, the Academy will fund four projects and Tekes one project, with a total of nearly two million euros. The Japanese partners within the projects receive their funding from the JST.
The projects to be funded under the Photonics research programme will focus on topics such as new imaging techniques to be used in micro-metrological and biomedical applications, and different photoactive materials for developing cost-effective solar energy applications. A new optic measuring method for dynamic characterisation of micro- and nanocompoments will also be developed within the programme.
Inverse Problems Initiative: Trilateral call between Finland, Germany and China
The Academy of Finland, the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) have launched a joint call for proposals, the aim of which is to promote Finnish-German-Chinese research collaboration in the field of inverse problems. The objective of the Inverse Problems Initiative is also to promote cutting-edge research projects and long-term systematic research collaboration, and to establish and strengthen research collaboration networks between Finland, Germany and China.
The relevant research areas of the Inverse Problems Initiative include the mathematical, statistical and physical aspects of research into inverse and ill-posed problems. Funding is available for bilateral and trilateral research projects comprising researchers or research teams from at least two of the participating countries. The proposal shall include a joint research plan drafted jointly by the Finnish research team and the German/Chinese research team. The partners shall apply for funding for their own projects from their respective national funding agencies. The joint projects will be funded for a maximum of three years.
Ministry of Education is now Ministry of Education and Culture
The name of the Finnish Ministry of Education has changed to the Ministry of Education and Culture. The Department for Education and Science Policy and the Department for Cultural, Sport and Youth Policy together with their mandate will remain unchanged. The Academy of Finland operates within the administrative sector of the Ministry.
Ilkka Hanski elected foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences
Academy Professor Ilkka Hanski has been elected as foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences. The National Academy elected in all 72 new members and 18 foreign associates. Academy Professor Hanski works at the University of Helsinki where he heads the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Metapopulation Research, which is selected by the Academy of Finland. He is recognised for his internationally pioneering studies in metapopulation and evolution biology. His research topics also include the biodiversity of Nordic forests and its conservation. His research team is concerned to investigate the biology of species living in fragmented habitats and works to promote research in metapopulation biology applicable to nature protection.
In 2005, Academy Professor Hanski was elected as foreign member of the UK Royal Society.
Academy Professors work in Finland and are appointed and funded by the Academy of Finland.
Markku Kulmala ranked third most cited scientist in his field
The Thomson ISI Web of Knowledge Essential Science Indicators has ranked Dr Markku Kulmala, Professor in Aerosol Physics at Helsinki University Department of Physics, as the third most cited scientist in the world in the field of geosciences. Thomson ISI classifies its citation database into 22 main fields of science for which it maintains a world rankings list. The list includes citations to articles published during the last ten years.
Professor Kulmala is the first Finnish scientist who in recent years has been ranked among the three most cited scientists on the highest-level world lists, and the first-ever Finnish scientist on the world list in geosciences. Kulmala’s citations have resulted from 237 studies that have received a total of 5,023 citations. In addition to geosciences, Professor Kulmala also has a great number of excellent articles in the fields of chemistry, physics and environmental research.
Professor Kulmala is one of the leading aerosol scientists in the world. He has published articles on atmospheric aerosols, clouds and biosphere-atmosphere interactions. His most recent co-authored article, entitled ‘The Role of Sulfuric Acid in Atmospheric Nucleation’, was published in Science in March 2010. Kulmala holds the King Carl XVI Gustaf Visiting Professorship in Environmental Science in Stockholm, Sweden. He recently started as chair of the international global change research project iLEAPS.
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. The Academy makes decisions on research funding worth 314 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.