Academy of Finland’s Research Council for Culture and Society funded promising early-career researchers

The Academy of Finland’s Research Council for Culture and Society has granted funding for 33 new posts as Postdoctoral Researcher. The Research Council considers it important to fund scientifically talented and independent early-career researchers from the Council's various research fields. While making its funding decisions the Council emphasised the importance of the high scientific quality of the application and the qualifications of the applicant. Furthermore, the Council stressed the importance of academic and societal impact, scientific renewal and international mobility, especially during the research project.

The total funding granted for Postdoctoral Researchers amounted to around eight million euros. The funding period is three years. The success rate was 13 per cent. Around 64 per cent of the funded Postdoctoral Researchers are women. 59 per cent of the applicants were women.

“Once again the Research Council for Culture and Society received a vast number of applications for Postdoctoral Researcher funding which received excellent reviews. However, it was possible to fund only some of them. Funding for Postdoctoral Researchers is especially important in arts and social sciences, where research is still mostly done alone. A young researcher can already in this stage of their career tire of the independent research perspective. This year, the applications were reviewed in panels that had a wider scope and more multidisciplinary panelists than before. The Council considers the feedback it has received in the development of the funding decision process,” says Sami Pihlström, the chair of the Research Council for Culture and Society.

As per the Academy of Finland’s general funding policy, Postdoctoral Researchers are required to be closely connected to the Finnish scientific community so that the funding benefits Finnish research and society. The funding is intended for the Postdoctoral Researcher’s salary, personal research costs as well as international and national mobility.

Examples of funded Postdoctoral Researchers

Satu Koivisto from the University of Turku studies the history of a prehistoric lake settlement (Järvensuoat Humppila c. 3500–500BCE) in a changing wetland environmentin her multidisciplinary postdoctoral researcher project. The anoxic, waterlogged sediments offer exceptionally good conditions for the preservation of organic matter. Wetlands are becoming endangered due to increasing land use and climate change. The study produces fundamental research material on the site’s research potential and degree of preservation before it is too late.

Mikko Rajavuori from the University of Eastern Finland examines the green entrepreneur state as a new form of climate control. The way in which state-owned companies, state funds and development banks implement climate policies is challenging the traditional ideas of the state’s position in the international climate control system. The study will focus on the justice of the green entrepreneur state, that is, the legal systems which structurise, shape and legitimise the state’s market interventions.

Helena Hinke Dobrochinski Candido from the University of Helsinki produces comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of education export with her research. Finland’s success in PISA reviews has created a new kind of opportunity for education export. Different actors export so-called education products from Finland into countries willing to learn from the “Finnish model”. The effects export has on the destination country has not been researched comprehensively. In this multidisciplinary project, the social sphere, discursive formations and effects of education export are analysed from the perspective of the importer of Finnish education. The project also examines whether the destination countries’ expectations are met and the expected innovations materialised, whether Finnish education export has been socially responsible towards the destination countries, and whether it has made a long-lasting impact.

Mikko Immanen from the University of Jyväskylä combines philosophy and history of ideas in his research project that studies the ideas of Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969), one of the founders of the Frankfurt School and most significant leftists of the 20th century. Adorno saw that the social structures which gave rise to fascism did not disappear after World War II. The rise of right-wing populism in the USA and in Europe after the financial crisis of 2008 has many commentators emphasising the topicality of Adorno’s bleak scenario. However, Immanen argues that Adorno’s pessimism was due to beig too favourable to conservative cultural critics such as Oswald Spengler.