SRC selects new programme directors for strategic research programmes

The Strategic Research Council (SRC) selected new programme directors on 21 June 2022. Professor Juha Helenius (University of Helsinki) was selected as the programme director of the FOOD programme (Towards a Sustainable, Healthy and Climate-Neutral Food System) and Team Leader Mika Nieminen (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd) as the programme director of the STEER programme (The Changing Role of Public Authority and the Potential for Steering Society). The funding period of the new programme directors will have the same duration as the second funding period of the FOOD and STEER programmes, from 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2025.

The selections were made focusing on the candidates’ multidisciplinary competence in the topics of the programme, their management and coordination experience in multidisciplinary networks and their suitability for the task.

The SRC also decided on 13 June to grant a second funding period to programme directors Asta Salmi (Innovative Materials and Services to Promote Resource Wisdom and Sustainable Development, IMPRES) and Minna Lammi (Culture in an Increasingly Technologically Driven Society, CULT), for the period 1 September 2022–31 August 2025. Asta Salmi is Professor of Sustainable Business at the University of Oulu, and Minna Lammi is Associate Professor in Sustainable Enterprise at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.

An SRC programme director works in close cooperation with the programme’s projects to build a coherent programme package and promote cooperation between SRC-funded programmes. SRC programme directors also develop and implement cross-programme activities. They work together with other programme directors and the Division of Strategic Research within the Academy of Finland to strengthen the societal impact of strategic research. The programme director position is a part-time position, and the programme directors are employed by their host institutions.