Internationalisation of Finnish Public Research Organisations

Dr. Antti Pelkonen Senior Scientist , VTT Technical Research Centre of Finlandantti.pelkonen@vtt.fi

China-OECD Roundtable on Innovation PoliciesBeijing, 18 October 2011

Based on Loikkanen, T., Hyytinen, K., Konttinen, J. & Pelkonen, A.: Internationalisation of Finnish Public Research Organisations – Current State and Future Perspectives. Advisory Board for Sectoral Research 3/2010. http://www.minedu.fi/OPM/Tiede/setu/liitteet/SETU_3-2010.pdf

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Content

● Finnish economy and innovation system in a nutshell

● Public research organisations (PROs) in Finland

● Internationalisation of Finnish PROs● Conclusions

● Finnish economy and innovation system in a nutshell

● Public research organisations (PROs) in Finland

● Internationalisation of Finnish PROs● Conclusions

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The Finnish economy and innovation system in a nutshell

Finland is a small, export-driven open economy in the Northern Europe

Forest and metal industries the traditional key economic sectors Strong rise of the ICT sector driven by Nokia in the 1990s In the 2000s all key economic sectors facing important challenges: growing need for

systemic changes in the economy

Finnish national innovation system

4.0 % of GDP used in R&D, second highest in the OECD countries after Sweden (in 2009)

Internationalisation is an important challenge for the whole innovation system

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Public research organisations in Finland – Missions and tasks

19 PROs operating in 8 administrative sectors PROs are very diverse in their size, focus, and activities

Core missions To produce and transfer knowledge to support decision-makingTo carry out strategic research to sustain the high quality of their

applied research servicesSector and organisation specific functions defined in acts of PROs

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Finnish PROs – Funding and organisation

Funding from several sources: directly from budget, income from services, competition-based research funding Share of direct budget funding decreased PROs acquire increasingly competition-based research funding (45

% of all R&D funding in PROs; nearly 70 % in the most market-oriented PROs)

This has challenged them to develop service culture and customer driven activities

PROs organised according to sectoral and administrative structures but research needs are increasingly horizontal, crossing sectoral borders

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Public Research Organisations in Finland

Parliament

Council of State

The Ministry of Labour and the Economy (TEM)

Ministry of Finance (VM)

Ministry of Transport and Communications Finland (LVM)

Ministry of the Environment (YM)

Ministry of Agriculture and Forest (MMM)

Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (STM)

Ministry of Education (OPM)

Ministry of Justice (OM)

•Geolocigal Survey of Finland (GTK),

•National Consumer Research Centre (NCRC),

•Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT),

•Centre for Metrology and Aggreditation (Mikes)

Government Institute for Economic Research (VATT)

Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE)

•Agrifood Research Finland (MTT),

•Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla),

•Finnish Food Safety Authority (Evira),

•Finnish Game andFisheries Research (RKTL),

•Finnish Geodetic Institute(GL)

Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI)

•National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL),

•Finnish Institute for Occupational Health (TTL),

•Radiation and NuclearSafety Authority (STUK) •The Research Institute

for the Languages of Finland (Kotus),

•National Board ofAntiquities (MV)

The National Research Institute of Legal Policy (OPTULA)

Universities

Polytechnics

The Finnish Institute of International Affairs(FIIA)

Research and Innovation Council(RIC)

Advisory Board for Sectoral Research

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Internationalisation of PROs – Driving forces and rationales

Important socio-economic challenges (climate change, necessity of ne.w energy sources etc.) are considered as the most important driver

Internationalisation of research and innovation itself: open innovation, global networks and acquisition of R&D services from global markets

Public funding to PROs is expected to decrease

Scientific rationale of internationalisation: advance of science is based on international collaboration.

Carrying out the official tasks of PROs also requires growing international collaboration.

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Current state of internationalisation in Finnish PROs

Internationalisation considered as an important strategic aspect in most PROs, yet the importance varies across PROs. Internationalisation is less relevant for those whose activity area is very domestic.

Overall level of internationalisation still relatively modest, e.g.: The volume of international funding is still rather low, on average

around 7 per cent (15 % at highest). In the 2000s the volume has increased in most PROs, mainly from EU-sources (EU FPs).

Expert mobility: in most Finnish PROs the proportion of foreign staff is between 1 and 4 per cent of the whole staff (in some over 20 %).

In many PROs the challenge now is to mainstream internationalisation; thus far it has been limited to small part of the institutions and their staff.

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International research collaboration of Finnish PROs

Finnish PROs have close links to global scientific and expert communities

Extensive collaboration in scientific publishing, in particular with US, Sweden, UK and Germany

Almost all PROs have long-term research cooperation with the Nordic countries and Russia, and with countries with large research systems (e.g. Germany, France, UK)

Half of them have established collaboration in the USA Countries with the biggest potential for growing future collaboration

are India, Japan, China, Australia and some European countries (e.g. Portugal)

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Geographical orientation of Finnish PROs´ in scientific publishing

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Main research partners of Finnish PROs in the world atlas

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How to promote internationalisation?

Promoting outward mobility of own staff is considered as the most important method to support internationalisation: financial support, language and culture training, incentives in terms of employment, communication.

Framework contracts with foreign institutes also important. Recruiting international top-level professionals: challenging but may

be very influential. However, requires an attractive and high-quality research

community, good physical environment (laboratory), well-know international reputation of the PRO, flexibility in terms of practical working conditions and good personal connections and networks.

The most effective method for promoting internationalisation is to maintain a high-quality research environment

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Conclusions

PROs are primarily national actors, but operating increasingly internationally. Internationalisation challenges the legitimacy of national funding and policy.

Need for evidence of national benefits of PROs’ international activities

Information about internationalisation should be gathered and disseminated more systematically and extensively to support monitoring, target setting and policy-making.

In the context of increasing internationalisation, the (Finnish) PROs need... ...a common proactive strategy which allows them … ...to form strong, multidisciplinary critical masses in order to be... ... competitive in the `internal´ European applied research markets and … ... capable to search for science-based solutions to grand socio-economic

challenges in global markets of applied research.

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