1 © ACADEMY OF FINLAND Synchronized Calls Concept and Funding Stakeholders’ perspectives Marja...

1 © ACADEMY OF FINLAND

Synchronized CallsConcept and Funding

Stakeholders’ perspectives

Marja Makarow Vice-President

Brussels 15 January, 2014


Public research funding in Finland


Government research budget 2013 = 2 B€Total R&D investment 3,6% of GDP, public 1% of GDP

Source: Statistics Finland 2013


Academy of FinlandThe research councils of Finland – fundamental research

• Tasks:• Funding of scientific and artistic research, researcher training, research infrastructure • Enhancement of international scientific cooperation• Provision of expertise in science policy

• Four research councils covering all disciplines • Culture and society• Natural sciences and engineering• Biosciences and environment• Health

• Annually, ~5,000 researchers benefit from Academy funding

• Admin staff of ~130 and decreasing


Funding instruments


International peer review

• Open competition, fixed-term funding

• >3,700 applications/year, for > €1.5 billion• Success rate for key instruments < 22%; for CoEs 11%

• Decisions based on• Science policy lines adopted by the Academy Board• Concretized in “Criteria for research funding decisions” document• Transparent decision-making process, equal treatment of applicants• Independent peer review (excellence), 1000 international scientists/year


International evaluation of the Academy of Finland Published September 2013Selected points, relevant for today’s theme

Assessment, in-house

• High quality peer review and decision-making processes

• Extremely cost-efficient (admin costs 2.8%)

• Staff highly competent and trusted amongst scientific community

Recommendations

• Definition of ‘high risk’/groundbreaking` research, motivation for funding it, modalities for how to fund it

• Clarification of motivation for research programmes, criteria and procedures for selection of the themes (evaluation criteria beyond excellence for added-value of a programme, impact & outcomes)

• Extension of portfolio to strategic research funding outside responsive mode


Novel challenge and opportunity:Governance and funding of research on societal Grand Challenges

• Strategic Research Council to be founded and based at the Academy of Finland

• Broad brush themes (societal GCs) to be proposed by the Council and ratified by Government – horizon scanning & foresighting

• Themes to be broken down to long-term research programmes by the Council

• Consortia from universities and research institutes to self-assemble and apply for funding - cultural change for fundamental researchers (Horizon 2020)

• Peer review using excellence plus relevance as criteria

• Research findings to be fed to end-users and political decision-makers – assessment of outcomes and impact

• Funding 70 M€/ year, 22% increase in Academy of Finland’s budget as of 2015


Academy of Finland supports the initiative Synchronized Call

• In order to estimate the value of an independent organisation providing peer review services according to the highest quality

• Academy of Finland has experience in international joint peer review since 2004• Bi- and tri-lateral joint peer review

• SE, DFG, NSFChina,CONICYT Chile, NSF, CNPq Brasilia, RAS/RFBR • Multi-lateral: Nordforsk (5), Water JPI (10)• >30 ERANets, article 185 actions, JPIs

• Main challenges mostly practical: different dead-lines, admin practices, times-to-decision

• Work load higher than for national call due to negotiations and discussions to overcome cultural differences


Academy of Finland supports the initiative Synchronized Call pilot

• Why such a service provider?• To harmonize best practices in Europe – many countries shifting from

RPOs/state academies to RFOs (research councils) • To facilitate direct cross-border collaboration - mutual trust on common

understanding of quality evaluation• To relieve HR pressure – public admin staff being reduced while numbers of

applications grow • Discussion platform for funding criteria: high risk research, programmes,

societal relevance, infrastructure, outcomes & impact

• Other potentially interested “clients” beyond RFOs and RPOs: private foundations• Council of Finnish Foundations – 153 members – 210 M€/year for research

• Strong need for high quality peer review services


Academy funding 1997–20122013: 336 2014: 310 2015: 357

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