At the Research Council of Finland, accountability encompasses environmental, human and economic considerations both in our research funding and in our role as a government agency. Our next accountability report focuses on the measures taken in 2023 to promote the 2030 Agenda, draws on some indicators describing progress and also reports on the measures taken by the Administration Office to promote sustainable development.

The Research Council of Finland appointed a working group on accountability reporting and sustainable development on 24 January 2023. The working group is tasked to draw up an annual accountability report and to be responsible for accountability communications and implementing and monitoring the objectives set out in the Society’s Commitment to Sustainable Development. In addition, the group actively monitors the operations of the central government’s responsibility network and participates in the activities of the National Commission on Sustainable Development. The appointment of the working group is part of implementing the third Society’s Commitment, prepared by the Research Council of Finland in 2022.

Observations on the terminology of accountability communications

One of the first tasks of the working group was to prepare the second accountability report of the Research Council of Finland in spring 2023 (in Finnish). The preparation of the report was preceded by discussions on the terminology that would be used and the hierarchy between terms. As stated in a recent report by Sitra (The Future of Accountability, in Finnish), public organisations have typically not reported on their corporate social responsibility in the same way as companies. Their tasks are often statutory, so their operations have been thought to be fundamentally responsible. There are also many interpretations of accountability, responsibility, sustainability and societal impact, so concepts can also be interlinked in different ways. However, ‘responsibility’ seems to have become an umbrella term in societal discourse, and other perspectives can be structured and examined through it. Consequently, communications on responsibility and related terminology were also updated on the Research Council of Finland’s website. At the Council, responsible science is perceived as an umbrella term that encompasses sustainable development, equality and non-discrimination, open science, research ethics and responsible researcher evaluation.

Selected goals of the 2030 Agenda

The Research Council of Finland promotes the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a wide-ranging and long-term focus. The 2022 accountability report (in Finnish) focused particularly on measures related to research funding and the Council’s handprint. The Council has selected four of the seventeen SDGs of Agenda 2030 as its special reporting targets. The goals are further divided into several targets: the most important ones for the Council have been noted in connection with each goal.

SDG 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

SDG 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

SDG 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

Measuring sustainable development

The working group on accountability reporting and sustainable development has thoroughly discussed what kinds of indicators are suitable for describing the promotion of SDGs (handprint) and how to describe the negative impacts caused by our operations (footprint). The handprint is focused on research funding activities, and the footprint is focused on the activities of the Administration Office. For the Research Council of Finland, the handprint particularly refers to our activities as a societal service provider; the most visible impacts are the direct and indirect benefits that our funding activities produce in society. At the moment, the handprint can be measured with indicators describing the Council’s funding activities and their impact.

Indicators related to SDGs 4 and 5 include the annual person-years performed with funding from the Council, the number of open publications in projects funded by the Council, and the gender distribution of applicants, funded researchers and expert panels. However, identifying indicators for SDGs 9 and 13 is more challenging. Current indicators include the amount of realised funding for these goals, but in the future, it will also be important to consider the Council’s objectives in relation to the indicators that are being used.

The volume and scientific impact of published research related to SDGs are monitored at the Research Council of Finland

Publications related to research funded by the Research Council of Finland demonstrate our handprint in a visible and permanent way. We are currently developing an indicator to examine the volume and scientific impact of publication activities related to the UN SDGs in research funded in Finland and research we have funded. According to a report published in early 2024, 47% of all publications with Research Council of Finland funding addressed SDG themes in 2018–2021. In addition, the scientific impact of publications related to SDG themes is high: their top 10 index is 1.49 (world average 1.0). The most common SDG theme in publications was health and wellbeing. Read more about this topic: Sustainable development themes strongly featured in Finnish scientific publications.

What’s next?

Our next accountability report focuses on the measures taken in 2023 to promote the 2030 Agenda, draws on some indicators describing progress and also reports on the measures taken by the Administration Office to promote sustainable development. One of the objectives of the Society’s Commitment of the Council is to raise applicants’ awareness of the SDGs. For this reason, we strive, among other things, to gather information from the winter call 2024 and from funded projects on researchers’ entries related to the 2030 Agenda SDGs.