Research Council of Finland adopts new policy for international cooperation

The Research Council of Finland has a new policy for the promotion of international research cooperation. The policy is grounded in the Research Council’s new strategy, which emphasises the importance of international engagement in raising the quality of research and facilitating scientific innovations.

The Board of the Research Council of Finland adopted the policy on 8 November 2023. The policy reaches until the year 2030.

The policy defines five impact objectives for the Research Council’s international activities:

• International research cooperation supports scientific renewal, promotes scientific breakthroughs and contributes to the resolution of global challenges.
• Finnish scientific research enjoys greater global visibility. Researchers based in Finland are active members of the international scientific community and desired collaborators.
• Researchers, research groups and competence centres based in Finland have much improved success rates in European Union RDI funding calls.
• Finland attracts increasing numbers of high-level experts from abroad.
• The Finnish scientific community aligns itself more closely with the international community in its defence of scientific autonomy, responsible research, democracy and human rights.

The policy also outlines seven sets of measures to meet these impact objectives.

The policy was drawn up in reference to the Vision for strengthening the international dimension of Finnish higher education and research by 2035 prepared within the administrative branch of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture; the act on R&D funding that entered into force on 1 January 2023; and the Final Report of the Parliamentary Working Group on Research, Development and Innovation (1 March 2023).

The preparation of the policy has also taken into account new factors affecting international cooperation and mobility, the most important of which is the changing geopolitical situation.

The implementation of the international policy will be supported by an action programme to be completed in 2024.