Evaluation Report Publications of the Academy of Finland 1/11

Recommendations:
1.  Develop a long-term strategy for maintaining and further improving 
infrastructures.
2.  Consider measures for increased collaboration on the use of advanced 
instrumentation.
2.5  Relevance to society and to the field of chemistry
Overall, Finnish chemistry research is very relevant to the needs of society. The needs 
of industry and society, especially environmental concerns, have often guided the 
units’ choice of research area. The units produce candidates of relevance to industry 
and society at large in sufficient amounts and with the right competence. There are, 
however, some concerns regarding the age of the candidates graduating.
With Finland’s strong tradition as a pulp and paper nation, it is not surprising that 
wood-related chemistry, engineering and biotechnology are present at several of the 
evaluated units, and that a number of units do very good research of relevance to this 
important industry sector. However, for the panel, it is not obvious whether all “wood” 
units have as unique a profile as they are stating. The panel therefore strongly 
encourages collaborative efforts towards increased cooperation, visibility and efficiency.
Other activities relate instead to materials chemistry and to the pharmaceutical 
industry.
The panel is somewhat concerned about the funding situation for basic, long-term 
chemistry research. It is important that core competency in chemistry-related 
disciplines be maintained at a sufficiently high level and given room to focus on 
method development rather than on solving a specific problem using existing 
methodology. Generic methodologies are often applicable in a number of different 
areas and for different industrial problems, but require long-term and stable funding 
and expert knowledge in specialised fields. The panel is particularly concerned about 
the fields of physical chemistry and analytical chemistry, including electrochemistry, 
where the majority of the activity seems to be directed towards the application of 
methods rather than the development of new methodology.