Evaluation Report Publications of the Academy of Finland 1/11

2.9  Recommendations to the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture
With the increased interest in research directions such as nanotechnology and 
biotechnology, as well as the continued importance of the wood and pulp industry 
and the materials and pharmaceutical chemistry, chemistry is a strategically important 
research discipline for any university, and for Finland as a whole. Research-based 
training is also important to a modern, technology-driven society, and one of the 
most important assets of basic research at universities is the students they educate and 
train in curiosity-driven research. The ability to question new observations based on a 
solid understanding of basic chemistry and physics is essential in order to further 
society in terms of solving societal problems and creating new industry.
It is important that universities are given sufficient funding to be able to maintain 
their competence through infrastructures of high international standards and to allow 
them to maintain their current staff levels. The competitive nature of the Finnish 
funding system may potentially lead to missed opportunities, which is why the 
Ministry of Education, Science and Culture should consider increasing the budget of 
the chemistry departments. This would allow all education to be research-based by 
providing faculty members a right and obligation to do research, as well as a 
minimum funding for daily consumables necessary in an experiment-oriented activity 
such as chemistry. Such an increased level of funding should not come at the expense 
of the competitive external funding and should not lead to staff increases.
The need to support local chemistry research has dispersed chemistry research 
across many Finnish universities. This is a challenge for a field of research that 
requires good and expensive infrastructures and a minimum size in order to produce 
research at an international level. Not considering chemistry-related units outside this 
evaluation, the panel in particular finds that the chemistry units at the University of 
Eastern Finland, the University of Oulu and Tampere University of Technology are 
of subcritical size. These universities, in a dialogue with the Ministry, should consider 
the local needs for chemistry research and education, and take measures to ensure that 
the important core activities are maintained at a viable level, possibly at the expense of 
a broad chemistry profile.
For these universities, as well as for selected units at some of the other Finnish 
universities, it should be considered whether a merger of small subcritical units into 
larger and sustainable units should be encouraged. It is, however, important that clear 
research strategies and focus areas be developed for these research units to avoid a 
merger in name only. The merger should lead to research that is competitive at an 
international level by having the necessary broadness in expertise relevant for the 
strategic focus of the units.

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3  Evaluation of the major   
  chemical subdisciplines  
  in Finland