"A small country like Finland can’t be good at everything - we have to make choices," said Martti af Heurlin, the deputy director general of Tekes, which is the main public funding organisation for industrial research and development and innovation projects in Finland.
"One basic idea with these centres is to bring together different kind of resources – knowledge, R&D companies, universities and research institutes and try to combine small country’s scarce resources in a new way," added Raimo Väyrynen, the president of the Academy of Finland, which funds basic research.
This 'new way' means establishing these excellence centres as non-profit limited companies into which the various actors commit themselves on a long term. "In a company there's more commitment from the actors than in a loose consortia," said Väyrynen, adding that the new companies will not be any huge enterprises but rather small facilitating companies with around 6 people-staff co-ordinating the co-operation of the actors. Tekes and the Academy of Finland share the responsibility in initially bringing the actors together.
Asked whether the industry-academia gap exists in Finland, the heads of the two organisations did not even understand the question. "Whenever we have a project programme with companies, especially with bigger companies, universities are always involved as programme partners or co-operating universities. Also the SMEs in Finland co-operate more actively with universities than in other countries," reacted af Heurlin.
"Three years ago, Finland's law on universities was changed and university-society relations, including university-industry relations, were enshrined in law as the third task of universities, along with teaching and research. Therefore, universities have a legal obligation to look around and see how they can promote regional development and welfare in society," said Väyrynen adding that "for long, the universities were prohibited to take part in joint-start companies and only recently the legislation was changed in a way that allows universities to become active partners in enterprises like this."
Another development in the Finnish university legislation is underway. The state council proposed, on 8 November 2006, to increase universities chance for auto-financing by allowing them to have their own outside budget that is not linked to the state’s public financing of the universities. The universities will thus be allowed to accept philanthropic funding from foundations and companies and decide on and administer that budget themselves. The law is expected to enter in force in 2007. The universities will remain state universities and their functioning will be guaranteed by public funds.
To read the full interview of Martti af Heurlin and Raimo Väyrynen, click here.
