Vice Rector Johanna Björkroth:
Outstanding research and strategic planning
The year 2008 was successful for many fields of research at the University of Helsinki. Our researchers succeeded well in the European Research Council’s grant application rounds for both starting and advanced researchers. All four of our campuses did well.
The University of Helsinki researchers were also awarded with numerous individual accolades.
The negotiations for the new funding of our 14 Centres of Excellence selected for the term 2006-2011 were commenced with the Academy of Finland, in good spirits and with admiration for the high quality of research. Nine of these units are led by the University of Helsinki. Our new Centres of Excellence also commenced their operations. Twelve of the Centres of Excellence selected for 2008-2013 operate either wholly or partly in the University of Helsinki and seven of them are led by the University of Helsinki.
During the year under review, a new University of Helsinki strategy was planned and it was approved by the University Senate in February 2009. Researchers in the University community were heard widely when drawing up both the strategy and the research policy programme bringing the strategy to a practical level. The researchers feel that the most important issues are the continuous development of research infrastructure, improvement of the attractiveness of a research career, and preparatory practices of choices pertaining to the science community.
The University of Helsinki is a multidisciplinary top university, the profiling of which is nationally significant. This became evident also in the graduate school application round, where we were asked to assess the significance of our 33 graduate schools to our university. Thirty of these schools proved national in scope. Our research activities are networked both nationally and internationally.
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