Transcript Outreach: popular articles, radio broadcasts

Water Research in Finland
2002–2006
International Evaluation
Brian Moss University of Liverpool
Erosion, biocides, nutrients
Dams, river engineering, drainage
Peat erosion, biocides
Mercury, acidification
Introduced species
Brian Moss, UK; Wolfgang Fennel, Germany; Namasivayam Chinnaiya,
India; Dan Rosbjerg, Denmark; Sybil Seitzinger, USA; Pauline
Snoeijs,Sweden; John Stegeman USA
•The goal set by the Steering Group was to assess the scientific quality of
Finnish aquatic research and to evaluate the structural state of this field
in Finland as well as to obtain recommendations for the further
development of aquatic research.
Quality of research
• Our overall view was that
Finnish research in aquatic
sciences is easily comparable
in quality with that of other
wealthy countries. The lists
of publications that we
examined contained many
examples of papers in
international journals for
which standards and rejection
rates are high. For many such
journals the acceptance rate
is now between 20 and 30%.
Prof. Kaarina Sivonen
Prof.Mikko Nikinmaa
• Suffice it to say that
Finland has a system of
recognition through its
Academy professors and its
Centres of Excellence, and
that we find the standards
it imposes in giving this
recognition to be
comparable with those used
elsewhere.
People
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By 2006, 507 staff with 404
research active (103 support and
administrative)
60% in Universities, 40% in
Institutes
Fall in % of women from 59% PhD
students to 12 % Professors
(Finland overall, 47% PhD
students, 23% Professors
Total costs: Universities K€45.8,
Institutes K€ 50.2 per year per
person
Produce 1.31 professional articles
(Universities 1.09 Institutes
1.62) plus 0.59 popular
contributions per year, so around
2 publications per person per year
Excellent value for investment
(UK about three times higher
costs)
Finnish Research Funding
• Total around 5.25
billion Euro
• Business (for own
interests) 70%
• Government 30%,
totalling about 1597
million Euro
• Government Research
funding of M€ 1597
• Academy
14%
• Tekes
28%
• Core University 26.1%
• Institute core 16.2%
• Other
15.6%
• Of M€ 1597 Government core
funding, total invested in water
research is M€ 12.3
• Plus 11.6 million raised by the
scientific community from
grants and contracts from
inside and outside (EU) Finland
• Thus 0.8% of government
funding is spent on water
research and water research
accounts for about 0.46% of
total research spending in
Finland
• Virtually no contribution by
business interests to
environmental research
Investment in water
research
We recommend that there is a need for some revision in the
balance of allocation of funds nationally to favour the area of
water research (and of environmental issues in general),
particularly because of Finland’s immediate and substantial
dependency on natural resources.
Baltic Ice Cover
Recommendations
• Career structure for PhD, Post doctorals
and permanent posts
• Educational organisation
• Integration of modelling
• Subject content
• Datasets and Long term ecological
research sites
• Instrument replacement
• Outreach
• Graduate students
impressively articulate
• Many difficulties with
funding
• Need for system with
guaranteed funding for
those selected on merit
• Perhaps fewer total PhD
students, completing in
3/4 rather than up to 7/8
years
• Commented on in other
reviews
Career structure
2,5
State institutes
Career structure
Mean IF
2,0
1,5
1,0
0,5
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Universities
Mean IF
2,0
1,5
1,0
0,5
• Concerns over provision of
secure posts in Universities
• Very difficult situation for
mid-career scientists
• Need for orderly pyramidal
permanent career structure
• Commented on in 1986
review of Hydrobiology and
in reviews of other areas
• Finnish system is out of line
with many other countries
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Quality of work is no lower in Institutes with a permanent career structure
Educational organisation
• Problem with separation of
physical, chemical, biological and
social research into separate
departments or Institutes
• Mitigates against integrating
knowledge, especially in models
that can predict future effects
and problems as well as give
deeper understanding
• Under-recognition of Finnish
research on water by the
international community, partly
self-inflicted
Chief Seattle
All things are connected
Land use, forestry and
agriculture
River hydrology,
chemistry & ecology
Blooms and fisheries
Weather and climate
People and cities
• Recommendations to establish
Department of School of
Water Sciences that does this
from the undergraduate level
upwards
• Recommendation that
Academy post-docs spend at
least one year in a laboratory
outside Finland to help
infiltrate new ideas
• Recommendation that future
plans for the Institute of
Marine Research be urgently
reconsidered as the proposals
would go directly against such
integration and hamper
modelling and understanding
particularly of the Baltic
Some specific recommendations for future research
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More attention to stream ecology and
use of pristine northern Finnish
ecosystems to influence concepts of
high ecological status for the Water
Framework Directive
Linking of ecology and engineering in
stream and river restoration to
achieve really imaginative solutions
More manipulative experimental
studies on whole catchments and
lakes
More linking freshwater and peatland
research
Encouragement of work on processes
of biogeochemistry which is currently
very limited
Major emphasis on climate change
implications (physical, ecological,
social and interactions)
•Inventory of long -term data sets and planned funding
to maintain the best and make them available on the web
•Continued support of field stations
•Proper funding to maintain monitoring of designated
Long-term (Socio-)Ecological Research sites (Helsinki
Metropolitan; Lepsämänjoki Agricultural Watershed;
Lammi Southern Boreal; Lake Päijänne; Northern Häme;
Bothnian Bay; Pallas-Sodankylä; Northern)
•Mechanisms to foster replacement of expensive
analytical machines and ship facilities shared by
the scientific community
•Outreach: popular articles, radio broadcasts, displays
•Institute web sites excellent
•Target of one popular item for every formal
scientific paper from a project
•An excellent scientific community performing
very well by international standards
•A need for considerable reform in career structures
•A need for more integration of subject areas
•A nation perhaps not investing enough in research
on water particularly in view of Finland’s dependence
on its natural resources at a time of great threat from
climate change and ecosystem destruction
Preservation of an equable
biosphere or enhancement
of GDP ?