Interaction initiative successfully promotes Finnish-Swedish research cooperation
The 'Interaction across the Gulf of Bothnia' initiative has been successful in promoting cooperation between researchers in Finland and Sweden, an evaluation panel has concluded. The programme, which ran from 2000 to 2003, was set up to analyse the modes of interaction and cooperation between the two countries, and encourage cooperation between their respective research communities. As well as broadly achieving both of these aims, the evaluation report also notes that the programme encouraged interaction between scientists working in different disciplines. The panel states that, 'in our view, Swedish and Finnish researchers seem to cooperate well. Consequently, there is probably good reason to believe that bilateral research programmes such as [this] will also be successful in the future.' The report continues: '[T]he programme has provided new insights on everything from migration and the movement of refugees to how communication between merged Finnish-Swedish companies is carried out. There are examples of research that have been [...] innovative and have started to make international breakthroughs.' Within the programme, 17 separate projects were launched involving the participation of over 120 researchers. Despite the panel's generally positive assessment, however, it adds: 'This does not mean, of course, that this research programme has been completely problem-free.' The main problem identified in the report is the lack of sufficient financing for the programme, given the number of projects that were undertaken. Project budgets had to be cut on average by 25 per cent, making it necessary for many of them to revise their original aims. '[C]onsiderable cuts in the project budgets could have been avoided if the number of research projects had been cut. This could have been done without jeopardizing the overall programme aims,' concludes the report.
Countries
Finland, Sweden