One-fifth of Finnish Academy grants go to breakthrough research
A new report from the Academy of Finland has found that one-fifth of Academy-funded research projects can be categorised as high-risk or breakthrough research. The report, 'Breakthrough Research - Funding for High-risk Research at the Academy of Finland', shows that about half of the project proposals identified as breakthrough research were granted funding. The issue of funding scientifically innovative, high risk research has been the subject of ongoing discussions among international research funding organisations over the past few years. The reasons for this concern lie both in the escalation of competition among different research systems and the growing difficulties of obtaining competitive research funding. Many of the projects funded by the new European Research Council (ERC) are expected to involve high-risk research. The report assesses international developments in breakthrough research, and reviews the discussions held at the Academy, whose mission is to serve both as a research funding organisation and as an expert in science and science policy. The report cites a lack of consensus in international academia on the problem of funding high-risk research, and how this should be resolved. It recommends that the Academy approaches the issue by giving breakthrough research more attention, but also adopting a sharper conceptual framework to help in identifying and evaluating such projects. 'The Academy will continue to support new initiatives with breakthrough potential through mainstreaming. Researchers are encouraged to present scientifically high-quality and exceptionally innovative and high-risk proposals, regardless of their field of research,' said the author of the report, Dr Maunu Häyrynen. The Senior Adviser also suggested that efforts should be made to better accommodate breakthrough research in the Academy's reviewing and reporting processes. Finally, the report states that the ultimate aim in funding breakthrough research is to enhance scientific diversity, and financial support should not therefore be limited to strategic areas highlighted by foresight exercises and bibliometrics. The Academy of Finland's annual research funding amounts to more than ¿260 million, around 15% of the Finnish government's annual research budget.
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