Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TIES (Turku Intersectoral Excellence Scheme)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-07-01 bis 2025-06-30
The context for the Turku Intersectoral Excellence Scheme (TIES) was that the Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS) had traditionally offered three-year research grants which allowed early- and mid-career academics to carry out their self-designed interdisciplinary (ID) research projects. While this had proved to be successful, by 2021 TIAS wished to both further internationalise and to engage in more intersectoral working with organisations outside of higher education. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action COFUND programme provided an ideal opportunity via which to achieve these aspirations. We wished to design a programme which could meet the calls that have been at regional, national and EU-level for more ID and intersectoral activity (e.g. in Finland: Finnish National Roadmap for Research, Development and Innovation 2020). We also wished to move the focus of intersectoral research programmes away from the STEM subjects to the SHAPE research areas. We were aware that the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) model provides one of the few frameworks for “blue skies” interdisciplinary academic research open to non-STEM fields. By integrating a new, intersectoral, element to this model we hoped to develop advance a new model for the IAS concept itself that: (i) broadened the horizons and participant-base of ID research; (ii) developed international thought leaders and (iii) promoted the translation of research into economic value. To achieve this, we supplemented the existing IAS model with a secondment programme. Here the location of secondments within TIES marked a significant departure for an IAS. It distinguished TIES from other IAS programmes by incorporating a secondment outside of higher education as a key part of the research. In short, we wanted to be more international, more interdisciplinary and more intersectoral – and TIES became the means of achieving these aims.
An important context is that TIAS works across five faculties within the University of Turku: Economics, Education, Humanities, Law and Social Sciences. It seeks to integrate the work of these faculties and facilitate ID research working. TIES has provided more opportunities for doing this via the recruitment of eight Experienced Researchers (ERs) from wider cultural backgrounds and with more diverse research interests than traditional TIAS cohorts.
TIES was also specifically designed to meet a number of demands from a range of policy bodies including:
• The Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture’s National Roadmap for Research, Development and Innovation as it promotes intersectoral working, aims to attract international talent and to help to solidify a fragmented research sector.
• The EU’s Innovation Union flagship which aims to increase competitiveness, provide jobs and stimulate growth.
While it is too early to say whether this have been achieved, it is noteworthy that the secondments are already engendering different worldviews within the TIES ERs with the potential to contribute significantly to the above objectives.
An important context is that TIAS works across five faculties within the University of Turku: Economics, Education, Humanities, Law and Social Sciences. It seeks to integrate the work of these faculties and facilitate ID research working. TIES has provided more opportunities for doing this via the recruitment of eight Experienced Researchers (ERs) from wider cultural backgrounds and with more diverse research interests than traditional TIAS cohorts.
TIES was also specifically designed to meet a number of demands from a range of policy bodies including:
• The Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture’s National Roadmap for Research, Development and Innovation as it promotes intersectoral working, aims to attract international talent and to help to solidify a fragmented research sector.
• The EU’s Innovation Union flagship which aims to increase competitiveness, provide jobs and stimulate growth.
While it is too early to say whether this have been achieved, it is noteworthy that the secondments are already engendering different worldviews within the TIES ERs with the potential to contribute significantly to the above objectives.
TIES recruited eight internationally excellent ERs on to the programme and inducted them in to the TIAS environment. All have been extremely active, producing an extraordinary range of publications, conference papers and other outputs including staging an exhibition at Turku Main Library. TIES ERs have proven to be a key part of TIAS, helping us to meet our aspirations to be more international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral. The eight TIES projects cover various fields from e.g. Philosophy to Film Studies and from Education to History.
The secondment hosts include organisations like Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC), the Finnish Migration Institute, Historians Without Borders, National Audiovisual Institute and Vapriikki Museum. Work with secondment host organisations has proved to be extremely rewarding. These have become our partners and provided TIES ERs with new networks and research methodologies. Halfway through the programme, we are confident that TIES will make its ERs significantly more competitive in international labour markets both within and beyond academia.
We have held two annual workshops on intersectoral working, led by our Professor of Practice (PoP), who was appointed as part of the TIES programme with a remit of helping TIAS ERs commercialise their projects. The workshops have again led us in to new partnerships. At these workshops TIES ERs, other academics and external experts from a range of backgrounds mixed and traded insights. We will continue these events in future years.
The secondment hosts include organisations like Finnish Education Evaluation Centre (FINEEC), the Finnish Migration Institute, Historians Without Borders, National Audiovisual Institute and Vapriikki Museum. Work with secondment host organisations has proved to be extremely rewarding. These have become our partners and provided TIES ERs with new networks and research methodologies. Halfway through the programme, we are confident that TIES will make its ERs significantly more competitive in international labour markets both within and beyond academia.
We have held two annual workshops on intersectoral working, led by our Professor of Practice (PoP), who was appointed as part of the TIES programme with a remit of helping TIAS ERs commercialise their projects. The workshops have again led us in to new partnerships. At these workshops TIES ERs, other academics and external experts from a range of backgrounds mixed and traded insights. We will continue these events in future years.
It is important to note that as there are eight research projects within the overall TIES project, there are in fact nine different pathways to impact. Our overall plan has been to advise individual ERs on their own impact plans. We have also worked closely with secondment host organisations to ensure that TIES meets the needs of all parties involved. The individual needs of ECRs are catered for via a mixture of supervisors who act in a daily management role and mentors who offer careers advice as required by the ECRs themselves. The TIAS Director maintains oversight of all these processes.