Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen, Minister of Finance Jutta Urpilainen and Development Heidi Hautala (in the background) in the Parliament at the first Question Time 5 September 2013. Photo - Lehtikuva.
The government at a plenary session on Thursday approved a resolution on the overall reform of research institutes and research funding, said a press release of the Government Communications Department.
The government resolution is based on the policy agreed by the cabinet evening session of 10 October 2012. In line with the government programme, national sectoral research institutes will be combined into larger entities.
“The goal is for research to function as a strategic resource for decision-making and societal development,” said Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen.
The prime minister continued saying, “We will only be able to say that we live in an information society when we make systematic use of information, and information that has been well-researched, in decision-making. The decision now made represents a major step, for Finland, towards becoming a genuine information society.”
Jyrki Katainen said the proposed sectoral research system would anticipate society's changing information needs. “It must be capable of flexibly shifting research focuses and generating information needed by decision-makers in both the public and private sectors.”
The approved resolution specifies three packages of measures for the reform of research institutes and research funding and identifies the ministry responsible in each case. These three sets of measures comprise structural reforms, research funding reforms, and the implementation and follow-up of the reforms. The overall reform will be implemented in 2014-2017 period.
