Internationalizing Finnishscience – actions and ideas

Howy JacobsIBT Tampere

• FinMIT summer school

• Erasmus exchange programmes

• FiDiPro

• Euromit 2014

• ad hoc collaboration networks

Actions undertaken by FinMIT

Investigator-led initiatives

Some ideas on what we could do in future

• salaries by negotiation

• agency for inward mobility

• abolish barriers to inernational collaboration

• a global university

Some ideas on what we could do in future

• salaries by negotiation

• agency for inward mobility

• abolish barriers to inernational collaboration

• a global university

Policy actions

WHY BOTHER WITH ALL THIS ??

• individual success / competitiveness in science

• exporting knowledge is key to national and Europeaneconomic survival

• Europe’s demographic time bomb

FinMIT summer school

Palmse Mois, Estonia, 2010

Tallukka, Finland 2013

East Lansing, MI, USA, 2012

Keurusselkä, Finland 2011

Mitochondria, metabolism and homeostasis

Mitochondria and cancer

Mitochondria and organelle communication

Energy, signals and homeostasis

FinMIT summer school

• 12-15 PhD students from Finland + 12-15 fromelsewhere

• 4-5 world experts as lecturers, in residence forwhole week, plus 2-3 faculty as organizers

• lectures, Q&A, group work and presentations, posters,ethical discussions, exhausting recreational programme

• minisymposium on the topic, with 10-12 topspeakers from Nordic region, plus posters, party.....

FinMIT summer school

• students get extended exposure to frontiers of the subject andto top experts

• students actively participate: strong focus on asking toughquestions and honing presentation skills

• Finnish PhD students have to operate in an internationalenvironment (and make contacts useful for postdoc)

• foreign PhD students access Finnish research environment(potential recruiting tool)

• opportunity to showcase the best relevant research fromFinland/Nordic region

BENEFITS

FinMIT summer school

• substantial.......

• FinMIT pays core costs plus ownstudents' participation

• partnering (e.g. EGSBB, MitoSci Med, GPBM...)

• sponsorship from major organizations, e.g. ASBMB

COSTS

FiDiPro programme

• kicked off as FinMIT's own FiDiPro

• once appointed, became full participant in second half of the term

• some issues,.... (FiDiPro funding too little, has had difficultyraising other funds in Finland for 'own projects', salary mismatch,bureaucratic and language hassles

Laurie Kaguni

Erasmus exchange programmes

Jana

Amelia Jack

Görkem

GLASGOW

PRAGUE

ISTANBUL

Erasmus exchange programmes

full year placement (masters thesis)

summer placement (>3 m)

TO Finlandfor research

FROM Finland for study

breadth of material

english language

• THE major international congress of the field

• Funding raised from outside sponsorship and registration fees(FinMIT pays only for existing staff costs)

• Tampere-talo assisted in putting together our bid

• spiced with Finnish flavours (tango, mustamakkara, circus performers,accordeon players, heavy-metal, midsummer bonfire, international folk-dancefestival)

• satellite events for young scientists and patients

ad hoc collaborationnetworks

Massimo Zeviani

Thomas Braun

NorbertWeissman

RobertVoswinckel

Pierre Rustin

CAMBRIDGE

BAD NAUHEIM+ GIESSEN

PARIS

MADRID

Tonio Enriquez

HELSINKI

TAMPERE

MILANO

THE ALTERNATIVES

Some ideas on what we could do in future

• salaries by negotiation

• agency for inward mobility

• abolish barriers to international collaboration

• a global university

HOWY'S PERSONAL MANIFESTO

Salaries by negotiation

• people won’t move to the frozen north withouta decent offer

• generous personal salaries arenecessary but not sufficient

Agency for inward mobility

• practical assistance, not cash grants

• spouse’s employment, professional accreditation,language training

• bilingual education

• housing, real estate,pensions, taxation …

• one-stop shop needed

Abolish barriers to international collaboration

• forms and websites in English language

• amend and humanize immigration and taxationrules to make it easier to hire

• sweep away all the irritating university bureaucracy(FC model, YPJ, mindless reporting, MTAs)

• lobby for an EU-wide or global system for licensingand reporting on animal, GMO work, IPR

A global university

• University of Helsinki (top 100)

• University of Finland (dispersed campuses offeringdistinct specialities)

• room for maybe one other institution if it islaunched onto a high trajectory

The Finnish university landscape in 2030

HOW MIGHT IT LOOK?

A global university

• a small, elite, English-language research university in an exoticlocation, that recruits staff and students worldwide

• government scholarships for Finnish residents, all others– or their sponsors – must pay FEC

• recruitment packages capable of attracting top researchers

• simplest possible internal organization (3 faculties, one degree track)

• emphasis on topics of global importance, including basicsciences as seedcorn for innovation

A global university

NO BAGGAGE FROM THE ’OLD’ SYSTEM

Thank-you