Evaluation of the Academy of Finland

In 2021, Academy of Finland is evaluated again, 8 years after the last evaluation. Under the lead of Erik Arnold and Katharina Warta, this evaluation will focus on the following aspects:

1. The role of the Academy of Finland in the RDI system – The contribution of Academy’s structure, the Ministry’s (performance) steering and the operating practices in serving the overall development of the Finnish RDI system and the strategic development of key research actors, in particular universities and research institutes.
2. The role of the Academy of Finland in promoting international scientific cooperation.
3. The organisation and operations of the Academy of Finland: the roles of the Board, the Research Councils and the Administration Office, including the impact of changes in the organization of the Academy of Finland to its performance. This aspect notices facilitation of the Strategic Research Council and the Finnish Research Infrastructure Committee.

These key questions show that the focus of this evaluation is on understanding the dynamics of change: new challenges in the environment, new elements in the Academy of Finland’s organisation, and an assessment of the effects these changes have on the Academy of Finland’s target groups. The evaluation will combine organisational assessment with impact evaluation and reflect on the role of the Academy in the transformation to “third generation of research policy”.