The New Finnish Research Funding Model and Its Implications for Academic Research

The recent developments of the Finnish research system mirror those in the rest of Europe. Research is regarded to be an important element of knowledge society. There is an overall shift from funding research through universities’ basic funding to competitive tenders. Yet the government has, also decreased drastically research funding allocated through the main science funding body, Academy of Finland. Academics are encouraged to apply funding from the various European funding agencies in order to fill in the national gap. It also seems that soft sciences, like the humanities and social sciences, struggle more than hard and applied sciences. At the same time a new funding model for universities is introduced in which the internationally published, peer-reviewed publications weigh more than ever before. This new funding model greatly influences how universities, academic departments and ultimately academics are evaluated in terms of their research output. In this paper we ask to what extend these new logics of research governance influence the everyday activities of universities?