The Finnish Research Impact Foundation has announced the first grants under its TIA Seed programme in 2024 to support the career paths and industry networking of two research scientists who have moved to work in Finland. The recipients describe the funding as a major appeal factor and as internationally unique.
Although the academic community is well known to be international through and through, it always takes time and effort for researchers to integrate in a new country. A recent statistical report on PhD Pathways commissioned by Finnish Education Employers showed that while some foreign PhD graduates stay on to work in Finland, a majority actually move out of the country post-graduation.
FRIF’s new Tandem Industry Academia (TIA) Seed funding is intended to facilitate the integration of new talent moving to the Finnish research and innovation environment from abroad.
The TIA Seed initiative is founded on the idea of strengthening Finland’s competitiveness. We need top-tier talent for domestic RDI activities. According to a February 2023 report from the Finland Chamber of Commerce, Finland does not rank among the most sought after destinations in international surveys of the preferences and willingness of the best international talent to move abroad. In the OECD’s talent attractiveness rankings, Finland lags behind all other Nordic countries and Estonia.
TIA Seed funding is intended for researchers who have recently entered the Finnish university system and who are starting out their research careers in Finland. In their projects researchers work closely with at least two companies, fostering the exchange of expertise.
The first TIA Seed grant recipients were announced in November 2024. They were most of all attracted by the prospect of networking with companies and forming new kinds of business partnerships.
“I’ve never come across this kind of call before. Typically, grants for corporate cooperation are either projects awarded by one company to address a specific need, or else major EU Horizon calls. TIA Seed gives the opportunity to set up a project focused on experimental and boundary-breaking research,” says Professor Cecilia Nauclér.
Professor Nauclér has been in Finland since 2022, following her tenure at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. She was drawn to Finland by InFLAMES, an ambitious flagship research project in human immunology.
Nauclér was positively surprised to learn that the project offered opportunities for networking with industry. “Interaction with companies creates a space in which new ideas are bound to emerge,” she says. But in order to establish partnerships with companies, you also need funding mechanisms that are designed for collaboration.
It was through these informal interactions that she found the industry partners for the TIA Seed research grant project. “We’re super excited to start working together.”
The networks created through the research project pave the way for further research but also support personal career development. “The results of our research have extensive application in a commercial context, so I’m not ruling out a career in industry either.”
“It is motivating to understand companies’ real needs”
Anton Zasedatelev, the other newly-announced recipient of TIA Seed funding, is only just moving to Finland. He was recently appointed to the position of assistant professor at Aalto University, and in that role he will be leading the TIA Seed project, aiming to improve the speed and efficiency of processing large data volumes. The business partners in this project are Picophotonics, Reflekron, and Microsoft.
“When I applied for this role at Aalto University I was most impressed by the close interplay and intertwining of basic and applied research. I felt I could make a meaningful contribution and also learn a great deal from this kind of environment.”
Zasedatelev’s project combines quantum optics, semiconductor laser technologies and high-performance computing. This type of research benefits greatly from a multidisciplinary approach that brings together in-depth scientific knowledge and the practical know-how of companies. Zasedatelev is convinced that the project will help him build up networks in Finland and develop his own expertise.
“We researchers don’t usually have much insight into the real needs of business companies. Indeed, the big motivation for me is to better understand the actual needs of the industry and, in particular, the current challenges of companies involved in the project. This way we can learn how research can help solve them.”
More about the projects funded under the TIA Seed programme.
