Evaluation of Finnish National Innovation System 2009: Research Organisations

The survey is part of the larger INNOEVAL survey evaluating the Finnish National Innovation System from several angles. In this study, the opinions of research organisations on the Finnish National Innovation System were queried. First, the respondents were not only asked to rate the current Finnish National Innovation System (NIS), but also the NIS as it was five years ago, and the NIS as it is expected to be after five years. Their views were probed on what kind of entity public sector actors in the Finnish NIS form. In addition, they indicated the importance of various actors (e.g. Tekes (the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation), Sitra (the Finnish Innovation Fund), the Academy of Finland) for their organisation. The respondents were also asked to evaluate the orientation of the current Finnish innovation policy on a scale from "strong technology push" to "strong demand pull". Next, they indicated whether universities, polytechnics and public research organisations have successfully taken care of various tasks, such as international top-class research, research for the national needs, and the production of experts for the international business activities as well as for the needs of local business activities. Views were charted on the innovation system's ability to support growth entrepreneurship. In addition, the respondents were asked whether they experienced that the NIS also promotes regional policy agendas, and whether the national innovation policy is equally effective in all regions of Finland. The respondents were asked about the importance of national and international networks on the activities of their own organisations, and they were presented with a set of attitudinal statements on the impact of the new Universities Act, the centres of strategic excellence (SHOKs), and the potential reform of publicly funded research organisations on the NIS. The respondents were asked about their organisations' sources of funding, and to what extent the research conducted by the organisations served public decision-making on different levels and companies. They were also asked to indicate how large share of their organisations' labour input was allocated to education, research, carrying out duties of public authority, supply of statistics, and administration. Finally, they were asked how well their research organisations responded to the information needs of their parent ministries, and how well they thought private research organisations, universities and polytechnics matched them.