Public and private investment increased from 2

If one wants to spend his life to research in archaeology, sociology or Linguistics, the Finland is not the best choice. Often cited for its dynamism in public and private research, this country of 5 million people made strategic choices which depart from a finding that some will find simplistic, even utilitarian: the taxpayer-funded research must be useful to the society by creating wealth and improving the industrial competitiveness of the country.

In this context, the collaboration between the public and the private sector is required. The National Agency for innovation Tekes, the Finnish equivalent of Anvar, but more powers, is responsible for developing music that targeted development strategy.

First financial support for research programs in business, then by launching national thematic programs to limited duration. "These projects are selected because they appear vital for the competitiveness and research in the industrial sector." "They are intended to strengthen the knowledge base and strengthen cooperation between companies, research organizations and the public sector," summarizes Petri Peltonen, Director General of the Agency. For its part, the Finland Academy is a payment agency that selects, funds, and evaluates the basic research carried out in the fabric of the 20 universities and the network of the National Polytechnic institutes.

It is largely decentralized. In fact, there are only two levels of decision in the country. The Government and municipalities that have a very strong managerial autonomy. At the ministerial level, a Council headed by the Prime Minister (Council for scientific and technological policy) meets regularly to determine national priorities.

The weight of the private sector

Decided in the early 1990's in full economic doldrums, this organization has been to strengthen. Public and private investment increased from 2.04 of GDP in 1991 to 2.72 in 1997, 3.4 in 2001. Last year, EUR 4.9 billion was injected into R & D, including less than one third (EUR 1.5 billion) is public. The remainder (EUR 3.4 million) comes from businesses. The weight of Nokia, the first firm in the country, is enormous. Alone, the Telecommunications giant provides 53 of the total of the effort private R & d (1.8 billion euros).

Group course has all the attention of public authorities. The training system has been widely adapted to the needs of the world leader in mobile telecommunications and several national research programmes have built custom to accompany its development. Information and telecommunications technologies are almost 30 of the programs supported by the Agency Tekes. Current projects include the development of electronic sensors miniaturized measuring the activity of certain functions of the human metabolism (stress, heart signal).

Welfare (iWELL) technology program has received a budget of EUR 42 million over three years and the first products are expected for this year.

Another project aims at the development of the games of the future (EUR 84 million between 2003 and 2007). Centered around a laboratory of the University of Tampere (Hypermedia), this project called Fenix intends to develop the next generation video games. Software under development, the characters in these stories will continue to live their (virtual) life regardless of the action of players. This concept of game "interactive persistent" should be "live" of the communities of hundreds of characters evolves according to unfixed rules in advance. Nokia, recently entered the world of the game, is directly concerned by this project at the confluence of wireless technologies and entertainment market.

But the country now on biotechnology. This choice is former: "By the mid-1980s, we selected the biotechnologies which appeared as a priority sector for the future," said Marja Makarow of the University of Helsinki. According to official data, the country has fabric more 130 companies active in the field of biotechnology. In recent years, the creations work at an average rate of 8 companies per year, which is the country among European leaders.