In Finland, the Ministry of Education and Culture will allocate EUR 255 million to universities from 2024 to 2027 to pilot new practices in doctoral education. This funding will support 1,000 doctoral researchers with three-year employment contracts to complete their degrees.
The funding will help implement 15 field-specific doctoral education pilots. Of these, nine will be in flagship fields such as cancer medicine, artificial intelligence, and social services, while six will be in other freely selected fields. The 800 researchers will focus on flagship fields and 200 on different fields. University consortia will implement these pilots in collaboration with research institutes and businesses.
The initiative aims to increase the number of doctorates in the private sector, improve doctoral education practices, and enhance employment opportunities across various sectors. The project seeks to foster better guidance practices and create more opportunities for doctoral graduates by promoting mobility between universities, businesses, and research institutes.
The immense pilot in the freely selected fields concerns doctoral education in software development, involving 49 researchers across nine consortium universities. Additionally, a flagship pilot in education and training will include 78 doctoral researchers from nine universities, working with 31 public and private sector partners.
An international review by the Research Council of Finland selected the pilots, and applicants can view the review panel’s opinion online. The first doctoral researchers will find employment by August 2024. The Ministry of Education and Culture will establish a monitoring group and a research evaluation project to oversee the pilots.
This project supports Finland’s goal to increase research and development funding to four percent of GDP by 2030. More than 2,000 doctoral graduates will be needed annually in R&D from 2024 to 2030 to meet this target. In 2022, Finland saw 1,623 doctoral degrees completed.
More information can be found here.