The registration started for the assessment of research and doctoral education

You can register for the evaluation of research and doctoral education in November. Research communities consisting of principal investigators, doctoral students, and other researchers in the four-step research career model at the university can participate in the evaluation.

Vice-Rector Johanna Björkroth, who is in charge of research and researcher education at the university, explains that this is a research-community-based mapping of the research developed at the university.

The departments and faculties that have been assessed before have changed with the university reform, and the results of the earlier structures are not comparable any more. Björkroth thinks the present evaluation is valuable for faculties and departments as it offers them a research community view on their research.

Five categories

There are five categories in the assessment, all of which will look at both the high-end research and doctoral education, and the routines that have been used to reach the results. Research will be evaluated in the different categories from such standpoints as societal impact and innovative new ventures. All the evaluation categories are open to everyone.

- With the categories, we wanted to encourage all kinds of research communities to participate. We do not intend to assess only centres of excellence. Björkroth wants to emphasize that the university strategy of 'to the top and to society' is realised in many ways.

- Such things as the work communities of young team managers, for example, are not known well enough. New ventures or the societal impact of research, on its part, has never been assessed in connection with a research evaluation.

The project manager for the assessment, Seppo Saari, explains that the university wants to find new viewpoints for identifying research made from different starting points, and for bringing it recognition.

Feedback, visibility and 'small change' as a reward

It has been made as easy as possible to participate in the evaluation. One incentive for participation is the opportunity for peer feedback from the international panels of experts in each discipline. An information package to promote its visibility is worked out for each research community that registers for the assessment.

Björkroth wants to encourage units to 'take part, make yourselves visible, and use that visibility for what your research has really been about the past six years.' - The feedback will be valuable if the communities that are assessed are true, operational communities.

It is also possible to receive a monetary reward for participation, though Björkroth says that should not be the main motivation. The reward sum will be determined during the next budgeting season. The Rector will make the final decision on the amount of money to be awarded and who will receive it on the basis of the results of the assessment.

Wiki page on the evaluation (in English): http://wiki.helsinki.fi/display/evaluation2011/Home;jsessionid=C31502772C1949EBE4E24E799DCEC5F9