Evaluation Report Publications of the Academy of Finland 1/11

Research networking and interaction
The national networking is good, and many chemistry units collaborate with VTT. 
Some of the national collaboration is realised in the form of the Centre of Excellence 
on White Biotechnology-Green Chemistry. International networking is not as good, 
despite a very active involvement in EU programmes. There is good interaction with 
(mainly domestic) industry. However, mobility is a challenge; this is also due to the 
Centre structure with classified research versus non-classified research.
Recommendations
The unit tackles a large number of fields. This can give the impression that there is a 
great deal of fields with the prefixes “bio” or “green”. The unit needs to develop a 
focused research strategy and define core competency areas. The interaction with 
universities (especially through the presence of VTT members as adjunct professors) 
should be encouraged. VTT needs to define a clear dissemination strategy for 
communicating scientific quality, since 30 per cent of the organisation’s funding 
comes from public sources (including Tekes).