Evaluation Report Publications of the Academy of Finland 1/11

Research environment
The evaluation panel considers the research environment to be very good: there is a 
tradition of high-level basic research in materials chemistry and a broad range of 
excellent equipment available for the researchers. The research environment is 
perhaps somewhat limited by the fact that mobility among young Finnish researchers 
is rather low, leading to a very large proportion of the postdoctoral fellows in the 
group being UEF graduates. The unit is trying to compensate for this by sending 
students abroad, but it could also be refreshing for the research environment to have 
students or postdoctoral fellows come to Joensuu. The addition of an international 
Master’s programme and the opportunity for Bachelor’s students to work in the 
research laboratories during their first years are also great initiatives in efforts to 
increase and broaden the recruitment base.
The spokesman for the unit very nicely formulated a “moving platform” strategy 
for the groups, where the present research capabilities can be used as a stepping stone 
for the foreseeable change in research personnel that will occur in the next five years.