Finland - Jyvaskyla Region - Final Self-Evaluation Report.pdf

Centre of expertisePaper industryBioenergyInformation network technologyCreative industriesWellness technologyHealth and welfare servicesWell-being tourismFood industryLogistics and transportationSupported regional development programPaper manufacture management (Centre of Expertise Programme)Energy and environmental technology (Centre of Expertise Programme)Information technology (Centre of Expertise Programme)Development of creative industry in Central FinlandWellness technology and industry (Regional Centre Programme)Wellbeing services (as part of Regional Centre Programme)Regional node of Networked Centre of Expertise for TourismRegional node of Networked Centre of Expertise for Food Processing IndustryInnoroad centre of expertise of the futureTable 4.3 R&D centres of expertise at the Jyväskylä PolytechnicThe University of Jyväskylä currently (period of the years 2000-2005) houses five centres of excellence ofresearch nominated by the Academy of Finland. Two of them will continue until 2007 and five new oneswere nominated recently for the period of 2006-2011 (Table 4.4). The Academy Board appointed 23 centresof excellence in total for the national centre of excellence programme in 2006-2011. Centres of excellenceare research units or researcher training units which comprise one or more high-level research teams that areat or near the international cutting edge of research in their fields. Thus, the regional orientation of thesefields is not direct, but the regional effects might be created through the international competence, e.g., in thefields of nuclear and accelerator based physics (for the use of industry) and learning and motivation research(development of family and school environments).Besides these, the central administration of the University of Jyväskylä has named six developing areas ofexcellence in research (Table 4.4). They are based on national and international competence but havereflections on the region as well. From the regional perspective, the research into gerontology and scientificcomputing with industrial applications might be stressed here.Centres of excellence in research nominated byAcademy of Finland*Evolutionary researchNuclear and accelerator based physicsLearning and motivation researchPolitical thought and conceptual changeStudy of variation, contacts and change in English(jointly with the University of Helsinki)Study of virus research (jointly with the University ofHelsinki)Geometric analysis and mathematical physics, 2002-2007 (jointly with the University of Helsinki)History of mind, 2002-2007 (jointly with the Universityof Helsinki)*For the period of 2006-2011Developing areas of excellence in researchnominated by administration of the University ofJyväskyläGerontological researchLanguage learning and teachingCognitive musicologyPolitical theory and analysisStructural chemistryScientific computing with industrial applicationsTable 4.4 Areas of excellence in research at the University of JyväskyläThe fields of the Centre of Expertise Programme and wellness technology are also strongly supported by theresearch activities of the University of Jyväskylä. The University participates in the education and researchprojects and in the development of operative environments together with the research institutes andindustries in all these spearhead fields of the region. The main objective of the University is the developmentof production chain processes which enable integration of multidisciplinary knowledge of different fieldsinto the development activities. The latest field of development in the region of Jyväskylä is nanotechnology,which is heavily based on the competence of the University of Jyväskylä (Box 4.2) 10 .10 25 outstanding young researchers in Europe were awarded the European Young Investigator Award in autumn 2005.Among the awarded was Päivi Törmä, professor in nanoelectronics at the University of Jyväskylä. Törmä’sexperimental research is closely connected to molecular electronics and conducted at the transdisciplinary NanoScienceCenter in Jyväskylä, partly in collaboration with the industry.48