Suomen osallistumisen arviointi - Tekes

SummaryThis is an evaluation report about Finland´s participation in theenergy research activities of the International Energy Agency(IEA).For more than 20 years Finland has taken part in the IEAenergy research and development cooperation, where Tekes(the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation)is acting as the national responsible organisation and as an officialparty in individual implementing agreements. PresentlyFinland has 22 signed active agreements with IEA coveringR&D activities in energy production and use, and their environmentalimpacts. The content of many of the aforementionedimplementing agreements cover the field of renewable energysources and the exchange of information in energy technology.The nature of the work is predominately exchange ofinformation of national projects or international cooperationprojects.The objectives of the evaluation were to analyse the benefits,relevance and added value of the participation, and produceproposals of how to develop the activities and clarify thecriteria of the participation. Special efforts were taken to estimatethe benefits of the activities to the Finnish enterprises.An earlier evaluation was carried out in the year 1997.The evaluation aimed at finding answers to several questions;such as what kind of objectives the participation hashad from the point of view of the enterprises, research andenergy policy, are the chosen agreements still relevant, whatkind of experiences have been gained from the participation,and what are the most important results and impacts especiallyfrom the point of view of the enterprises. For the newimplementing agreements the criteria and procedure for theparticipation should be drawn up, and this evaluation reportgives some guidelines and ideas for selecting new projectswithin the IEA energy research programs.The report describes in detail individual implementingagreements where Finnish research organisations and companiesare active. In this way the report may act as a singleinformation resource covering all activities of the Finnish participationin the IEA.The contents of the evaluation are based on the use ofbackground information (IEA and research agreement webpages) and on interviews from key persons, a web questionnaireand a workshop. The results and findings are partly presentedas citations from interviewed key persons, and themost significant critical aspects are analysed.Because IEA is not a financing organisation the projectsare chosen primarily according to the priorities of the financiersin each country. As a result of this report it was stated thatthere is no system in place to evaluate the needs of projectorganisations during their active period. In addition, a permanentteam working with fixed topics may be more efficientand in depth than the usual work carried out in conferences.Lack of communication between companies and researchinstitutions was regarded as a permanent problem.Proposals to improve the communication were given, e.g.by nominating company representatives as Task Leaders andmembers of Executive Committees in the IEA projects. This isa more common practice in many other countries comparedto Finland.Dissemination of the information is a permanent ongoingchallenge, both to the public and to universities andresearch institutions. The methods of how to disseminate theinformation regarding the opportunities that the IEA-cooperationmay offer to Finland should be reconsidered. A clearneed for improving the national coordination in order to makelong-term planning was reported. Tekes could take a moreactive role in coordinating the work in various programs. Amore active participation of enterprises should be encouragedwhich would result in more practical results and bringgreater opportunities for businesses. Short-term and flexibleprojects could be increased in this respect.9