Pilot projects for doctoral programmes

The Government Programme is bound to implementing the proposals of the parliamentary RDI working group to find ways to raise the financing of Finland’s R&D activities to four per cent of gross domestic product by 2030.

The aim is to pilot a new model for accelerating and honing doctoral programmes in universities without compromising quality. This measure will contribute to supporting a sufficient number of RDI experts, so that Finland's ratio of R&D funding can be raised to four per cent of GDP by 2030 in an efficient and expedient manner.

The pilots are meant for Finnish universities, providing them with funding for pilot projects in doctoral programmes on a voluntary basis.

The maximum funding period for each individual doctoral researcher in the pilot is three years. The purpose of the piloting is to make sure a greater number of doctoral researchers can complete their doctoral dissertation or doctoral thesis within that period.

The doctoral researchers taking part in these pilots are employed by the university. The universities are in charge of both the doctoral programmes and of the employment relationships in the pilot projects.

Essentially, the pilot projects limit the duration of the employment relationship of each individual postgraduate student hired using the financial resources of the pilot projects to a maximum of three years, and the funding must be allocated to R&D expenditure. The pilot projects do not restrict the time for individual doctoral researchers to complete their degree, however.