The Evaluation of the Finnish National Innovation System – Policy Report

Finland current has a well-functioning innovation system. It is,
however, not enough to sustain the desired standard of welfare.
The rapid evolution of the global operating environment is inducing
both qualitative and quantitative changes in the geography of
innovative activity. They bring about future challenges and opportunities that are not fully realized in Finland.
The panel welcomes the two new elements of Finnish innovation
policy – the broad-based approach (Chapter 4) and demand and
user orientation (Chapter 5) – but points out risks in their adoption.
The former should not lead to considering even minor changes
as innovations or to labeling of all enterprise policies as innovation
policy. The latter should be interpreted as impartiality to the
source, type, and application domain of innovation.
The main challenges – weak internationalization (Chapter 6) and
somewhat lacking growth entrepreneurship (Chapter 7) – remain
orphans in the Finnish system. They are both side issues for
a number of public organizations and not particularly forcefully
advanced by any.
The panel puts forth an outline of (public) actors
and responsibilities in the system, which particularly implies
changes in these two domains.
The panel calls for a clarification and coordination of the roles and
interrelations of international, national,regional, and local innovation and non-innovation policies. In recent years local and regional
public actors have grown important also in innovation policy, even if they are largely ignored at the national level. The current national innovation support has an ‘unspoken’ regional bias, which may not
benefit regional development and may come at the cost of foregone
growth (Chapter 8).
The panel takes a strong stance for the ongoing university reform
(Chapter 9). With relatively autonomous universities incentivized
through appropriate funding rules, it has real potential to address
the most pressing and timely challenge in Finnish higher education
– the increase of research quality. Polytechnics are important
actors in the Finnish system with their strong regional and applied
role. To streamline the higher education sector, the panel recommends a clear division of labor between universities and polytechnics.
Due to both internal and external factors, The Finnish innovation
system is at a crossroads. While some of the panel’s proposals are
laborious to implement, they are indeed needed to meet the Finland’s future challenges.

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