20 Years of Applied and Solution-oriented RDI

Universities of applied sciences gained a statutory assignment of research and development (R&D) only 20 years ago (Act on Universities of Applied Sciences 351/2003, § 4). Before that the legislation allowed R&D activities, but only those supporting the educational and work life profiles designated to each UAS (UAS Act 255/1995, § 25).

20 years ago, one could hardly dream of commissioned research, practice-oriented development or service concepts, citizen science involving the target groups in development work, interdisciplinary cooperation, ecosystems, shared use of research infrastructures or international research networks. Innovation was added to the remit of universities of applied sciences only at the beginning of 2015.

Therefore, the last issue of this 2023 edition of the UAS Journal wants to highlight the 20-year-old, young, ambitious, and professionally organised and managed research, development and innovation (RDI) activities in universities of applied sciences (UAS) that are radiating energy into the region. It is important to describe the nature, quality and impact of our RDI activities in a way that stakeholders and policy-makers can understand, so that their importance is recognised and acknowledged, for example when allocating funding.

Consistent messages to society

The key messages related to the RDI activities of universities of applied sciences should be sufficiently consistent to the political decision-makers, to the public authorities in charge of the RDI policy preparation as well as to societal stakeholders. We hope that this issue will give sound bases for those key messages and arguments for UAS actors to argue for their research, development and innovation activities, company-related cooperation, new solutions, and best practices.

It must be said loud and clear that it is not only science and research that are essential and effective, but that we need intermediaries such as universities of applied sciences. They have both the ability and the motivation to integrate the latest knowledge into the everyday work of businesses, public organisations and the third sector – directly into the processes of real life. Universities of Applied Sciences are close to the public and private actors in their region, they know the local conditions, the people and the way in which implementation works there. That, if anything, is impact.

Our society will not develop unless universities of applied sciences are seen as a resource that understands professional work practices and the whole spectrum of human life. With their highly qualified teachers and experts, recruited from companies and public sector, and students already familiar with the practices of their field, universities of applied sciences are the force that can operationalise new theories, think about how to do things in practice and support people through change.

In discussions with policy-makers, it is worth emphasising that the application in to practice is not a matter of direct judgement, but is at the very end a question of veritable research, heuristic problem-solving and creative thinking as a scientific paradigm. This is not about politics or trying to maximise funding for universities of applied sciences. As a small country and a small economy, Finnish society simply needs to pull together in all areas of life. In research in particular, it is a waste of our most valuable national asset – human expertise – to cling to outdated organisational boundaries.

Our country needs to make the most of all RDI environments, wherever they happen to be located. The needs of applied RDI activities must therefore be taken into account in the criteria for national competitive RDI funding, with a weighting commensurate with the importance of the activity.

From quantitative to qualitative research evaluation in European cooperation

The theme of this UAS Journal is also topical in the European context. This is where the universities of applied sciences and universities, together with the research community, are developing research assessment through the so-called CoARA (Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment, 2022) reform agreement. The signatories of the agreement commit to jointly develop qualitative research assessment. In Finland, all universities and 17 universities of applied sciences have signed the agreement.

From both a national and an international perspective, it is gratifying that the topic of the issue attracted widespread interest. A total of 26 proposals were received in response to the call for papers. From these, we selected a total of 14 articles that explore the nature, quality and impact of RDI activities. The articles are divided according to the main focus of each of these three themes; however, many of them cover several themes.

The issue opens with articles on the nature of RDI activities in universities of applied sciences, the first of which, Samuli Maxenius ’s, highlights not only quantitative development but also how universities of applied sciences have been able to make their RDI activities a central part of the Finnish RDI system. Väinö Toots and Stina Westman, for their part, have carried out an interesting quantitative data analysis of UAS projects and the regional or university-specific weighting of project funding.

The third article, by Juha Leskinen and Anniina Honkonen, examines the importance of long-term and planned business cooperation as the cornerstone of effective RDI activities. The fourth article is a contribution by Noora Jansson and Heidi Fagerholm on the role of universities of applied sciences in providing skills and practical solutions to the rapidly changing situations of employers.

The quality of RDI activities was the subject of five articles, many of which combined an impact perspective. In the first article, Salla Sipari, Sari Helenius and Nea Vänskä discussed the role of multi-perspective and systemic developmental evaluation in effective RDI activities. Laura-Maija Hero and Marianne Pitkäjärvi present the concept of student-centred RDI activities and propose to establish the concept and the assessment metric describing it as an integral part of UAS assessment.

The paper by Mirka Leino, Sari Merilampi and Johanna Virkki describes the co-creation model, its testing and results in a research project where a university of applied sciences and a university together ensure the generation and transfer of scientific results to communities. Linda Hart, Leena Forma and Anna-Riina Lamberg present a review of scalable and consistent project evaluation for projects of different scales. Mariya Loginova and Mervi Rajahonka, in an article on RDI communication, ask whether RDI activities are of high quality if they are not intrinsically linked to the regional ecosystem of education and business.

The remaining articles deal with the effectiveness of RDI activities, and in particular the CoARA agreement. They offer timely insights and experiences for reforming the research assessment. Mona Roman, Jenna Ylimaunu and Tim Uebelen, present the current state of implementation of the agreement in Europe and argue the importance of participation of UAS in the European CoARA working groups.

Milla Roininen, Johanna Krappe and Hanna Timonen describe and discuss in specific the CoARA situation in Finland. Laura Himanen, Yrjö Leino and Hanna-Mari Puuska highlight the current challenges of taking into account the diversity of RDI activities in research assessment. Hanna Timonen, Merja Drake and Virpi Turkulainen present their experiences on developing the career path of a researcher. Tiina Kelkka and Maria Kuula develop TENK’s CV model to account also for development and innovation merits of researchers.

The final articles in this issue provide especially useful information and perspectives for the signatories of the CoARA Commitment, who will need to plan and schedule a review of their organisation’ s research assessment by the end of 2023.

Reforming and diversifying research assessment is important. Shifting the focus from quantitative to qualitative measures will emphasise research outcomes and their impact both in the scientific community and in society at large. The reform may also help universities of applied sciences to succeed in international funding competitions by assessing the research merits in terms of societal impact. In addition, the emphasis on research quality will increase, this is likely to contribute positively to the meaningfulness of work. From prior research we know that this in turn will contribute as increased work appreciation, motivation and well-being.

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