The Academy of Finland has announced plans to establish a new Academy Professorship in peace research and international conflict management research called the Martti Ahtisaari Academy Professorship.

The number of patent applications made in Finland decreased by around one hundred from the previous year in 2010. The number went down for both domestic and foreign applicants. By contrast, the number of patents granted in Finland to domestic patentees, similarly as the number of European patents granted to Finnish enterprises and associations, remained on level with the previous year. The number of U.S. patents granted to Finnish enterprises and associations grew by one quarter to about 1,250 patents. These data derive from statistics on patenting in 2010 published by Statistics Finland.

Tekes will launch five new international research projects within FiDiPro – the Finland Distinguished Professor Programme. Currently, expertise in service innovations research is about to receive a particular boost.

In 2010 around EUR 185 million more was used on research and development than one year previously. According to Statistics Finland, the majority of the growth, 77 per cent, was directed to the higher education sector. EUR 115 million of the EUR 142 million increase recorded for the higher education sector came from the growth in external funding. The change in research made with basic State funding thus remained minor.

Researchers have achieved good results in using waste and other excess products from industry to develop new and innovative fuels for transport. Working within the Academy of Finland’s research programme Sustainable Energy (SusEn), researchers have studied the processing of both biobutanol and biogas into transport fuels.