Report presented in July 2002 Planning Committee Meeting

The Finland Node of the Millennium Project was represented at the March 2002 Planning Committee Meeting by Osmo Kuusi, from Finish National Fund for R&D, Helsinki, Finland. As the most recent node, he presented the Central Institution of the Node, their interest in being a node, the projected future activities as a node and the policies that have to be set concerning the node chair and the coordination.

The Central Institution for the Finland Node of the Millennium Project is Finland Futures Academy (FFA).

Finland Futures Academy is a national network of the universities aimed at the academic educational and research programmes in the futures studies. FFA was established on the 2nd of February 1998, and the members are: University of Helsinki, Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Joensuu, University of Jyväskylä, University of Kuopio, University of Lapland, University of Oulu, Universty of Art and Design Helsinki, Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Tampere University of Technology, Lappeenranta University of Techonology, University of Tampere, Helsinki University of Technology, Turku School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Turku, University of Vaasa and Åbo Akademi University.

The Chairman of the Board is professor Ilkka Niiniluoto from the University of Helsinki and the Vice Chairman is professor Ilkka Virtanen from the University of Vaasa. Finland Futures Research Centre is the coordinating unit of FFA.

The vision behind the establishment of FFA is that there will be no direct competition between nation states or individual universities in the future but merely between European and global research networks. Therefore, the aim of FFA is to grow to an international network (World Futures Academy, WFA), the activities of which will be coordinated in Finland. In the near future, some of the FFA courses will be implemented together with the international partners. Prominent futurists from different scientific disciplines have been invited to the Advisory Board of the World Futures Academy.

This year, the node was active in conducting interviews for the "Future Issues of S&T and implications for Management" and distributing the "Counterterrorism" questionnaire.

Mr. Kuusi also presented the Workshops at the EPTA Conference, 11.10.2001 and a preliminary draft of an upcoming conference on "Technology Barometer: Genetic Engineering Especially Related to Human Genome". If you want to obtain an electronic version of these papers, please email Osmo Kuusi <Osmo.Kuusi@vatt.fi>.

Ms. Hanna-Kaisa Aalto, education coordinator at Finland Futures Academy, Finland Futures Research Centre, represented the Node at the July 2002 meeting.

She introduced the Finland Futures Academy in general, its projects, and then pointed out their work and relation with the Millennium Project, presenting the report prepared by Sari Söderlund, Secretary General of Helsinki Node:

AC/ UNU Millennium Project
June the 25th, 2002
Helsinki Node Report

In order to facilitate education of futures research the Finnish universities (15) established a national network of Finland Futures Academy (FFA) on February 2, 1998. At present, the board of the network consists of professors coming from the 17 network member universities. Professor Ilkka Niiniluoto from the University of Helsinki is chair of the board and Professor Ilkka Virtanen from the University of Vaasa is the vice-chair. The national network of the Finland Futures Academy is co-ordinated by the Finland Futures Research Centre at Turku School of Economics and Business Administration.

The main tasks of the Finland Futures Academy (FFA) is to offer high-quality futures studies for under- and post-graduate students. Futures studies has officially become a part of the Finnish master’s degree studies in the network universities. During 1997, the initiative was focused on establishing institutional grounds for the co-operation of the member universities. Then in 1998, the general educational programme including the contents of the courses was completed. The Finland Futures Academy has created a virtual learning environment in the Web Course Tools (WebCT). There is a network of university teachers (or tutors) organising futures studies courses and giving guidance to the students. The teachers are facilitated with study materials and training periods offered by the FFA.

On these bases, the Finland Futures Academy’s main goal is to widen the scale by establishing an international network (World Futures Academy) which would be co-ordinated from Finland. Recently, the courses of the Finland Futures Academy have been partly organised with international partners. In June 2000 the International Advisory Board was established. The idea is to invite leading international futures research experts from different disciplines to be members of the World Futures Academy Board.

The Helsinki Node of the Millennium Project was established on the 22nd of May 2002 by the decision of the FFA Board. Yet, there were some preparatory activities that already started during Autumn 2001. Consolidating the financial and human resource basis started in September 2001. Dr. Osmo Kuusi (Government Institute of Economic Research), Dr. Sirkka Heinonen (Technical Research Centre of Finland) and Dr. Auli Keskinen (Finnish Ministry of the Environment) were invited to compose the Node Group (see the organization chart enclosed). During Autumn 2001 they conducted the first expert interviews concerning risk management of sciences and technology, and the influence of research results on policy decisions. On the 18th of January, the Finland Futures Academy made a decision of extending the scope of network activities towards academic research projects. Since the Millennium Project is a world-wide research project with network-based working principles, there was a natural basis for co-operation.

There is an organization chart showing the main activities and actors of the Helsinki Node. The Node Group is composed of futures researchers who are taking concrete research actions. A Planning committee with futures studies experts has been established. The Millennium forum is organised by the Finnish Society for Futures Studies on regular basis. The aim of the well-organized activities is to mobilise Finnish futures studies experts towards a joint effort of facilitating global thinking and promoting research on global issues defined by the Millennium Project.

As regards the current and near-future state of activities, the Helsinki Node Group is ready to get facilitated by research assignments coming from the Millennium Project co-ordination centre. The futures studies organizations (shown by the organization chart) need to appoint their representatives as members of the Planning Committee. And – finally – the first Millennium Forum will be organised on the 25th of October, 2002. Additionally, there is an on-going planning process of brainstorming and organising Millennium activities in the Finland Futures Academy.

Sari Söderlund
Secretary General
Helsinki Node
Finland Futures Research Centre
Finland Futures Research Centre
Turku School of Economics and Business Administration
P.O. Box 110, 20521 Turku
FINLAND
Tel. +358 2 3383 525 or mobile +358 40 820 9801
Fax. +358 2 2330 755
Email sari.soderlund@tukkk.fi
 http://www.tukkk.fi/tutu/ffa