Director's summary
The year 2023 marked an important year, as the Research Center's Board initiated discussions for a future vision for the Center, given the impending retirement of several of its current leaders.
We aim to ensure continuity for high-quality research by establishing clear leadership structures within well-defined thematic areas in support of Folkhälsan's strategy, respecting the legacy on which our current and future work is founded. To reinforce this work, the Board decided to arrange a scientific evaluation of the Center during 2024 so that its two programs will be evaluated by two separate groups of international experts.
During 2023 the Board made decisions on the following changes in group leadership: Niina Sandholm, FinnDiane (4/2024), Marco Savarese, Rare Neuromusular Diseases (1/2025).
Eva Roos began a special 2-year expert task to evaluate how evidence-based research can be linked to, and combined with, other activities within Folkhälsan, improved collaboration within the organization being one central goal in Folkhälsan’s strategy.
During 2023 the Center got long-awaited reinforcement through recruitment of an Administrative Manager, Michael von Boguslawski. He started in this position in April with the responsibility to coordinate and lead the administrative work in the Center. Michael has previously worked at University of Helsinki and Arcada University of Applied Sciences and has a background in both administration and research, and he holds a PhD in philosophy.
We also got in April a new Science Communicator, Heidi Furu, after Simon Granroth decided to move forward in his career. Heidi has a long experience both as a journalist and a communicator. Heidi took the responsibility to coordinate the research center’s active work to enhance its public presence also outside the scientific community. This involved creating popular science articles about our research and promoting it through various mediums, including videos and social media.
Publications
Research at the Center continued to be active and productive. The research groups published 242 peer-reviewed articles. The distribution of the published articles in the three classes defined by JuFo demonstrates the high quality of our scientific production.
Seven doctoral students from the Genetics Research Program and three from the Public Health Research Program defended their doctoral theses at the University of Helsinki. One student from the Public Health Research Program defended her doctoral thesis at Tampere University. Ten master's theses were also completed at the Research Center during the year.
Funding
In 2023 the research groups continued to be successful in obtaining external funding. The total funding for the research center in 2023 was 9.7 million euro. External funding accounted for 45%, an increase of 4 percentage units compared to 2022. The Folkhälsan Research Foundation funded 45% and Samfundet Folkhälsan’s foundations 10%.
Personnel
The research center employed 139 persons in 2023, with a total of around 108 FTEs (Full-Time Equivalent). The research center also had 42 hourly employees. In addition, several doctoral students and other researchers were entirely externally funded, e.g. by University of Helsinki or private foundations.
Awards
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Fanny Jansson Sigfrids: Young researcher's award Best thesis of the year. Suomen Diabetestutkijat ja Diabetologit r.y. (Finnish Diabetes Research Society) 29.11.2023
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Fanny Jansson Sigfrids: Doctoral thesis award 2022, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki 17.3.2023
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Helena Levonmaa: Best Pro-Gradu thesis in the field of gerontology and public health at the Science Days of the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä, 2023.
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Science communication award: Promotion Award. Best marketing and promotion: SUNRISE Finland Main Study. SUNRISE 2023 Annual General Meeting, 29–30.8.2023.