杏吧原创

FINLAND

IN 1984, long before the Finnish cellphone company Nokia was a household name, the company鈥檚 then chief executive Jorma Nieminen observed: 鈥淲hen an inventor in Silicon Valley opens his garage door to show off his latest idea, he has 50 per cent of the world market in front of him. When an inventor in Finland opens his garage door, he faces three feet of snow.鈥�

Finland may still have its deep snow, and the Baltic Sea may freeze at Helsinki鈥檚 doorstep, but the country鈥檚 current ranking by the World Economic Forum as the world鈥檚 most competitive country economically suggests that investors are unlikely to care. The country鈥檚 rags-to-riches success over the past two decades, the result of targeted public funding for R&D, has taught the Finnish government the value of planning ahead. The result is that investors and career seekers don鈥檛 need a crystal ball to see what the government plans to support: in the summer of 2006 the Finnish government released not one but two foresight studies, one detailing shorter-term R&D investments and the other longer-term goals a decade away.

鈥淎ny government coalition has understood that R&D investments are key to our future development,鈥� says Martti af Heurlin, deputy director general of Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation. Even Nokia does its part: one-third of the country鈥檚 R&D investment comes from the company.

At the top of Finland鈥檚 near-term list is boosting national spending on R&D from 3.5 per cent to 4 per cent of GDP by 2011 (see Chart). The increase in government funding will be used to support five new alliances between research groups, called strategic centres of excellence. They will focus on energy and environment, metal products and mechanical engineering, forestry, health, and information and communication.

These centres will capitalise on Finland鈥檚 resources and cater for its needs, says Heurlin. For one, alternative energy sources that make use of the country鈥檚 extensive forests and peatlands are a priority. The hope is that the centres will help advance technology to the point at which it is in demand overseas, and duplicate Nokia鈥檚 global success.

Some of the Finnish government鈥檚 funding priorities could seem either counterintuitive or far-sighted, depending on your point of view. For example, Finland will continue to put money into the biotech sector in spite of weak international interest in investing in Finnish biotech. A recent Tekes review of the country鈥檚 pharmaceutical industry noted only one significant investment in the first part of 2005, when a company called Ipsat Therapies in Helsinki, working on bacterial resistance, closed a 卢7 million deal.

Looking east

The country is also looking east for foreign investment, to Russia, China and Japan as expanding markets; in fact, many of the Tekes web pages have been translated into Chinese and Japanese in addition to English. The Finns are also interested in importing expertise: a joint programme between Tekes and the Academy of Finland, which funds university research, is designed to lure foreign researchers to Finnish universities for as long as five years, by offering to pay for costs such as moving family members in addition to funding the researcher鈥檚 project.

Finland鈥檚 focus on applied rather than basic research means that competition is intense among university researchers to find support for their work. The Academy of Finland, which is responsible for funding basic research, commands an annual budget of just 卢200 million, or half of Tekes鈥檚 annual 卢429 million for applied research.

Dennis Bamford, an Academy professor and head of the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Virus Research at the University of Helsinki, says one major problem for Finland鈥檚 basic research is the university system, which has too few research spots for young PhDs and postdocs. Young researchers can be awarded an Academy Research Fellowship for five years, but this fellowship is non-renewable. Although this is also a common problem in other countries, it is exacerbated in Finland by the fact that there are few permanent university positions at all between postdocs and professors, and the latter tend to hold their appointments until they retire. 鈥淲hen the fellowship runs out, you are in deep trouble,鈥� says Bamford. 鈥淲e lose talent.鈥�

Concerns about the Finnish brain drain have not fallen on deaf ears. In June, the prime minister鈥檚 science and technology policy council proposed providing more research-specific posts for young scientists at the country鈥檚 research institutes and universities.

SWEDEN

STOCKHOLM鈥橲 charming medieval centre and boat-bedecked waterfront exude old-world charm, but make no mistake 鈥� there鈥檚 big science going on here and throughout the rest of the country. By one measure at least, Sweden leads the world in investing in science and technology. It has an enviable 4.27 per cent of its GDP committed to research and development, which is well above the European Union average.

聯Make no mistake 鈥� there鈥檚 big science going on here聰

To see this in action, you need look no further than the Swedish Human Proteome Resource Programme. One of the country鈥檚 most visible success stories, it is the nation鈥檚 largest research project, with a budget of 540 million Swedish krona ($75 million). Based at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm and Uppsala University, the project is gearing up to publish the second instalment of its Human Protein Atlas this October. This will provide images of where and how proteins are expressed in healthy and cancerous tissue, to help biochemists understand how newly discovered proteins work. 鈥淚t鈥檚 my dream project,鈥� says the programme director, biochemist Mathias Uhl茅n of the KTH.

The Human Proteome Resource Programme illustrates a common characteristic of Sweden鈥檚 R&D. Only 25 per cent of its funding comes from the Swedish government; the EU gives another 5 per cent, but the rest comes from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, a charitable trust. In fact the majority of the nation鈥檚 R&D is paid for by businesses and private foundations.

Uhl茅n, who has served as an adviser to the Swedish government, says he has tried to send a consistent message to politicians. Government spending, at less than 1 per cent of GDP, is simply not enough. 鈥淭his makes us just average in Europe.鈥� The magic number? 鈥�1.5 per cent,鈥� he says. 鈥淪weden has a very good tradition and a history with science, but I think that we excel in the industry side rather than on the university side.鈥�

While this may mean that academic scientists have to work harder to win funding, there are plenty of opportunities for researchers in Swedish industry, particularly in the life-sciences sector. In 2005, biotechnology and medical technology accounted for nearly one-third of all venture-capital investment in Sweden, according to the Stockholm-based Swedish Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. That investment has helped Sweden鈥檚 biotech industry to become the fourth largest in Europe in terms of number of companies.

Thanks to Swedish law, one area in particular is benefiting from the life-sciences boom. Biotech companies working with human embryonic stem cells have greater freedom compared with many other countries, and have tapped markets in countries with stricter legislation. The Gothenburg-based company Cellartis, the world鈥檚 largest supplier of human embryonic cell lines, signed an agreement this summer with US company Invitrogen to develop novel engineered embryonic stem-cell lines.

Sweden鈥檚 welcoming business environment and bioscience know-how also means that it is attractive to international companies. GE Healthcare has its Life Sciences business global headquarters in Uppsala, 45 minutes from Stockholm, where the company has a Centre of Excellence in Protein Science, along with a world-class research programme on molecular imaging using PET scanners.

The science is strong enough to draw researchers from China, India and North America, but another attraction is Sweden itself, says Peter Ehrenheim, CEO of GE Healthcare鈥檚 Life Science business. Sweden鈥檚 research hotspots may be located in cities such as Uppsala or Stockholm, but researchers can still choose whether to live in the city or the country. Choose the right community and you can go skating from right outside your door, or boating in the summer among the 24,000 islands that make up the archipelago outside Stockholm, says Ehrenheim. 鈥淔or people who want to be in the outdoors in their spare time, it鈥檚 a great place to live.鈥�

DENMARK

DENMARK is a natural incubator. In one area the size of Silicon Valley, the country boasts a cluster of eight universities, six university hospitals and more than 140 biotech companies.

Public funding for R&D in Denmark has remained relatively flat over the past few years, but researchers say the current government is making good on its pledge to pump up public funding from just under 0.8 per cent of GDP to 1 per cent. Among the government鈥檚 first steps towards this has been the creation of a body to finance university-industry collaborations. In its first year, the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation has awarded 200 million Danish kroner ($34 million) to 12 projects.

There were some surprises in the foundation鈥檚 decisions. One group won 3.8 million kroner ($640,000) for its efforts to grow the perfect Christmas tree using a technique that brings together robotics and genetics. 鈥淸The project] is a combination between biotech, where they try to modify the structure of the trees at the cellular level, and robot technology to plant the trees,鈥� says Thomas Sinkj忙r, who is on the foundation鈥檚 board. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a combination of two worlds.鈥� The decision is slightly less surprising once you realise that Danish trees are big business. The country鈥檚 landscape 鈥� rolling fertile fields on the mainland of Jutland with a scattering of 400 islands to the east 鈥� is peppered with tidy forests that supply nearly a fifth of the 70 million Christmas trees sold in Europe each year.

Most of the other projects are less esoteric, and build on the country鈥檚 traditional strength in biomedical research. Danish biotech researchers lead the world in the number of biotech patents per capita. One thing that has fuelled this is the willingness of the Danish population to participate in clinical trials. 鈥淭here is a tradition in Denmark, where the need for research with human trials is acknowledged,鈥� says Sinkj忙r. 鈥淧eople know this has to be done to move forward.鈥�

Small, but welcoming

Sinkj忙r鈥檚 own research group at the Centre for Sensory-Motor Interaction (SMI) at Aalborg University shows this in action. 鈥淲e have really been able to progress quite quickly to clinical investigations,鈥� he says. At his centre, engineers and neurologists are working side by side (interdisciplinary collaboration is common as a result of Denmark鈥檚 compact research scene) to restore impaired sensory-motor functions in the brain, be it in people who have been paralysed by strokes or in the development of advanced prostheses for amputees.

Denmark鈥檚 relatively small research community is not exclusive however 鈥� researchers from overseas are in demand. Lars Arendt-Nielsen, co-director with Sinkj忙r of SMI and a professor at Aalborg University says that when the centre was first established, researchers recognised that they would have to attract international students to fill at least half of the research positions. 鈥淲e knew we would run short of qualified researchers,鈥� he says. It鈥檚 an effort being mirrored across the country as universities recruit more aggressively on the international market for researchers and graduate students. 鈥淲e often invite [researchers] for a visit,鈥� says Sinkj忙r. 鈥淲hen they realise how many other foreign PhD students there are here, it鈥檚 a strong motivator for them to come.鈥�

NORWAY

DEEP fjords and a 22,000-kilometre crenulated coastline mean that Norwegians are master mariners. The North Sea has played a major part in the country鈥檚 economy for many years 鈥� in particular providing its oil and gas industry, which has had a strong influence on the R&D the country has chosen to support.

Some day the oil will run out, though, and Norwegians are making a conscious effort to look beyond petroleum. Norway has traditionally remained cautious about channelling its oil wealth back into the economy, and at present the country spends just 1.73 per cent of its total GDP on R&D, the lowest of the Scandinavian nations and below the European Union average (Norway is not a member of the EU).

In June this year, the Norwegian minister of trade and industry, Odd Eriksen, signalled a commitment to change. 鈥淲e have more legs to stand on than just oil and gas,鈥� he said. He was speaking at the announcement of an eight-year, 1.12-billion kroner ($170 million) programme to help nurture Norway鈥檚 science. This money will be used to build 14 new centres for research-based innovation, where businesses and scientists will collaborate at the country鈥檚 universities or research institutes. Some will nod towards the country鈥檚 nautical experience, with research on aquaculture technology for farming marine plants and seafood, and a new ocean-life prospecting centre hosted by the University of Troms酶 will screen marine organisms for compounds that could lead to new drugs. Others will explore research such as stem-cell tumour therapy, while at a telemedicine centre in northern Norway scientists will team up with partners such as IBM鈥檚 Zurich laboratories to develop equipment such as smart sensors for elderly or chronically ill people who wish to live at home.

聯We have more legs to stand on than just oil and gas聰

Meanwhile, Norway鈥檚 foray into functional genomics, FUGE, is four years old and thriving, with funding recently extended to 2011. The programme will develop national proficiency in genomics in relation to basic biology, medical and marine research. FUGE鈥檚 backbone facilities cover 11 areas of expertise, from a transgenic-animal development lab to a bioinformatics centre. The centres have been spread across the country鈥檚 academic institutions, in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Troms酶 and 脜s, as part of government鈥檚 policy to build collaboration between universities and keeping all parts of the country economically vibrant. This year, government spending on FUGE topped 170 million kroner ($27 million), says Ole Petter Ottersen, chair of FUGE鈥檚 programme board and director of the Centre for Molecular Biology and Neuroscience at the University of Oslo.

Despite all this investment across wide areas of science, for now petroleum remains the critical driver for the Norwegian economy. With oil prices topping $70 a barrel, it is no surprise that Norway continues to pour money into R&D in the oil and gas industry.

In 2007 Norway鈥檚 state-owned oil company, Statoil, is due to open an enormous gas field in the Barents Sea called Sn酶hvit. Norwegian companies are keen to get the edge on bidding for contracts in nearby Russia using the new technology developed for Sn酶hvit, as the Russians gear up to develop the Shtokman gas field, one of the largest unexploited gas fields in the world.

Scandinavia鈥檚 largest independent research firm, SINTEF, is based in Norway and is benefiting from oil fever. This is well illustrated by the 80-metre-long water test tank at the firm鈥檚 Marintek research headquarters in Trondheim, 500 kilometres north of Oslo. This year, the tank has been in continual demand, says Tor Einar Berg, principal research engineer with Marintek. Engineers are testing scale-model designs for everything from oil platform supply ships to the special barges designed to carry materials to the Barents Sea for the Sn酶hvit development.