SYKE in brief
The Finnish Environment Institute SYKE, was established in 1995 so this year, we celebrate our 25th anniversary.
Today, SYKE is a multidisciplinary research and expert institute, whose tasks centre around building a sustainable society and supporting environmental policy implementation. The information, knowledge, expertise and services of SYKE support public and private decision-making, in a trans-disciplinary fashion.
SYKE’s strategy is to go beyond conducting research and producing knowledge, to support decision-making with a sound knowledge base and through collaboration. SYKE’s mission is to produce relevant information, novel understanding and innovative solutions for achieving sustainable development, and its vision for 2030 outlines: “together with our partners and stakeholders we have succeeded in guiding society’s development onto a sustainable path”.
SYKE works under the Ministry of the Environment and regarding water resources management under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. With Government budget accounting for approximately 40 percent of SYKE’s funding, SYKE is a competitive research and expert organisation, serving acute and long-term knowledge needs in the society.
SYKE’s staff of 600 includes researchers, experts and support professionals, who are based in Helsinki, Oulu, Jyväskylä and Joensuu. All SYKE’s offices are located on university campuses. SYKE’s activities are organised into seven centres and four strategic programmes, as well as the international affairs unit, administrative services and communications unit. SYKE has an Advisory Board.
Networks and collaboration
SYKE collaborates with a broad range of actors in Finland, in the EU and internationally. In formal networks and through project collaboration, SYKEs partners include research institutes and universities, administration of various sectors, cities and municipalities, industry, companies and think-tanks as well as non-governmental organisations and citizens. SYKE experts participate in governmental and intergovernmental processes, feeding the findings from environmental research on a broad spectrum.
Financial changes in the 2010s
Since the previous evaluation of SYKE in 2008 Finland’s research organisation and funding landscape have changed significantly. Seeking to increase the efficiency, dynamism and societal relevance of research, the Finnish Government started a reform of the research institutes and their funding structure in 2013. The reform resulted in budget cuts and mergers of research institutes as well as the establishment of new funding instruments. SYKE experienced the cuts as well, and the austerity orientation of the following governments was reflected in SYKE’s budget allocations. SYKE’s annual direct governmental budget funding is now almost a third smaller than ten years ago. At the same time, SYKE has been successful in accessing external funding from the new Finnish funding instruments, as well as from the European Union instruments.
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