Funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture, the doctoral education pilots are reforming doctoral education at Finnish universities and fostering increasingly close ties with business and industry.
Funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture, the extensive pilot projects will enhance and reform Finnish universities’ practices in doctoral education in 2024–2027.
Following the launch of the doctoral education pilots, a total of 70 new three-year doctoral researcher positions will open at the University of Eastern Finland. The first round of applications are invited from 11 March to 1 April 2024. Further information about the doctoral education pilots can be found on university’s website. The doctoral researcher positions available in the pilots will start on 1 August 2024 or on 1 January 2025.
The disciplines included in the doctoral education pilots represent flagship fields in research, as well as other fields, and the implementation of the pilots also involves research institutes and companies.
The University of Eastern Finland is involved in a total of 11 pilot consortia:
- Doctoral Education Pilot for Mathematics of Sensing, Imaging and Modelling
- Sustainability Transformations
- Innovative Doctoral Education Ecosystem for Photonics
- Interdisciplinary Doctoral School of Social Services
- Doctoral Education Pilot in Precision Cancer Medicine
- Finnish Doctoral Program Network in Artificial Intelligence
- Digital Waters Doctoral Education Pilot
- Quantum
- Doctoral Pilot in Software Engineering
- National Doctoral Education Pilot based on Immune System
- EDUCA Flagship Doctoral School Pilot Project
The University of Eastern Finland coordinates the flagship field pilot Doctoral Education Pilot for Mathematics of Sensing, Imaging and Modelling, DREAM. The pilot is led by Professor Tanja Tarvainen at the Department of Technical Physics.
In addition, the University of Eastern Finland coordinates the Sustainability Transformations pilot, which is led by Professor Arto O. Salonen at the Department of Social Sciences. This pilot is implemented in the other, freely selected fields.
Doctoral researchers are invited to join an international academic community
For doctoral researchers, the University of Eastern Finland offer interesting and versatile roles in an international, creative and participatory academic community. For its staff members, the university offers an opportunity for flexible multi-location work, as well as extensive staff benefits.
At the University of Eastern Finland, research is international and of a high scientific standard, generating interdisciplinary, research-based knowledge and solutions for global challenges. The UEF Doctoral School and its doctoral programmes train postgraduate students into high-level researchers and experts in all disciplines of the university. For doctoral researchers, the university offers a development-oriented and forward-looking work community.
Applicants to the doctoral education pilots are required to be eligible for postgraduate education. Applications will be evaluated based on uniform criteria, taking into account the applicant’s educational background and other qualifications, the career relevance of the applicant’s research proposal, and the applicant’s letter of motivation.
Career planning plays a stronger role in doctoral education
In the doctoral education pilots, collaboration with business and industry plays an important role. Each doctoral researcher will formulate a career plan where they assess their career opportunities within universities, industry, research institutions and other organisations.
In the doctoral education pilots, each doctoral researcher will be assigned at least two academic supervisors and one external mentor, which ensures efficient supervision and the availability of support for research and career planning alike.
“The goal is for an increasingly large proportion of doctoral graduates to find employment in R&D roles within companies. At the University of Eastern Finland, we support our doctoral graduates’ diverse career paths through guidance and mentoring,” Academic Rector Tapio Määttä says.
For doctoral graduates aiming for an academic career, the University of Eastern Finland has established a new, two-year transitional funding for the postdoc phase, which will first become available for application next autumn.
“We decided to reform our career model in research training at the same time as we are recruiting doctoral researchers to the three-year positions in the doctoral education pilots. From now on, the postdoctoral phase will be part of research training, and transitional funding can be applied for as soon as the doctoral dissertation has been submitted for preliminary examination,” Määttä says.
