International Evaluation of Finnish Computer Science

6.2. Evaluate the Unit in relation to its leading scientific competitors (max 1 page).

In addition to strengths and weaknesses it is also important to assess what the present strengths or developable strengths enable in the future and what kinds of threats are related to the weaknesses.
HIIT compares itself with the leading research institutions of the world. The quality of our research has been assessed by the HIIT Scientific Advisory Board in 2004. HIIT-BRU was also evaluated by an international expert panel in connection of the Research Assessment Exercise 2005 of the University of Helsinki. The unit received the highest possible grade, 7/7, verbally justified by the panel as
"Indeed, the senior personnel qualifies well for the grade 7, since all the submitted work is on a high international level, and nothing even on the good level. The unit can without hesitation be declared leading in its chosen area of research. It has a strong international colour."
On the basis of these assessments and our own self-assessment, we believe that of HIIT’s research programmes, Adaptive Data Analysis (ADA) and Probabilistic Adaptive Systems (PAS) have clearly reached a world-class status, as indicated by peer recognition, scientific competence, focused research agenda, and quality and quantity of contributions. This is also evidenced by that many groups participating in these programmes are members of the Center-of-Excellence "From Data to Knowledge" of the Academy of Finland. This CoE status with associated funding was given by the Academy for a six-year period from 2002, and again in a renewed form from 2008 under the name Algodan (Algorithmic Data Analysis).
We also believe that the two other programmes, Future Internet (FI) and Network Society (NS), have made and are making solid progress towards this status. Especially their progress since 2004 is considerable. The position that FI now has in HIP-related research, and more generally Internet architecture research is promising sign of this.
Compared with our leading competitors (the best universities of the world), HIIT does not enjoy a similar recruiting base of talented students, nor can it exploit their efforts with similar freedom as they do. To some degree, this weakness can be contained by reaching out to talented students early enough so that they can be integrated with research groups. However, mostly we must continue to be very choosy as to the topics of our research and focus our limited resources in areas where we can be competitive with the best.

6.3. The Unit’s research strategy 2008–2010 (relation to the parent organisation’s strategy, priority areas in research, development measures; max 2 pages)

Describe the Unit’s research programme for the next few years, the key research objectives and means to achieve these objectives. What is the role of basic and applied research? Is there need for new knowledge, facilities, is the present level of funding sufficient for attaining the objectives laid down? Do the strategies of the parent organisation and the Unit support each other? How do you take into account the possible ethical questions within research?
At present, HIIT consists of two administrative units: the Advanced Research Unit founded in 1999 and the Basic Research Unit founded in late 2001. The ARU is located in TKK and the BRU in UH.
The basic framework of HIIT’s strategy was defined by HIIT Board in May, 2005. According to this, the two units will be merged from 1.1.2009. During 2006-2008, the activities and processes of the two units will be aligned to facilitate the eventual merger.
With this goal, several developments have already taken place. Most importantly, the institute has been reorganized according to the research programmes. The activities presently located in Ruoholahti will be moved to TKK campus in April, 2007. The remaining decisions of the future institutional form of HIIT from 2009 onwards will be made during the rest of 2007.
Obviously, the present turmoil around the Finnish university system – especially the new university supposedly to be formed by merging TKK, HSE, and UIAH – is likely to influence the future of HIIT (and vice versa). Also HIIT’s possible role in the Strategic Centre of Excellence in ICT area may have an impact.
These external and institutional developments will set the stage for the actual research strategy of the institute. It can be summarized as follows:

1. 
   The present research programmes will be continued until end of 2008, and most likely also after that for 2009-2001. Their research agendas will be continuously updated, with the aim of reaching and maintaining a world-class status. New research groups with matching competences may be included in the programmes; however, this is not likely to constitute a bottleneck.
   
2. 
   Existing research groups are strengthened by recruiting talented researchers worldwide, with the aim that all HIIT research groups have reached world-class status, or are making clear progress towards it.
   
3. 
   One or two new research programmes will be launched, with the intention that they will have reached a full scale by 2009. At the time or preparing this report, some candidate themes have already been identified. Through the new programmes, several new research groups are likely to join the institute.
   
4. 
   HIIT had a total of 13 projects in the 6^th Framework Programme of EU. In the 7^th Framework, it intends to strengthen its presence further, while also participating in new initiatives such as the European Research Council and possibly European Institute of Technology.
   
5. 
   Existing international research partnerships will be maintained and deepened also beyond EU programmes. New partnerships will be launched, especially in rapidly developing parts of the world such as China and India.
   
6. 
   Starting in 2007, the operation of research programmes is facilitated by internal funding that the programmes can spend autonomously. This is likely to increase in the coming year. If financially possible, also internally funded post-doc positions will be made available.
   
7. 
   The administrative services will be strengthened with the aim of lessening the burden on senior researchers and insulating them from the mad chaos of university administration. This is of course severely constrained by the administrative resources available.
   
8. 
   The research infrastructure will be developed to provide state-of-the-art basic tools for researchers and facilitate larger-scale experimental research. In latter regard, HIIT will develop partnerships with related initiatives such as so-called “living labs”, with the aim of getting access to larger user communities for field testing and experimental service deployment.
   
9. 
   The institute is well positioned in doctoral schools, especially HeCSE, GEBSI, UCIT, and COMBI. This allows it to increase its presence in post-graduate education.
   

From the viewpoint of potential applications and users, HIIT’s present research programmes are oriented toward the ICT/telecommunications cluster, the media cluster, and the life science cluster. The orientation of possible future programmes is at present an open issue of deep strategic importance. At any rate, the choice will be made by taking into account the intrinsic scientific potential of the field for ICT research, the availability and quality of potential partners both in academia and industry, and the available research funding and instruments.