The past two decades, on the other hand, could be referred to as the era of doctoral level education due to the strong increase in postgraduate education. At the turn of the year 2010, the entry into force of the new university legislation significantly changed the legal status of the Finnish universities and ushered them into yet another new era. This change will be more profound than the previous one was. Indeed, the universities should now be entering an era of research, which is characterised by increasingly active research activities and efforts to reach the international level in certain fields. How, then, can we ensure that the University of Eastern Finland will be among the first Finnish universities to be recognised as research-intensive? The most essential point is that this is accepted as a central goal throughout the university. Doing research is creative work and the university needs to be able to provide the settings this type of work requires. For the university as it is today, this is a real challenge and many of our practices need to undergo thorough analysis and reorganisation. The university’s new strategy makes it possible to improve the level of research, as resources increasingly are being allocated to our selected areas of expertise. By ensuring sufficient resources for the renewal of our research culture and for the recruitment of young researchers, the University of Eastern Finland will be ready to compete for the forefront position in Finnish research. At the same time, we will be able to establish our position as a solid member of the international scientific community. To achieve this position, we need to significantly raise the level of external funding in our overall budget. This, in turn, requires researchers to be active and carefully keep pace with the development of their field, and the rest of the personnel should provide strong support for these efforts. Furthermore, we need to succeed in the recruitment of our teaching and research staff, have a functional research infrastructure and collaborate more both within and outside the university. Researchers put increasing value on the skills needed to operate in international networks. In addition to providing those skills, the University of Eastern Finland needs to establish itself as a higher education institution which is attractive to students and researchers from all over the world. Cooperation is the key to building a university which is both creative and efficient, and which values the contributions of all its members and thus is a pleasant working environment. Kalervo Väänänen
Academic Rector
University of Eastern Finland | 
