Ministry rejects universities’ appeals over research funding

Finland’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has rejected universities’ requests to reconsider funding decisions for social work research projects, Yle reports. The University of Eastern Finland will appeal the decision to an administrative court, while the universities of Turku, Jyväskylä and Lapland are still considering their options.

Minister of Social Affairs and Health Wille Rydman decided in June not to grant funding to nine social work research projects. One of the projects was from the University of Eastern Finland.

The universities that received negative funding decisions submitted requests for reconsideration to the ministry. Helsingin Sanomat reported that Rydman had rejected the requests concerning the research grants.

Tapio Määttä, rector of the University of Eastern Finland, confirmed that the university’s request had been rejected. Yle received similar information from the universities of Tampere, Turku, Jyväskylä and Lapland.

According to the ministry’s rejection decision, no error had occurred and the final funding decisions fell within the ministry’s discretionary powers.

Määttä said the original decision remained unlawful and insufficiently justified. In his view, it was not based on criteria announced in advance or on peer review, as required by law. He also said the ministry had failed to convincingly demonstrate in its decision on the request for reconsideration that the procedure had been lawful.