Director's summary

To reinforce the work towards a future vision for the Center, both research programs were evaluated during 2024 by a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of international experts. The Genetics Research Program SAB was chaired by Prof. Han Brunner (Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands) with Prof. Ingrid Kockum (Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden) and Prof. Maris Laan (University of Tartu, Estonia) as members. The Public Health Research Program SAB consisted of Prof. Peter M. Nilsson (Chair; Lund University, Sweden), Prof. Knut-Inge Klepp (University of Oslo, Norway) and Prof. Rikke Lund (University of Copenhagen, Denmark).

The two SABs visited the Center in the beginning of September. To understand the overall strategy of the Center and to define the goals of the evaluation, the site-visits began with the SABs meeting representatives of Samfundet Folkhälsan and the Board of the Research Center. The SABs interviewed all group leaders individually to assess the viability and success of their research programs. Delegations of post-doctoral scientist and of PhD students were interviewed to assess the teaching and career development climate at the Center. The site-visits culminated by a feed-back session to the Board of the Research Center followed by a written evaluation report.

The SABs noted the high quality of the research within the Center and encouraged to continue applying cutting-edge research, prioritizing innovation in research ideas and methods, encouraging also risk taking. They had several strategic recommendations to consider. Formulating a stronger common research strategy with joint aims, benefitting from synergies and fostering increased collaboration between research groups was strongly recommended. Many recommendations dealt with career paths within the Center, including a strategy for how senior PIs can step down to give an opportunity to the next generation of researchers. Further, the SABs highlighted the importance of active and transparent recruitment of young PIs and clarifying the different research career opportunities within the Center.

Following the SAB evaluation the Board of the Research Center initiated the recruitment of a new director for the Public Health Research Program, to be hired in 2025. The new director will follow the current one, Prof. Johan Eriksson, who is currently based in Singapore.

Publications

Research at the Center continued to be active and productive. The research groups published 186 peer-reviewed articles in publication channels classified by the Finnish Publication Forum (JuFo).

The distribution of the published articles in the three JuFo-classes demonstrates the high quality of our scientific production.

Some highlights of our publications in 2024 – reflecting the diversity of our research – are summarized in this annual report.

Five doctoral students from the Genetics Research Program and four from the Public Health Research Program defended their doctoral theses at the University of Helsinki. Nineteen master's theses were also completed at the Research Center during the year. 

Funding

2024 was once again a successful year for the research groups in obtaining external funding. The total funding for 2024 was EUR 9.78 M. External funding accounted for 44%, compared to 45% in 2023.  44% was funded by the Folkhälsan Research Foundation and 12% by the Samfundet Folkhälsan’s foundations. 

Personnel 

The research center employed 153 persons in 2024, with a total of around 120 FTEs (Full-Time Equivalent). The research center also had 30 hourly employees. In addition, several doctoral students and other researchers were entirely externally funded, e.g. by University of Helsinki or private foundations.  

Appointments

Group Leader Mikaela von Bonsdorff was appointed Professor of Gerontology and Public Health at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

Four researchers at the Center were awarded a Title of Docent at the University of Helsinki: 
Markus Haapanen in Experimental Geriatrics, 
Per-Harald Jonson in Medical Molecular Genetics, 
Maria Kaukonen in Molecular Biology, and
Svetlana Vakkilainen in Clinical Immunology.