Recruitment and scientific evaluation of research professors

Research professors play a key role in promoting Luke’s scientific competence, boosting progress and excellence in research, identifying new openings in the field, executing Luke’s strategy, and fostering scientific and societal impact as well as international visibility.

The President and CEO of Luke nominates an appointment committee for each open research professor position. The committee, chaired by the EVP Research, is responsible for executing the call and the evaluation process, including e.g. coordination of the scientific evaluation by external experts, carrying out the overall evaluation and interviews, and preparing the nomination proposal for the decision of the President and CEO of Luke. Guidelines and practices for the recruitment and scientific evaluation of research professors are defined in Luke’s Professorship Policy.

The evaluation is focused on:

• The candidate’s scientific and societal merits and performance including success in attracting research funding, as well as national and international scientific, business and policy networks.

• The scientific quality and significance of the candidate’s 5-year research plan, its societal impact and contribution to achieving Luke’s strategic objectives

The call and evaluation processes are carried out in accordance with good scientific practice. When selecting external evaluators and members for the appointment committee, Luke’s policies on conflict of interest and confidentiality are applied.

In total, the process takes typically 6-7 months. The process consists of 4 main steps outlined below and the meetings of the appointment committee in-between each of the steps.

1. Call for applications (ca. 6 weeks)

Research professor positions are established in Luke’s key research areas. The positions are announced in open, public calls. The call announcements are published at the Valtiolle.fi portal, at Luke’s web page, and at other relevant platforms such as Research Gate, Academic Positions, Euraxess, Luke’s social media etc.

The applicants are asked to attach to their applications the following appendices written in English:

• APPENDIX 1. Application letter, names and contact information of 3 referees, and complete curriculum vitae (including major research funding obtained, research leadership, list of supervised PhDs and postdocs, number of peer-reviewed articles, H-index, total citations and the database used, e.g. Web of Science or Google Scholar) (max.10 pages)
• APPENDIX 2. Complete list of publications including links to 10 selected publications most relevant for the professorship
• APPENDIX 3. Summary of research activities carried out so far, including aspects of customer interphase work, societal impact of research, dissemination of research results (max. 2 pages)
• APPENDIX 4. Research plan for the next 5-year term (max. 5 pages). Please use Luke’s research plan template at https://www.luke.fi/fi/media/8453.

After the appointment committee has completed shortlisting of the applications, each applicant is informed whether his/her application will proceed further in the process. Top applicants are notified of the scientific evaluation of their applications as well as the preliminary schedule of the complete process.

2. Scientific evaluation of top candidates by external experts (ca. 6-8 weeks)

The scientific evaluation of top candidates is carried out by at least three external, professor-level experts most of whom are international. The external evaluators assess the competency of the candidates with regard to the call announcement, based on the information provided in the application (appendices 1-6, see above). The evaluation statements form the basis for inviting applicants for the interview and the overall evaluation of top applicants.

3. Interviews of selected candidates (ca. 4 weeks)

Based on the evaluation statements, the appointment committee invites selected applicants for an interview. The invitations are presented to the selected applicants by phone and/or email. The interviewees are informed if they are expected to complete pre-assignments and/or prepare materials for the interview. Typically, the first interview takes place online.

Applicants who have undergone the scientific evaluation but are not invited for an interview are notified that their application will not proceed further in the process.

4. Nomination decision (ca. 4 weeks)

Based on the evaluation statements, the interviews and the applications, the appointment committee makes a consensus decision on whom to propose for the professorship.

After the President and CEO of Luke has made the nomination decision, all applicants are informed of the appointment by email, and each applicant who has undergone scientific evaluation by external experts may request for her/his own evaluation statements from Luke’s Registry Office (kirjaamo@luke.fi).