BASE in a Nutshell

Let's hear more about BASE from the people involved in it: Gökhan Depo, project contact person and Mari K. Niemi, project director.  

What's the core idea of BASE?  

Gökhan: “BASE: Building Academics’ Societal Impact is a pilot project that focuses on the societal impact of international academics and experts in Finland. BASE aims at improving our understanding of what kind of support, contacts, and training are needed by foreign scholars in their work and daily lives to increase their societal engagement, impact, and media visibility in Finland. Through BASE, we strive to serve the common good of society by supporting all the stakeholders involved.” 

What's the background, how did you come up with this idea?  

Mari: “Societal interaction and research communication have been close to my heart throughout my academic career. I have conducted research on the topic, served the media as an interviewee, blogger and columnist, and led projects with partners from various sectors of society. I have also trained fellow academics, especially in their journalistic media and social media skills. 

“While our earlier work showed women were clearly underrepresented as experts in the Finnish media (Niemi & Pitkänen, 2016), in the past few years, the situation of foreign academics working in Finland has growingly puzzled me. Leading a very international team at the University of Vaasa was an eye-opener for me in this sense. Finnish society would certainly benefit if it was more open to international experts’ insights and knowledge.” 

What are the next steps?  

Gökhan: “We are working on deepening our understanding of this topic—and utilizing all our resources to do so. Currently, we are holding focus group discussions with international scholars and staff members who work closely with international scholars in various Finnish higher education institutions. We are also preparing for our meeting with our partners, in which we will discuss BASE and gather feedback for our data collection instruments. Afterward, we will create a survey targeting international academics. The survey will be distributed in April, and we hope to receive many responses as the survey is a good way to hear what our stakeholders want to say about the issues at hand.” 

Who are you hoping to involve in the project?  

Mari: “We are lucky to have active collaborating partners that support our work by sharing their expertise and innovative ideas with us. BASE benefits from their networks, communication channels, and help with data collection. We, at the same time, listen closely to their information needs and aim to respond to that.  
 
“We are also actively interacting with the international academic and research community—we aim at serving foreign experts’ needs related to, for example, networking, participating in public debate, and gaining influence through collaboration with various organizations. As Gökhan mentioned, we begin by learning more about the needs and gaps in existing support systems.” 

What makes this project motivating for you? 

Gökhan: “As a PhD student who will soon get his degree from the University of Minnesota in the US and who lives in Oulu, Finland, BASE is highly relevant to me. Not only do I work for it, but I also qualify as one of its target people. International scholars' societal engagement and impact are extremely important for contemporary Finnish society and the future of Finland as a country.” 

Mari: “I could not agree more—it's very motivating to work towards a change that would benefit all stakeholders: improving the flow of research-based knowledge towards society as well as diversity in the public debate benefit us all.”