Research has an impact only if it can be trusted. The Finnish National Board on Research Integrity (TENK) has supported and monitored good research practices in Finland independently for over 30 years. However, the decree governing TENK is outdated and no longer reflects the changed operating environment of research ethics.
Client: Finnish National Board on Research Integrity (TENK)
Timeframe: 2025–2026
The ethical questions that researchers and research organisations face in their work are more complex and harder to predict than before. For this reason, the central starting point of TENK’s strategy work was to consider how the ethics and credibility of research will be safeguarded in the future.
We helped TENK draw up a strategy that also serves as a joint proposal from the scientific and research community on how research ethics will be safeguarded in Finland through 2035.
The strategy lays the groundwork for decisions on TENK’s future
The strategy and its supporting memorandum form the basis for the Ministry of Education and Culture’s legislative work. The strategy aimed to give a well-grounded view of how research ethics should be organised in Finland in the future, what TENK’s role is, what its tasks include, and how its operations are organised in practice.
Experts from different organisations took part in the strategy work and represented the research community comprehensively. At Kaskas, we were TENK’s partner in preparing the strategy and in finalising and communicating it. We helped TENK’s secretariat define the content of the strategy work and phase its progress. We prepared and facilitated a strategy workshop where we outlined future scenarios for TENK in a changing operating environment. As a starting point for the work, we compiled an analysis of the operating environment, which showed the pressures for change facing the research ethics system, the division of responsibilities and TENK.
Based on the workshop, we wrote a summary of the identified future scenarios and recommendations for the next stages of preparation. TENK’s strategy working group continued the strategy work with their help. In the finalisation phase, we wrote the strategy’s key messages and supported TENK in clarifying the content. We laid out the finished strategy and helped plan its communications.
The strategy presents the research community’s view on the future of research ethics and TENK
The strategy’s central proposal is that TENK’s independent status as an authority, its tasks and its resources should be laid down by law in the future. According to the strategy, TENK would become a specialised authority responsible for research ethics, supporting and monitoring good research practices.
The strategy carries weight because it is a joint proposal of the entire research community.
The finished strategy was published and handed over to the Ministry of Education and Culture in autumn 2026.
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