There was much talk about last years "changes" at the university. Surprisingly, nobody seems to be interested anymore in the topic. At least this is the impression that I first got, when I went to the public hearing event at the Meilahti campus.
Helsinki University has outsourced parts of its IT infrastructure to Microsoft. Even if outsourcing is cheaper in the short term than generating equivalent services locally, the net effect is likely negative due to the lost jobs, know how and independence. It doesn’t need a conspiracy to explain this self-destructive behavior, just bad decision criteria, which do not include long term and externalized costs.
This post is inspired by our recent success in the Key Project Funding call of the Academy of Finland. One of the main time killers for scientists is to apply for money to finance their research. Scientists spend more and more time preparing grant applications because of the growing competition for the shrinking resources.