Jukka Mönkkönen: Data-based science and computing infrastructures connect Finland and Australia

CSC's Chairman of the Board of Directors, University of Eastern Finland Rector Jukka Mönkkönen participated in the trip to Australia and New Zealand led by Prime Minister Sanna Marin at the turn of November and December. As a representative of CSC, Mönkkönen was part of the delegation of Finnish companies led by Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari. Its mission was to present the solutions Finland can offer in relation to digitization and the green transition, among other things, and to create a basis for new collaboration.

What kind of thoughts and blanks for cooperation did the trip spawn from CSC's point of view?

– As societies, Australia and New Zealand are very similar to Finland: stable, open and prosperous democracies, which are also close to us in terms of technological development and know-how. We are equal partners, says Jukka Mönkkönen.

According to him, closer cooperation with such countries is worthwhile despite the fact that they are located on the other side of the world.

– Especially Australia has similar supercomputing and quantum computing infrastructure as we have in Finland, and thus related know-how, which should be exchanged.

During the trip, the business delegation met not only civil servants and political decision-makers, but also representatives of a large number of companies and research institutes as well as universities. Current topics such as cyber security and digital transformation came up in the discussions.

According to Mönkkönen, the meeting with the Australian Pawsey Supercomputing Research Center was particularly interesting. In 2021, CSC and Pawsey signed a strategic global partnership agreement to promote research and development for peaceful purposes and address issues related to high performance computing. 

– Our shared view with Pawsey's representatives was that now is the time to accelerate this collaboration. Almost all research disciplines are data-based these days. Data and analytics as methods are also strongly involved in fields where they have not previously played a big role, for example humanities and social science. Consequently, the importance of computing infrastructures as part of doing science is increasing.

Mönkkönen sees that CSC and Pawsey have a lot to offer each other and both have a strong orientation towards development and internationality. He also sees that this cooperation brings the Finnish and Australian scientific communities together as a whole and thereby creates many opportunities for research cooperation as well.

Mönkkönen is satisfied with the trip and sees that it opened many doors for CSC and other Finnish technology companies on the trip from the perspective of research and business cooperation.

– I am confident that CSC's collaboration with Australia and New Zealand will intensify, and concrete projects will be launched.