History of the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies on a timeline
1899
The Federation of Finnish Learned Societies is established. It acts as a cooperative body for scientific societies and promotes scientific publishing and the conditions for research. The ‘Pöllölä House’ on Kasarmikatu in Helsinki was built for the use of scientific societies. The building served as facilities for the societies’ meetings and libraries in particular.
Early 20th century
TSV establishes its position as a central organisation of scientific societies and starts developing common practices for publishing and research cooperation.
The 1920s–1930s
TSV’s role in supporting and coordinating scientific publications becomes stronger. The publication activities of scientific societies grow significantly. In 1931, the scientific societies were given the House of the Estates to replace Pöllölä, which had become overcrowded.
The 1950s–1970s
State support for scientific societies and their publishing activities becomes established. TSV becomes a key actor in preparing and distributing government grants for publishing activities.
Between 1967 and 1978, the Library of Scientific Societies served as Finland’s national exchange centre. The library was closed down in 1978, and the exchange activities were transferred to the TSV Exchange Centre for Scientific Literature. Even after this, the exchange activities have been based on oral or written agreements between societies publishing literature and foreign exchange partners.
The Science Forum has been organised regularly since 1977. The roots of the event are in the Researchers’ Meetings (‘Tutkijainkokous’) of 1922 and 1926. The first actual Science Forum was held in 1954.
The 1980s–1990s
The Federation of Finnish Learned Societies and the Council of Learned Societies merged their activities in 1981 and formed a new umbrella organisation for learned societies operating under the name the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies.
In the 1980s, the Publications Centre was first established to serve the publishing activities of member societies. The Bookstore Tiedekirja was established as a sales exhibition in 1987. Today, Tiedekirja is a bookstore where you can buy scientific literature.
From 1983 onwards, the magazine Tieteessä tapahtuu (‘Science Now’) was compiled and distributed in the form of handouts. Tieteessä tapahtuu established itself as a scientific magazine in the 1990s. Its columns are places where the scientific community discusses matters across the boundaries of faculties and disciplines.
TSV continues to develop the publishing and support systems. Scholarly publishing is becoming increasingly international and gradually moving to electronic environments.
In 1997, a former school building in Kruununhaka was handed over to TSV to serve as a meeting place for scientific societies. This became the House of Science and Letters. The office of the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies, on the other hand, moved to Mariankatu.
2000
TSV launches electronic publishing services and develops infrastructures for online publishing.
2006
The Constitution of Finland of 2000 requires the entities entitled to discretionary government transfers to be legal entities. For this reason, the Ministry of Education set up a working group to examine the legal status of TSV. On the working group’s proposal, Parliament enacted the Act on the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (938/2006).
2010
The Publication Forum is established at the request of the Ministry of Education and Culture. TSV is responsible for implementing the Publication Forum. The objective of the Publication Forum is to classify scientific publication channels and to support the quality assessment of academic research in Finland.
2012
The Publication Forum publishes its first classification. The classification becomes a central part of Finnish research evaluation and the funding model of higher education institutions.
2013
The office of the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies moves from Mariankatu to Snellmaninkatu.
2014–2018
The evaluation rounds of the Publication Forum become established. TSV develops the evaluation of publication channels in collaboration with a broad scientific community.
TSV receives its first EU projects. Since then, there have been many more projects.
2018
TSV joins the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and confirms its commitment to responsible researcher and research assessment. TSV actively participates in the national discussion on how to assess research and researchers qualitatively, diversely and transparently.
2019
The operation of the Secretariat for the National Open Science and Research Coordination at TSV begins. TSV starts coordinating the development of open science in Finland in cooperation with higher education institutions, research institutes, funding providers and other actors.
The 2020s
National Open Science Policies for the Finnish research community are published. TSV coordinates the development of open publishing, open data, open learning and the operating culture of the research community.
In 2022, the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies signs an agreement to reform research assessment. At the same time, it joins the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA).
2022
The TSV office also moves to the House of Science and Letters, the renovation of which has just been completed.
TSV serves as a central national expert and coordination organisation in supporting scientific societies, maintaining the Publication Forum, promoting open science and developing responsible researcher and research assessment. The priority areas of the activities are digital publishing, openness, transparency and qualitative research assessment.
A few new societies are accepted as members each year. In 2026, there are more than 300 member societies.
