Syke celebrated its 30th anniversary amid changes – new strategy moves towards sustainable systems
Syke started its operations on 1 March 1995. The slogan of the anniversary year, "Cherish the good", emphasised the core of the sustainability transformation: a transition that safeguards a clean environment, well-functioning ecosystems and the basic conditions of society. The anniversary was celebrated together with the personnel, partners and stakeholders.
Impressive results in challenging times
In 2025, Syke's total costs were EUR 77.6 million. The share of external funding remained high (57%).
The adjustment decisions on central government finances will reduce Syke's operating expenditure funding by more than 7 per cent in 2026 and even more in 2027 and 2028. Co-operation negotiations were launched in November 2025, and the number of employees is expected to decrease by approximately 15 per cent by 2028.
"Despite the difficult economic situation, our operations were in line with our targets. We were actively involved in reforming and implementing environmental regulation and strengthening society's transition towards carbon neutrality, sustainable cities, the circular economy and safeguarding biodiversity," says Leif Schulman, Director general of the Finnish Environment Institute.
Examples of our impact and the results of our work:
- We made a strong contribution to the preparation of the national restoration plan.
- Together with the Ministry of the Environment and key national actors, we are drawing up a roadmap for the development of Finland's network of marine protected areas until 2030.
- We assess the environmental impacts of the National Energy and Climate Strategy and the Medium-term Climate Change Plan and the timeliness of the objectives of the Climate Change Act.
- We provided extensive support and a knowledge base for law drafting and issued more than 100 official statements to parliamentary committees and ministries.
- The quality indicators of scientific publications showed that our research activities are still of a very high standard and at the top of the national level.
- We are responsible for more than 100 information systems, materials or interfaces that serve a wide range of public and private sector operators. For example, a record number of spatial datasets were uploaded in 2025.
New strategy strengthens solutions for the sustainability transformation
In accordance with the new strategy, Syke will focus its core activities more on making society's key systems sustainable. Through research, we develop solutions to tackle the sustainability problems of the energy system, the food system, other production systems, and the systems of land use and the built environment.
In our operations, we focus especially on developing knowledge-based management, data management and the sustainable use of artificial intelligence. We also invest in strategic partnership work and communications, as well as in the competence of our personnel and financial management. We are developing our unique environmental information value chain especially in the direction of innovative services for the society. In line with our slogan, we will continue to create hope with research in the new strategy period.
