My name is Moustapha Itani and I am a doctoral student in interdisciplinary environmental science at the University of Helsinki. I have always been passionate about exploring how multidisciplinary collaboration can answer complex research questions. Before I joined DENVI, I developed vegetation management plans for archaeological sites, systematically reviewed public health impacts of weaponised depleted uranium in Iraq, assessed mental health benefits of gardening on Syrian refugee women and developed a vegetation description method for conserving rare plants in cities. In my doctoral research, I particularly focus on pastoralism’s challenges and sustainability in the Global South. In Lebanon, we are facing one of the worst economic crisis in modern times. Here, the food security and livelihoods of most of the population are threatened. We need to rectify people’s misunderstandings on pastoralism, revitalize this method of food production and boost its contribution to GDP.

Post-doctoral researcher at LUT-University. MSc degree in Financial and Actuarial Mathematics from Wroclaw University of Technology (2007), MSc in Technomathematics from Lappeenranta University of Technology (2008) and DSc in Applied Mathematics from Lappeenranta University of Technology (2011). Specializes in modeling financial markets, time series analysis, statistical modeling, as well as mathematical epidemiology. 9 years of experience in academic teaching (including an award for the best international teacher), covering mainly scientific computing, statistics and stochastic modeling, and calculus. In years 2013-2015 having coordinated the following capacity building projects between Finland and East Africa: NSS East Africa Technomathematics and HEI ICI Mathematics Education and Working Life Relevance in East Africa. Experienced participant in Modeling Weeks (both as a student, instructor and organiser) and Study Groups. Recently organized a successful ECMI Modeling Week at LUT in July 2017.

Projects

Mathematical modeling

Over 48 million people were internally displaced due to armed conflict, generalized violence or human rights violations, according to Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), at the end of 2020. The concept of internally displaced persons (IDP) can be understood as persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized border. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) stated in their 2021 Global Report on Internal Displacement that the pandemic increased the needs and vulnerabilities of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and measures to curb the spread of coronavirus have greatly hindered humanitarian efforts. In consideration of this and the fact that globally the pandemic has dealt a hard blow on the global economy that it is important that an examination on how citizens who have decided not to totally depend on humanitarian aids and build businesses in order to earn a living have been able to survive. This research will also be examining and theorize the idea of a growing economy within the IDP camps.

I am a doctoral researcher at the UEF Law School. My PhD research focuses specifically on international, transnational, and regional climate change laws and policies, gender based adaptation laws and policies, and socio-economic resilience of rural women. Through my research, I aim to conduct comparative case studies on Bangladesh and the Finnish Arctic. I am employed as the Coordinator for the Center for Climate Change, Environment, and Energy Law (CCEEL) and I am a member of the Climate Change and International Environmental Law research group from CCEEL. My other research interests include climate justice, environmental justice, and human rights.

Jaana Jarva is a senior scientist in environmental geology at the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK). She holds a PhD in geology from the University of Turku, Finland. She is specialized in the fields of environmental and urban geology, geochemistry, land use planning, geological risk assessment and climate change adaptation. She has worked as a project manager in several European research and regional development projects, as well as in national and international research and consulting assignments. She is currently acting as a project manager of four international projects on hydrogeology, climate change adaptation and environmental impact assessment. She holds IPMA Level C certificate.

I hold a Master's in Social Science Research, specializing in Public Policy Analysis from Tampere University. My Master's thesis focused on how insights from behavioral economics, namely prospect theory, can guide preventive policy formation in public health, by laying a framework for how policy officials can reduce perceived barriers to the consumption of preventive care, policy thereby reaching vulnerable and high risk groups. Beginning January 2024, I am a doctoral researcher in the Doctoral programme on Inequalities, Interventions and New Welfare State (DPInvest) at the University of Turku. My dissertation will create the first reference budgets for university/university of applied sciences students in Finland, laying out the resources that Finnish and non-EU students in Finland need to participate in current Finnish society.

ethnographer and film documentarist with eyes on feminisms & global politics of post-conflict/disaster reconstruction: stydying intersection of gender and other forms of inequalities in disaster politics, political violence, and national ideologies,

Projects

Molecular and cellular mechanisms of restorative therapies following stroke

Cell therapy for stroke

Dr. Ilkka Jormanainen is working as a senior researcher at the University of Eastern Finland, School of Computing. He is part of “Technologies for Learning and Development” research group. Dr. Jormanainen has a strong background on ICT4D research, and he has been involved in several education, research, and development initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa. He was leading “Strengthening ICT in Education in Eritrea (ICT4EEDU)” project (2015-2018), funded by Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dr. Jormanainen has published more than 60 internationally refereed book chapters, journal articles, and conference papers. He also holds a title of Docent (Adjunct Professor) at the University of Turku, Finland. He is currently supervising or co-supervising 11 PhD students, of which eight are from sub-Saharan Africa or are working with an ICT4D topic.

My research contributes towards Development Studies, and focuses on Degrowth. The objective of my research is to explore how degrowth can be promoted at the social level and thus contribute towards the social agenda within degrowth. Primarily I am concerned with the 'decolonisation of the imaginary' which refers to the 'transformation' needed to allow for alternative models of living, such as degrowth, to penetrate the imaginations of society, so that the current model of living is not viewed as the only rational pathway. I will be attempting to create a framework which can be utilized to explore this transformation 'decolonisation of the imaginary' and attempt to use it within a case study, to hopefully gain insight in to how this transformation can occur and be brought about.