My research focuses on food security related initiatives in the Global South. I work on aquaculture and specifically fish farming development, food innovation using neglected foods and indigenous knowledge, food safety and quality management as well as value chain management and development of gender-based value chains. The development of tertiary education (vocational and higher education) is a cross-cutting theme in all of my global engagements in research and education.

Projects

Global Foodnet: Ancient Crops for Food Security

Central Asia Finnish Education Institutes for Green Biotechnology and Food Security

Aquaculture and fisheries development in the Kyrgyz Republic

Green biotechnology for food security

Development of women fish farmer cooperatives in Nepal

Capacity Building in Fisheries and Aquaculture Education in the Kyrgyz Republic

Education collaboration opportunities between Finland and South Africa

Bridging existing and new approaches for science, technology and innovation cooperation between Finland and Africa

Food safety and quality management

Teachers of the future : Finnish-Namibian collaborative teacher education

Food product development from indigenous foods

Role of Finnish higher education in global food and nutrition security

Niti's research interests lie in the intersection between design methods, multidisciplinary approaches, and participatory social design-driven transformation that takes a humble approach within confined settings (Markussen, 2017; Koskinen and Hush, 2016; Ehn, 1993). She brings more than 2 decades of design and innovation practice to her doctoral studies.

Projects

Promoting Education and Research on Energy Efficient Lighting and Renewable Energy for Sustainable Development (EARLI)

Projects

Unpacking the role of education as a tool for biodiversity conservation

Projects

Public and non-motorized transit in sub Saharan Africa

(1) South Korea’s official development assistance in East Africa South Korea’s role in its recent development partnership with a focus on the Global Saema?l Undong (New Village Movement, SMU) programme. South Korea's official donor rhetoric points towards more symmetric aid relationships: emphasis on national ownership, request-based approach, notions of self-reliance and non-hierarchical relationships. Tanzania’s experience with the SMU programme has been selected for an in-depth case study. (2) International aid and institutional development in North Korea The interaction between international aid actors, the DPRK government and beneficiaries has resulted in the emergence of – what institutional theorists call – a ‘new field’. Using qualitative research methods, this research project identifies, categorizes and discusses a set of endogenously grown institutions in the DPRK that have emerged as part of the ‘new field’.

Yuzhuo Cai is a Senior Lecturer and Adjunct Professor at the Higher Education Group (HEG), Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University, Finland. He has been with the HEG for 15 years and was the Acting Professor of the unit from August 2013 to July 2014. He is the (Chinese) Director of Sino-Finnish Education Research Centre jointly coordinated by Tampere University and Beijing Normal University. His teaching and research areas are higher education policy and management, internationalisation of higher education, innovation studies and comparative education, with 78 peer reviewed publications (59 in English) and 6 scholarly books in these fields.

Researcher, educator and musician working at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, Center for Educational Research and Academic Development (CERADA). My current project on children's singing in culturally diverse Finnish schools is part of the ArtsEqual Research initiative (The Arts as a Public Service: Strategic Steps towards Equality) funded by the Academy of Finland.

Projects

Translocation and Safe Design of Surface Engineered Metal oxide Nanoparticles (BRASINOEU)