Hermann Aubié is a social scientist/east asianist with interest and expertise in human rights, civil society, as well as social and human development issues. He has lived and worked in mainland China for five years and for more than ten years in various Western countries.

I am a doctoral researcher in media studies at Tampere University, Finland, focusing on disinformation, gamification, hate infrastructures, mediatized memories, and political violence. I lead the social media research team for the Luce Foundation-funded project on Muslims in India under Hindu majoritarianism, alongside professors from Science Po, Princeton, and Columbia University. Previously, I was a fellow at Oxford’s Reuters Institute and the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies. I have over 20 years of experience as an investigative journalist, covering environmental justice, human rights, and conflicts in the Indian subcontinent, earning multiple awards, including the Kurt Schork Memorial Award. I have taught journalism at various Indian universities, am a certified media literacy trainer, and have conducted over 40 training sessions in India and Bangladesh. My work has been featured in major international media, and I was formerly India editor of AFP's fact-checking division.

I work in capacity building projects in Asia, LAC and Africa.

Projects

Capacity Building for Renewable Energy Planning in Cuban Higher Education Institutions (CRECE)

Myanmar Energy and Environment Education (MEEE)

Cuban Energy Transformation: Integration of Renewable Intermittent Sources in the Power System (IRIS)

Sociologist and trained welfare professional with a broad working experience in Finnish social services since 1980ies. Expert member in the administration courts of Helsinki and Hämeenlinna in matters of child welfare, adoption and disability services. Visiting researcher in the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland, THL. Research interest include: practice research in social work, science and technology studies, sociocybernetics, implementation studies. Research and development collaboration in Europe, Asia and LAC region.

My backround is in geology. I have 16 years of experience in processing of spatial data, digitising processes, data quality improvement processes and geodata management using geographic information systems. I have been working in development cooperation projects for ten years, mainly in Central Asia.

Coordination of the Asia component of FinCEAL Plus BRIDGES - aiming to develop and support Finnish science, technology and innovation cooperation between Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean.

I am a Doctoral student at the University of Eastern Finland. My research focuses on studying the spatio-temporal patterns of dengue fever in Medellin, Colombia (South America). Dengue fever is the most common mosquito-borne viral infection transmitted to humans. Dengue fever is present in more than 100 countries. The disease is now endemic in regions of Africa, the Americas, the Eastern Mediterranean, South East Asia, and the Western Pacific. The control of dengue has been a challenge, as these difficulties emerge from several aspects of different natures (political, ecological, socio-economical, behavioural). There is an increasing call to change how surveillance and control of dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases are currently performed since classical control has proven ineffective in reducing the morbidity and mortality caused by these infections. My research proposal attempts to add relevant knowledge that will contribute to a more integrated approach to dengue fever surveillance and control in developing countries.

Databases, data quality improvement, geological data, international projects (Central-Asia), ArcGIS, FME.

Dr. Tiina Seppälä is a university lecturer in Global Development Studies at the University of Helsinki and adjunct professor of International Development Studies at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She has engaged with women’s rights and slum activists in Nepal and Bangladesh, anti-eviction movements in India, asylum seekers in Finland and anti-war activists in the UK. She is interested in development, displacement, social movements, post/decolonial and feminist theory, ethnographic research and arts-based methods.

Projects

Governance, Resistance and Neoliberal Development: Struggles against Development-Induced Displacement and Forced Evictions in South Asia

I have expertise in tropical forest ecology, conservation and management. Having lived in the Asia-Pacific region for 25 years, I have a deep understanding of the forests ranging from the Himalayas through Southeast Asia and to Oceana. My main area of study is vegetation and plant ecology, which includes not only natural forest but other forms of vegetation (plantations, agriculture, etc). I have a strong botanical foundation to my research. I conduct research on scales ranging from the plant community (e.g. forest dynamics) to the region (e.g. vegetation change in Southeast Asia). I also have extensive research experience with community-based forest management. My research aims to quantitatively link habitat, resource and landscape dynamics with local actors (farmers). I use a wide range of research tools including social surveys of various types, quantitative forest surveys, policy analysis and spatial analysis/modeling such as the quantification of land cover change using remote sensing and GIS.