Diseases have no borders. A disease anywhere in the world may become a health threat everywhere. It takes less than 36 hours for an outbreak to spread from a remote village to any major city in the world, therefore, the most effective – and cost effective – way to protect people from such health threats i.e measles, cholera and COVID-19 is to stop them before they spread to others and cross borders. Here comes the role of public health surveillance. Public health surveillance is the continuous, systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of health-related data. An effective disease surveillance system is essential to detecting disease outbreaks quickly before they spread, cost lives and become difficult to control. Digital technologies can improve the ability to both detect and respond to disease outbreaks by sharing data swiftly thus helping us to understand how and where diseases are spreading. This information is crucial for deciding what health policies and strategies to make and follow. Significance of this research is not limited to one country but it has global health dimensions. It can help to address the critical issue of global health security by evaluating the impact of digital technologies on public health surveillance. Low and middle income countries (LMICs) including Pakistan have fragile health systems therefore the risk of spreading diseases, even beyond their borders, is high. Disease surveillance system in Pakistan has largely been outdated and paper based, frequently leading to delayed detection of measles, cholera and other communicable disease outbreaks. In 2017, Ministry of Health Pakistan, with support of World Health Organization (WHO), launched Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) system which uses electronic health information system (District Health Information System – DHIS-2) as a platform for rapid and near real time reporting for selected diseases. From 2017 to 2022, the new system was implemented in 52 districts of the country while remaining 104 districts are still using paper based system. The dual existence of different reporting systems presents a unique opportunity for a comparative analysis, allowing for insights into the effectiveness of the digital transition. As a doctoral researcher, I will conduct an evaluation to address the existing knowledge gap regarding the effectiveness of transitioning from traditional paper-based disease data reporting systems to new digital systems. Specifically, my research will focus on evaluating the impact of Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) and District Health Information System 2 (DHIS-2) initiatives in Pakistan. This evaluation aims to assess the effectiveness of new electronic infectious disease surveillance system in enhancing the country's health system capabilities. I aim to conduct a comparative analysis of the performance between DHIS-2, an electronic system, and traditional paper-based systems through cross sectional study, evaluate the effectiveness of the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) framework and the District Health Information System 2 (DHIS-2) through a comprehensive assessment and explore the determinants influencing the adoption of electronic surveillance systems through a mix method study. The local research infrastructure is well-established, with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Pakistan under Ministry of Health serving as a central data hub for disease surveillance and public health information. The presence of this infrastructure is vital for the success of the research project, as it provides access to comprehensive and up-to-date data on disease surveillance, outbreaks, and response efforts across Pakistan. The NIH website hosts weekly epidemiological IDSR reports. These reports serve as a rich source of information, forming the foundation for the research and ensuring the reliability and relevance of the data collected. Furthermore, the International Doctoral Programme in Epidemiology and Public Health at Tampere University, drawing on its expertise and research strength, will help to improve the quality and depth of the research findings. Together, these elements of the research infrastructure will contribute to the robustness of the study. The research project is feasible as IDSR implementation, led by Ministry of Health Pakistan, is already in progress with support of WHO. I have five years of practical experience, as a public health expert, in disease surveillance, monitoring and evaluation with World Health Organization, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and UK Health Security Agency. My previous role as the Training Coordinator in the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) project has been very relevant. Research will be implemented in phased manner starting from kick off meetings, ethical approvals to data collection, data analysis, reporting and dissemination and finalization and publications. The results of this study may help to improve global health security by examining how well digital health information systems detect and respond to diseases quickly. In Pakistan, the findings might help strengthen the healthcare system, providing useful guidance to policy makers and contributing to practical strategies for better public health monitoring. My research is in line with the European Union's recent Global Health Strategy, which is a cornerstone of the EU's external policy. Addressing and mitigating health threats, particularly pandemics, is highlighted as a key priority within this strategy. Through my research, I aim to contribute to this overarching goal by examining the effectiveness of infectious disease surveillance systems, ultimately working towards a healthier and more resilient global community.

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Antibiotics have made it possible for people to live longer, healthier lives. Antimicrobial resistance, however, is an increasing problem, especially in low-resource settings. This project will employ a range of methods from microbiology, clinical medicine and sociology to produce new knowledge about how AMR genes spread especially in poor West African regions, in areas where local capacity to address AMR is lagging behind, and identify ways to curb the spread of AMR. This knowledge can be utilized in national and international health policy and medical research.

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Isidore Bonkoungou, Victorien Dougnon, Kaisa Haukka, Bourema Kouriba, Salla Sariola, Marko Virta

LEAP-Agri is a joint Europe Africa Research and Innovation (R&I) initiative related to Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA). 30 partners, including 24 Ministries and Funding Agencies (Group of Funders) from 18 European and African countries decide to join their forces and funding to build an ERA-Net Cofund project with a financial support of the European Commission. The project has two pillars, (i) funding R&I projects on FNSSA, and (ii) Feeding the long-term EU- AU partnership on FNSSA.

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Melissa Plath

I4Future - Imaging for the Future: Novel Imaging and Characterization Methods in Bio, Medical and Environmental Research and Technology Innovations is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie action co-funded international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral doctoral programme. The programme brings together complementary and supplementary expertise of internationally accredited researchers with the aim of training young researchers in an interdisciplinary manner in highly relevant sosioeconomic research areas using state-of-the-art techniques. The programme network consists of 17 University of Oulu research groups, 10 international partner universities, 11 private companies and 4 multidisciplinary public sector organisations.

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Marko Huttula, Matti Alatalo, Erkki Thuneberg, Nonne Prisle

Mining consists of a long chain of actions starting from exploring suitable mineral deposits, building up the mine infrastructure and finally initiating and conducting the production. Every step has own environmental concerns. Besides the environmentally adverse effects, mine production may affect nearby population and pollute the working environment. The main categories of particles in mines are mineral dust, combustion products of explosives and diesel engine emissions. Both mineral dust and diesel engine emissions have serious health concerns. This project focuses on different issues in mining environments, which help in making the future mines more sustainable and environmentally sound.

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Jorma Keskinen, Topi Rönkkö, Panu Karjalainen, Sampo Saari, D.Sc. (Tech.), Antti Rostedt, Jenni Alanen Ernesto Gramsch Hilkka Timonen

The collaboration between UEF and KNAU aims to provide an enabling environment for teaching fisheries and aquaculture, at both vocational and bachelor level, by training of trainers, developing teaching and study material and developing the teaching infrastructure at KNAU. The main activities of FishEDU are: 1) training of trainers on fisheries and aquaculture subjects and pedagogics 2) piloting of courses in two newly developed curricula and development of course material 3) establishment of an aquaculture demonstration fish farm and training centre and an e-library.

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Professor Raine Kortet, Professor Sari Havu-Nuutinen, University Lecturer Liisa Nurminen, Project Researcher Sofiia Nishaeva, Project Researcher Oksana Skaldina

Regional development cooperation project between FMI and Uzhydromet together with WMO Regional Training Centre (RTC) in Tashkent to support the development of Central Asia National Meteorological Services. The main purpose of the Project is to increase capacity of Uzhydromet and other National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in Central Asia to produce sustainable and end-user driven public and private services.

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As of the time 14:46, March 11, 2011, Tohoku, Japan was hit by a massive earthquake. The epicentre of the earthquake was located to be undersea off the coast of Japan, and the magnitude-level was 9.0. The first earthquake also triggered a series of subsequent big earthquakes. Altogether, these earthquakes caused huge trembling on the Japanese mainland, reaching magnitude-level 7 at Kurihara City in the Miyagi prefecture, and Level 6 across many places in Tohoku. Following these huge earthquakes, those areas facing to the Pacific Ocean over the entire Tohoku area and also a northern part of Kanto areas were hit by unpredictably huge Tsunami waves of up to 40 m height. While travelling up 10 km inland, these waves caused thousands of deaths and severe damage of private and public infrastructure.

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Tadashi Matsumoto

Project focuses on a wireless body area network (WBAN) as a core of ideal ubiquitous healthcare infrastructure, which can provide us new paradigm to create innovations for future healthcare in academia and industry by employing advanced wireless technologies which Finland and Japan have been leading in a world. WBAN is a crucial wearable and implant network sensing various vital data for diagnosis and controlling actuators for health treatment around a body, and constructs a ubiquitous healthcare network combining with existing radio, and optical, networks such as a mobile cellular network and Internet. The research is divided into three paradigms: Dependable wireless communication in healthcare applications, developing the IEEE802.15.6-2012 standard, and improving the efficiency of clinical approval for compliance for novel WBAN devices.

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Bringing together advanced mobile voice-based technology, service providers and rural people of India in a tailored ecosystem is a unique project both in scale and in approach. Our project – RuralVoice – focuses on the development and deployment of voice-based services in agriculture, healthcare, education, entertainment and banking for the 220 million illiterate and underprivileged Indians that reside in the rural area. In our Indo-Finnish project consortium we are also building sustainable development and inclusive business opportunities for service- and technology companies both in India and in Europe. Keywords: Sustainable development, India, base of the pyramid, frugal innovations, voice-based services, illiterate people, mobile applications, participation, collaboration, localisation

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Mikko Ruohonen, Markku Turunen, Juhani Linna, Sumita Sharma, Nicholas Mavengere, Gururaj Mahajan, Jaakko Hakulinen, Pekka Kallioniemi, Vivek Kumar, Himadri Das (India), Amit Nanavati (India), Nitendra Rajput (India)