Research projects 10

The research examines how Finnish HEIs engage with other higher education institutions, communities, civil society organisations (CSOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), enterprises and governments to influence, integrate and/or address the needs for development in various food value-chains and their eco-systems, and further in food and nutrition security and education policy dialogue, especially in the context of the Global South.

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.

The overall objective of the SuFoRUn project is to develop new models, methods and decision systems that may effectively integrate currently fragmented multidisciplinary knowledge to support forest management and policy development in a context of global change. The European and the American experiences with the development/application of models and tools to support forest management and develop innovative forest policies provide a solid base for continuous improvement of its efficiency and effectiveness in a context of global change (e.g. changes in forest policies, changes in forest owner structures, changes in climatic conditions).

  • Head of research Simon J Puglisi
  • Language n/a

The overall goal of BIRDS is to establish a long term international network involving leading researchers in bioinformatics and information retrieval from four different continents, to strengthen the partnership through the exchange of knowledge and expertise, and to develop integrated approaches to improve current approaches in both fields. It will be implemented through staff exchanges, in addition to summer schools, workshops and conferences to facilitate knowledge sharing between members of the partnership. Research results will be disseminated to the market through a cooperation with an innovative SME software development company based in Europe.

  • Head of research Anja Nygren
  • Language n/a

The project analyses the ways that fragile cities are dealing with societal security, environmental vulnerability and representative justice in the spaces of multi-scale governance. The dimensions to be analysed are: 1) governance of insecurity and creation of accountable institutions; 2) authoritarian legacies and political-representation efforts; and 3) governance of environmental vulnerabilities and claims for justice. The research aims to develop a revised theory of urban political ecology and urban justice to better understand the interlinkages and scalar complexities of societal security, environmental vulnerability and representative justice.

  • Head of research Risto Kalliola
  • Language n/a

Hundreds of geoglyphs, geometrically formed man-made earth works, have only recently been found in southwestern Brazilian Amazonia and adjacent Bolivia. Geoglyphs occur in an area that partly overlaps with bamboo-dominated forests that are exceptional rain forests because they are dominated by a single species. The aim of the project is to find out if there is a causal relationship between bamboo forests and geoglyphs.

Global observations show that many high-elevation treelines are not advancing in spite of climatic warming. In this project, we aim to gain in-depth insight into the future of Andean treeline forests in a changing climate by predicting their persistence and upslope advance. This will be done by modelling potential microrefugial areas for treeline forests (suitable sites for tree growth in long-term) based on microtopography and current and future climate.

  • Head of research Marja Vauras
  • Language n/a

iFuCo-project strives towards three main objectives: to build a deeper theoretical understanding of students' online inquiry competences, to develop a novel instructional model to enhance learning and teaching of future online inquiry competences in primary education, and to create a long term research network and collaboration between Finland and Chile to meet the global challenges of future education.

This project funds exchanges between the partner institutions (from Europe to outside Europe, or from outside Europe to Europe, or cross-sectoral) to build collaboration on bioinformatics and information retrieval data structures. We also run summer schools.

  • Head of research Eija Meriläinen
  • Language n/a

Robust walls, a resilient home? How disaster reconstruction housing supply network contributes to the resilience of a disaster-affected community: Comparing formal and informal settlements