EFI and UEF strengthen collaboration
On 4 September 2024, the European Forest Institute's (EFI) Bioeconomy Programme staff and the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) researchers from Joensuu gathered at EFI's headquarters to exchange knowledge and network. This is part of EFI-UEF's agreement of joint collaboration.
Diana Tuomasjukka presented the Bioeconomy Programme, highlighting EFI’s work and its projects and teams. Currently, the programme has three teams: Climate-Smart Forestry, Sustainable Markets and Society, and Forest Innovation for Impact. The presentation provided UEF researchers with insights into the specific focus areas and interests of EFI’s staff, laying the foundation for potential networking and collaboration opportunities.
“When working on research, you can have different points of view; however, having a team that provides different perspectives – practical and academic – can help us look into a topic with fresh eyes and push scientific advancements. Hopefully, this event is the first of many to help build cooperation to support both organisations’ research goals", said Anushree (Anu) Luukela-Tandon, Senior Researcher, who was recently awarded for her dissertation Fear of missing out on social media: implications for private and professional lives (2023) by the Turku Finnish University Society.
Following Diana’s presentation, Tommi Laukkanen, Vice Dean (Research) at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies, presented the UEF SenseLab, a research space where participants are exposed to different sensory stimuli: sight, touch, hearing, taste or smell. The idea is to understand and analyse how these stimuli influence consumer behaviour.
In addition, Juho Pesonen, professor of tourism business at UEF, discussed how travel and tourism can enhance the well-being of the tourism industry, local communities, tourists, and nature to support evidence-based decision-making among tourism stakeholders.
Later, Professor Teppo Hujala presented examples of collaboration between UEF and EFI, such as Horizon scanning of forest bioeconomy. Together with Päivi Pelli, Senior Researcher at EFI, they supervise two trainees from UEF. “In forest research, we’re proficient in using quantitative models to build scenarios and provide means to improve decision-making. However, the disruptions of the past few years have shown that we also need tools to prepare for surprises. Horizon scanning is a systematic way of looking for, assessing and interpreting early warnings and emerging trends. In collaboration with UEF, we develop research methodology, collect signals data, and analyse them in stakeholder contexts”, said Päivi Pelli.
This example already illustrates that EFI and UEF can greatly benefit from collaborating and exploring collaboration beyond their core fields, as bioeconomy is crosscutting across sectors. Access to talent and expertise, shared resources and facilities, joint activities, events and networks, or knowledge transfer are just some of the examples.
