City of Tampere and Tampere Universities sign strategic partnership agreement

The plan has been drawn up by a follow-up committee comprising staff members of the City of Tampere and Tampere Universities and representatives of student associations.

“With our world changing, cities are facing a whole new set of challenges. Collaboration with the multidisciplinary Tampere Universities offers the City of Tampere the opportunity to promote high-impact research that supports urban development. Tampere wants to provide a platform for new collaborative activities that are geared towards promoting the research-informed development of cities,” says Mayor of Tampere Lauri Lyly.

A shared need for both partners is attracting and retaining the right talent.

“While Tampere is an attractive destination for international students and professionals, we have challenges with supporting their integration into the region. We can address this challenge by working together with industry and business to promote international students’ integration into society,” says President of Tampere University of Applied Sciences Tapio Kujala.

The plan for implementing the partnership was compiled by Max Liikka, a coordinator who works both for the City of Tampere and Tampere Universities, and is the result of extensive collaboration between representatives of the City of Tampere’s service areas and stakeholders from the Tampere Universities community. The current state of educational and research collaboration was analysed in the spring of 2021. The findings demonstrate that there is a great deal of untapped potential for expanding research collaboration. 

“The partnership agreement places a special emphasis on research and education relating to the well-being of residents, the sustainable city and changing society and thereby covers the full spectrum of research and teaching activities carried out in our multidisciplinary Tampere Universities community”, says President of Tampere University Mari Walls. “Our partnership with the City of Tampere will provide a unique opportunity to undertake high-impact research, development and innovation activities that will broadly support the development of cities and regions and also have the potential to receive widespread international attention.”  

Researchers, teachers and students from Tampere Universities have already participated, among other things, in drawing up the new strategy of the City of Tampere. The process of refining the strategy will continue when the new City Council takes office next autumn. The follow-up committee for the partnership agreement will continue its work after the summer holiday season.