Tampere University partners with two new Academy of Finland Flagships
Professor of Physics Miikka Dal Maso is involved in the Atmosphere and Climate Expertise Center (ACCC) hosted by the University of Helsinki, which received €2.8 million from the Academy of Finland. The partners also include the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the University of Eastern Finland.
ACCC will help Finland, EU and ultimately the whole world in reaching the Paris climate target and in mitigation and adaptation to climate change by providing sustainable, cost-effective and research-based solutions.
The consortium will research methods to curb climate change through carbon sequestration in forests and soils as well as air quality-climate interactions and impacts with the goal of sustaining a healthy atmosphere.
Through active collaboration between the interdisciplinary ACCC, policy makers and the private sector, the project will facilitate effective climate policies as well as mitigation and adaptation plans both nationally and internationally.
The company collaboration is expected to boost such new practical solutions as atmospheric measurement instruments, climate and air quality analysis services, and improved verification services for the auditing sector.
Game research and forest sciences
Professor of Information Technology Juho Hamari, an expert on gamification, is a member of the Forest-Human-Machine Interplay (UNITE) consortium that will investigate resilience in forest-human-machine interaction, new value networks, and meaningful experiences. The consortium is led by the University of Eastern Finland and the partners include the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute FGI, Tampere University, and Natural Resources Institute Finland. The consortium received €2.1 million from the Academy of Finland.
UNITE will develop disruptive technologies for capturing forest ecosystem structure and functioning, agile knowledge creation methods based on forest data, smart decision support for human actions in space and time, and gameful forest interactions through gamification and virtual reality approaches.
The consortium is an umbrella for world leading research groups in forest sciences, geospatial technology, and gamification / gameful human-technology interaction, in which research and co-creation with key stakeholders and scientific collaborators will provide knowledge-based support for societies, industry and individuals to adapt to changes that are caused by changes in natural, business and societal systems.
Cooperation with businesses one of the criteria
The Flagship Programme’s third call focused on collaboration between research groups and the business sector and on high-quality research with impact and the capacity for renewal.
The Finnish Flagship Programme is an instrument that supports high-quality research and increases the economic and societal impact emerging from research. The strong commitment of the host organisations to the operation and financing of the Flagships plays a key role in achieving the objectives.
The four new Flagships work closely with businesses and other sectors of society. Their collaborators include a great number of large enterprises, SMEs and start-ups from different fields as well as educational institutions, hospitals and other public actors.
After this third call, the Finnish Flagship Programme now comprises ten Flagships whose host organisations include seven universities, five research institutes, Helsinki University Hospital and the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service.
The new Flagships:
Gene, Cell and Nano Therapy Competence Cluster for the Treatment of Chronic Diseases (University of Eastern Finland, University of Oulu, University of Helsinki, Aalto University, Finnish Red Cross Blood Service)
Atmosphere and Climate Competence Center (ACCC) (University of Helsinki, Finnish Meteorological Institute, University of Eastern Finland, Tampere University).
Innovation ecosystem based on the immune system (InFLAMES) (University of Turku, Åbo Akademi University).
Forest-Human-Machine Interplay (UNITE) - Building Resilience, Redefining Value Networks and Enabling Meaningful Experiences (University of Eastern Finland, FGI, Tampere University, Natural Resources Institute Finland).
Funding decisions in the Academy of Finland’s fourth Flagship call
Academy of Finland’s Flagship Programme
