SAFINET thematic groups

On this page, you can find information on SAFINET thematic groups. SAFINET is Southern African and Finnish Higher Education Institutions' Network for Health and Well-Being.

Thematic groups

Arts, Culture and Well-Being
Digitalization, Innovation and Health Services
Food Systems and Living Environment
Social Sustainability
Public and Mental Health and Life Course

There are strategic alliances where several SAFINET HEIs join forces for a bigger goal. For example, one on ‘Digitalization & Rehabilitation’ (the initiative between Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences, University of Jyväskylä and Lapland University of Applied Sciences).

Arts, Culture and Well-Being

Lead: Satu Miettinen

Satu Miettinen is a Dean (2018-) and a Professor of Service Design (2016-) at the Faculty of Art and Design, University of Lapland in Finland. She has authored some of the first study books in service design: “An Introduction to Industrial Service Design”, with Anu Valtonen “Service Design with Theory”, and with Mikko Koivisto “Designing Services with Innovative Methods”. At the moment Satu Miettinen is the Principal Investigator (PI) in Acting on the Margins: Arts as Social Sculpture (AMASS) project (2020-2022) which is funded from the European Commission Horizon 2020 Transformations -programme. She has led Horizon 2020 MSCA RISE funded led PARTY Participatory Design with Youth -project research consortium 2015-2019 with partners from South Africa, Namibia, Italy and UK. Satu Miettinen has a long history in artistic work with Namibian and South African local communities in crafts and design development work in numerous projects. She is also an active artist and designer in the area of socially engaged art and ecofeminist photography.

Digitalization, Innovation and Health Services

From Tampere University:

From Jyväskylä:

Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences is a strong hub for digital rehabilitation and related education.

Jyväskylä University is part of Digitalization, Innovation and Health Services thematic group. For more information, please contact Senior Lecturer Tuulikki Sjögren.

Food Systems and Living Environment

The SAFINET thematic group is organizing a special interest group meeting on 7 December 2022 at the SANORD conference in Polokwane on seeking partners’ on multidisciplinary research on School Meals.

Researcher highlight: Arja Lyytinen is a Senior University Lecturer and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition at the University of Eastern Finland. She is an expert in nutrition and public health which she teaches and is responsible for the public health nutrition programme. Her research interests involve researching how diet is associated with risks of chronic diseases, more precisely studying the effect of dietary fat and fish on lipid and glucose metabolism as well as the role of diet in musculoskeletal diseases.

She has been leading and closely involved in multiple international projects, such as school feeding programmes and is part of the global development group at the UEF.

Social Sustainability

Researcher highlight: Salla Atkins, MA, PhD, is a health systems and policy researcher and social scientist and associate professor in the Global Health and Development group at the Tampere University Faculty of Social Sciences. She is also affiliated to the department of Global Public Health at Karolinska Institutet. For the past 20 or so years Salla has researched issues related to poverty, inequity, and health systems in low-, middle and high-income contexts. She has an interest in social protection for health, and the evidence-to-policy connection through evidence reviews and policy dialogue. Salla has coordinated large EU projects during her postdoctoral work and is currently leading studies in Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania and India on topics such as tuberculosis and COVID-19 with social protection, and implementation science for maternal- and child health.

Public and Mental Health and Life Course

Researcher highlight: Mari Lahti, RN, midwife, PhD, Post Doc., is working currently as a principal lecturer at Turku University of Applied Sciences and is a Research Leader in Mental Health Promotion research group of TUAS. Her academic dissertation was related to psychiatric nurses’ aggression management. Lahti’s research expertise and skills are in aggression and violence research, mental health promotion, developing mental health education globally and innovation pedagogy. She also does post-doctoral research and studies Health Economics at the University of Eastern Finland.

Research work involving Zambia and South-Africa:

Project Leader of new eMaMa - Developing Post Graduate Training Programme for MaternalMental Health in Sub‐Saharan Africa project involving Namibia, Zambia and Malawi is going to start in beginning of year 2023. Funded by E+ Capacity Building.

Project Leader of Come4Global - Strengthening nursing students’ and HEI teachers’ competence on mental health literacy in Eswatini and Finland, funded by TFK OPH Finland.

Was Project Leader of MEGA project (ended 6/2021). Building capacity by implementing mhGAP mobile intervention in SADC countries. Co-funded by Erasmus + programme. More research by Mari Lahti.