The Africa-EU relations, migration, development and integration (AEMDI) project, aims to bring into conversation leading academics, policy makers, political observers and practitioners from civil society to explore and examine intra-Africa migration on one hand and EU-Africa relationships vis-à-vis migration on the other hand. Efforts to integrate Africa, through the RECs, should, then, be informed by lessons and parallels drawn from across Africa, and chiefly, the integration experience of the EU—particularly the Schengen Area—in moving from free movement of labour (only) to EU citizenship, as enshrined in Article 20 (1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Its main activities of AEMDI will include two international workshops and one international conference. One workshop will be hosted by the University of Eastern Finland and another by the Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation (GovInn) at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The main output of AEMDI activities will be a scientific edited volume, based on deliberations in and papers from the workshops. The main outcome of AEMDI is the promotion of the Jean Monnet Programme and adoption of best practices from the EU`s successes in regional integration, in Africa. The impacts of AEMDI will include increased networking and expertise between/of academics, policy makers, professionals and relevant stakeholders in Africa and the EU. AEMDI responds to the need to promote development and well-being in Africa through, among other things, learned experiences from observed successes in EU integration.
Ágnes Németh (agnes.nemeth@uef.fi)
Her doctoral thesis dealt with issues of regional policy, relational-governance and mega-events planning. She has been involved in European research projects (European Science Foundation, FP7) in border studies focusing on cross-border cooperation processes and the social (de)construction of borders. In her post-doctoral research, she studies foreigners’ socio-economic engagement in different Finnish urban environments with the aim of producing knowledge on the local particularities and challenges of integration processes. She is managing the international project “ECoC-SME: Actions for inducing SME growth and innovation via the ECoC event and legacy” (Interreg Europe, 2019-2021).
Ahmed Mohamed (ahmed.mohamed@uef.fi)
I have studied Bachelor of Pharmacy at University of Tanta, Egypt and Master degree in Systems Biology at University of Skövde, Sweden (supported by the Swedish Institute Study Scholarship). I have been honoured to be part of the UEF-Neuro-Innovation program (MSCA-COFUND).
We are working on air pollution and its effects on the human peripheral immunity in both healthy individuals and Alzheimer disease (AD) patients. We aim to reveal the mechanistic effects of air pollution on blood cell signatures and profiles and discover novel biomarkers for air pollution prediction. We also aim to find the molecular correlations between AD and air pollution as well as peripheral biomarkers for AD diagnosis. Our work comprises of investigating the transcriptome and epigenome of the immune cells as one population as well as single cell populations, using both; in-vivo and in-vitro models. We use functional assays to confirm the outcoming results.
This study is part of the Alzheimer disease and Air pollution (ADAIR) project which is part of the EU Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) project. We will provide insights on how air pollution affects peripheral immunity, possibly providing mechanistic explanation on the increased risks on human health.
An overview of the Rural social innovations
Anndra Parviainen (anndra.parviainen@uef.fi)
Researcher in various research groups like cancer research (INEXCA), quinoa food innovation research (Clinical Research Nurse in Disruptive Green Project) and recently in COVID research group (Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme Covid-19 Response Umbrella Project). Issues related to precision medicine, personalized care, and the integration of genomics in nursing education are my main areas of interest and are also related to my dissertation.
Anushree Luukela-Tandon (anushree.luukela-tandon@uef.fi)
I am a Senior Researcher (Innovations and Markets in Bioeconomy) at the Business School, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies, University of Eastern Finland.
I am keenly interested in examining how technological platforms, particularly social media, intersect with consumers’ lives. I am fascinated by the depth of impact that these platforms have had on facilitating consumers’ awareness of and behavior towards sustainable products. To this end, my research focuses on developing a nuanced understanding of how and why consumers make decisions regarding consumption of sustainable products and services, and what role technology could play in facilitating a more positive consumer outlook towards the same. Additionally, I am intrigued by the ‘dark side of social media’, or the negative effects that social media platforms have had on individual lives and passionate about examining the implications of contemporary issues like fear of missing out, on social media users.
My research has been published in leading journals like the Journal of Business Research, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Computers in Human Behavior, Internet Research and Information and Software Technology, to name a few.
Arto Koistinen (arto.koistinen@uef.fi)
My duties include e.g. development and coordination of UEF infrastructure program and further, strategic planning, cooperation with other institutes and companies, and decision preparation.
Based on the above mentioned duties, University’s collaboration within innovation ecosystems and companies will be strengthened. Collaboration is carried out e.g. with other educational institutes, local councils and national CLIC Innovation consortium.
My expertise in the research include research on biomaterial science, especially on material interactions and chemical analysis. We are one of the leading teams for microplastics analysis in Finland. I will continue leading microplastic research project funded by the Academy of Finland.
Circular Economy Solutions for Microplastics: Indo-Finnish Scientific Collaboration for Innovation
Eeva Aromaa (eeva.aromaa@uef.fi)
I work as a Post Doctoral Researcher in the Neuro impact and innovation research team. My research interests cover topics such as social processes of research collaboration with private and public sector stakeholders, co-research and patients’ experiental knowledge. My teaching experience focuses on qualitative research methods, innovation culture and innovation management research courses. Before entering the UEF, I worked as a researcher at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and in the international HRD in the steel industry.