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.
Algoa Progress
ALGOA PROGRESS is a “New Business from Research Ideas” (TUTLI) project funded by Business Finland and the European Regional Development Fund. The project aims to explore the commercial potential of an algorithm that can predict the progression of osteoarthritis. The project seeks to lay both technological and commercial foundations for a novel technology that allows individualized treatment planning for people with, e.g. osteoarthritis. The objective of this type of treatment planning would be to prevent osteoarthritis or to slow down its progression.
The project is based on long-term basic and applied research carried out by the Biophysics of Bone and Cartilage research group (http://luotain.uef.fi/) at the Department of Applied Physics, UEF, as well as on utilising these research findings in computational modelling.
Anam Hammid (anam.hammid@uef.fi)
I am a molecular biologist with further training and expertise in the field of drug research. I have completed my Ph.D. degree in the field of ocular drug development. My Ph.D. thesis focused on the quantification and determination of activities of drug-metabolizing enzymes (DME) in major eye tissues of preclinical species and humans. The outcomes highlighted that there is a profound variation in enzyme expression levels and activities among ocular tissues. Moreover, variation among species further complicates the translation studies. My research findings will help in ocular drug development and aid in understanding the complications associated with drug pharmacokinetics.
During my Ph.D., I gained expertise in various skills and techniques including enzyme assay optimization (kinetics, activity, and inhibition), proteomics study design and analysis, proteins extraction, western blot, ocular tissues extraction, biological sample preparation/homogenization, LC/MS analysis, cell culturing, etc.,
Currently, I am working as a post-doctoral researcher in the field of targeted and global proteomics. Proteomics is an advanced, highly sensitive, and high throughput technique to profile and characterize the protein expression levels in biological fluids. I am working toward developing my skills and deepening my expertise in the field of proteomics. I am looking forward to being an independent ocular drug research and proteomics scientist.
Andrew Agbaje (andrew.agbaje@uef.fi)
Prof. Agbaje is an award-winning physician and professor (associate) of clinical epidemiology and child health who currently investigates causal relationships of aerobic fitness, physical activity, sedentary behaviour, body composition, insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia, and metabolic syndrome with arterial, cardiac, liver, and kidney structure and function from childhood through young adulthood.
He discovered arterial stiffness as a novel risk factor for paediatric obesity and insulin resistance, identified adolescence as the critical time to interrupt fat mass-insulin resistance pathologic cycle, and demonstrated light-intensity physical activity as a highly effective antidote for reversing excessive fat deposit induced by childhood sedentariness. Recently, he discovered waist-to-height ratio as a specific surrogate for fat mass but not muscle mass that could replace BMI in assessing childhood obesity. Subsequently, he was interviewed LIVE on BBC World News TV to discuss the novel findings.
As of September/October 2023, two of Prof. Agbaje’s publications were placed in the Top 1% highly cited paper in the academic field of Clinical Medicine, while a third publication was placed in the Top 1% highly cited paper in the academic field of Biology & Biochemistry by Clarivate’s Web of Science.
He has a first authored paper in Nature Communications and was interviewed LIVE on BBC World Service Radio Newsday programme on 15th Dec 2023, BBC Radio Devon on 16th Jan 2024, and BBC World News LIVE TV programme on 14th March 2024. The University of Eastern Finland recently recorded a podcast interview of his latest findings as well as a video.
The Endocrine Society in US, recently recorded a podcast interview of his research and discussed his research in the prestigious Endocrine Magazine March 2024 edition. He was recently interviewed by the European Association for the Study of Obesity, a federation of 36 European countries’ professional associations.
His research has received extensive press coverage, with over 2,000 media mentions in 2022 and 2023 in outlets such as BBC, CNN, The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Mirror, BILD, Infobae, Yahoo Lifestyle, Yahoo Sport, US News & World report, DocCheck, MSN, WebMD, Medscape, The Conversation, Jerusalem Post, Helsingin Sanomat, etc, potentially reaching a global audience of more than 4.5 billion. The equivalent advertising value of these news articles is more than 30 million US dollars.
He is the principal investigator of the urFIT-child research group and has strong collaboration with world-renowned pediatricians, exercise physiologists, epidemiologists, and adult clinicians in Canada, US, UK, Germany, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, etc.
He has received several scientific excellence awards including the prestigious EASO-Novo Nordisk Foundation for New Investigator Award in Childhood Obesity with a 300,000 Danish Kroner (~40,000 euro) prize. Other awards are the American Heart Association’s Elizabeth Barrett-Connor Research Award in Epidemiology and Prevention (once), Jeremiah and Rose Stamler Research Award (twice), and Paul Dudley White International Scholar Award (thrice).
He co-authored an American Heart Association Scientific Statement on Environmental Exposures and Pediatric Cardiology, published in Circulation. He had a video discussion of the Scientific Statement. He was an invited guest speaker to the largest mother and child center in Canada – CHU Sainte-Justine Mother and Child University Hospital Center, Canada in March 2023 to speak on the determinants of carotid intima-media thickness and arterial stiffness in pediatrics.
He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Children’s Health and Exercise Research Centre (CHERC), Department of Public Health and Sports Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
He was recently appointed an Associate Editor in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia, and Muscle (JCSM). He serves on the editorial board of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology (ATVB), and mentors early career editorial board members. He also serves on the editorial board of Pediatric Exercise Science journal.
He is an elected Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC) and an elected Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA). These titles of honour, symbol of excellence and lifetime achievement recognizes his significant contribution to cardiovascular field in Europe and America.
He is an expert advisor to the World Health Organization’s task force on preventing childhood obesity.
Primary email is andrew.agbaje@uef.fi
Secondary email is a.agbaje@exeter.ac.uk
Anna Kuusi (anna.kuusi@uef.fi)
My research interests are in motivation, perfectionism, and academic well-being outcomes. My dissertation focuses on secondary students’ perfectionism, academic and general well-being, and achievement striving, with a special focus on gender differences and developmental dynamics. Hopefully my research will produce a better understanding of the role strivings and concerns play in students’ well-being.
Anna Rawlings (anna.rawlings@uef.fi)
In my research, I examine motivation, learning, and well-being in different learning environments and among learners of different ages. I am particularly interested in how temperament guides these phenomena, processes, and their interconnections. I have started working as a grant researcher at UEF in May 2023.
I am also coordinator of FinEd, or the Finnish Multidisciplinary Doctoral Training Network on Educational Sciences (2022–).
Anna-Maija Castrén (anna-maija.castren@uef.fi)
Anna-Maija works as a Professor of Sociology at the Department of Social Sciences, University of Eastern Finland. She is the coordinator of the multi-disciplinary bachelor program (social psychology, social pedagogy, and sociology) in the UEF’s Kuopio campus. Anna-Maija did her master’s and doctoral studies at the University of Helsinki and defended her PhD on everyday social networks and their life historical formation in Helsinki and in St. Petersburg in 2001. In her post doc, she focused on the networks of personal relationships, family, and kin, after separation. Both studies were published as monographs in Finnish.
Anna-Maija has expertise in qualitative social network analysis and together with colleagues has developed the figurational perspective (also configurational perspective) in studying personal relationships. She is interested in family understandings in different settings and life-stages, in friendship, family trajectories, marriage and weddings, and paths to parenthood. Her recent works focus on the families of new-borns (in Helsinki) whose mother was not in a hetero marriage at the time of the birth. NETREP is her recent research project that focuses on young adults’ intimate futures in Finland, Portugal and Scotland in the context of global crises.
Anna-Maija is a long-time board member of the European Sociological Association’s Research Network on Families and Intimate Lives (ESA RN13) and was elected as the chair of recently funded multi-disciplinary association, the Finnish Society for Research on Families and Personal Relationships (PELS).
Annakaisa Haapasalo (annakaisa.haapasalo@uef.fi)
I am Professor in Molecular Neurodegeneration and Research Group Leader. My current research interests are: Potential synaptic dysfunction, contribution of microglia and inflammation, and alterations in protein degradation and cellular energy metabolism in the pathogenesis of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) as well as fluid biomarkers in FTD and other early onset dementias. Currently, I also coordinate the EU JPND programme-funded SynaDeg (Pre-diagnostic early synaptic disturbances in neurodegenerative diseases) project. In addition, I am Chair of the Regional Steering Group of the Kuopio Brain & Mind network belonging under the umbrella of Neurocenter Finland.
The aim of our studies is to provide new insights into the molecular basis of genetic (especially C9orf72 repeat expansion-associated) and sporadic frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and translate our findings for the benefit of the patients by discovering novel biomarker or therapeutic candidate targets.
Annalisa Savaresi (annalisa.savaresi@uef.fi)
Annalisa Savaresi is an environmental law expert with a 20-year track record working alongside international and non-governmental organizations.
Annalisa’s academic portfolio comprises more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and contributions to well-regarded collections, enjoying widespread citations, including by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
In addition to her academic work, Annalisa serves as the Director for Europe within the Global Network on Human Rights and the Environment. She also holds the role of Associate Editor at the Review of European, Comparative, and International Law and is a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law.
Annalisa is actively engaged in providing evidence to legislative bodies, including the UK, EU, and Scottish Parliaments. She further sits on the Board of Environmental Standards Scotland, a body established under the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021, which oversees the compliance of Scottish public authorities with environmental law.
Anne Väisänen (anne.vaisanen@uef.fi)
In my doctoral research, I explore the prosodic features of deceptive speech, beliefs about cues to deception, and lie detection. The primary research material consists of emergency call recordings, with a specific focus on the acoustic-prosodic features of hoax emergency calls. My research interests extend broadly to speech prosody and the impressions it creates, but I am also interested in vocal health, voice training methods, and research on these topics. I did my Master’s degree in the University of Tampere, majoring in speech technique and vocology.
My teaching experience includes instructing a wide range of speech research methods in general linguistics at the University of Eastern Finland, particularly focusing on the Praat software and evaluating voice by utilizing acoustic measurements.