Tomi Tuovinen ([email protected])
I work in Business Center North Savo -activities as a representative of UEF dealing with various services related to entrepreneurship and commercialization of innovation.
In a nutshell, I help students and researchers in commercialization of their business ideas. I also aim to develop the local startup culture.
Activities include e.g., running idea accelerator programme called “Havuja Bootcamp”, promoting our commercialization services among students of the University, and miscellaneous cooperation with companies and other stakeholders.
In addition, I am involved in YUFE (Young Universities for the Future of Europe) -activities in workpackages related to entrepreneurship.
Tommi Laukkanen ([email protected])
Adjunct Professor of digital consumer behavior and quantitative market research, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki
Associate Editor, International Marketing Review
Professor Laukkanen’s research contributes to marketing analytics, innovation adoption and resistance, consumer behavior, sensory research, and international marketing. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed international scientific articles and is globally among the leading scholars in electronic banking. His works have appeared in journals such as Journal of World Business, Journal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, International Marketing Review, Tourism Management, Journal of Small Business Management, International Journal of Information Management, International Journal of Bank Marketing, and others. He serves in editorial boards of International Journal of Information Management, International Journal of Bank Marketing, and International Journal of Electronic Finance. He is an active member of the scientific community and has presented his research results globally in North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania.
Towards a longitudinal model of eco-innovation adoption: A cross-national study (LOMO-ECO)
Trang Nguyen ([email protected])
Trang Nguyen is a project assistant at the Karelian Institute.
She works primarily under the Interreg Europe project “Actions for inducing SME growth and innovation via the ECoC event and legacy” (ECoC-SME), supporting the whole project partnership in realising more effective communication and dissemination of the project’s achievements.
Ms. Nguyen holds a BBA in International Business.
Veli-Matti Maltamo ([email protected])
Matti Maltamo is currently a Professor of forest mensuration science with the Faculty of Science and Forestry, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu.
He has also been a Visiting Professor at the research group of Prof. Erik Naesset at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, As, Norway. He was together with Naesset and Jari Vauhkonen, the editor of the textbook Forestry Applications of Airborne Laser Scanning—Concepts and Case Studies published by Springer in 2014. He has authored over 200 scientifically refereed papers. His research interests include forestry applications of ALS.
Dr. Maltamo is an Editor-in-chief of the Silva Fennica. He was a recipient together with Prof. Juha Hyyppä the First Innovation prize of the Finnish Society of Forest Science in 2010 about “Bringing airborne laser scanning to Finland, and the bronze A.K. Cajander Medal of the Finnish Society of Forest Science, 2012.
https://scholar.google.fi/citations?user=RrEBDK8AAAAJ&hl=fi
WInEco – Water Innovation Ecosystem
Xiaoyue Hu ([email protected])
Xiaoyue Hu is a doctoral researcher in social work at the University of Eastern Finland.
Her work sits at the intersection of implementation science and community-and home-based care for older adults, with a particular interest in dementia care and in how AI and digital technologies can be put to use in their everyday practice. Her research is also supported by the TWIN4CARE Horizon Europe project
TWIN4CARE addresses this challenge by developing and testing interdisciplinary participatory methods that enable care workers, older adults, and family caregivers to meaningfully shape trustworthy welfare technologies across institutional and home care settings
Before coming to Finland, she served as a research assistant at the Fudan-Harvard Centre for Medical Anthropology and the Fudan University Centre for Social Governance Research Center, where she was deeply involved in projects funded by the National Social Science Fund of China and the Ministry of Education’s Major Research Programme on Philosophy and Social Sciences. These projects addressed topics such as social service support systems for the elderly and people with disabilities, and innovations in governance mechanisms for megacities.
Xingyue Su ([email protected])
Responsible AI-Assisted Elder Care in Finland and China: Trust, Sustainability and Occupational Well-Being of Professional Care Workers
My research explores the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and welfare technologies into gerontological social work practice, with a focus on enhancing the occupational well-being of care workers in elder care. I am interested in how technology-enhanced social work interventions can support older adults. My work adopts a comparative perspective, primarily examining practices and policies in Finland and China, to better understand how digital interventions and AI-supported care influence both care outcomes and workforce sustainability in aging societies.
AI for Mindful Care and Aging (2026-2029)
Project Researcher
AI is viewed as a promising and inevitable development in home care, with the potential to tackle challenges linked to societal aging, such as diverse care needs, workforce shortages, and inefficiencies in welfare systems. However, its implementation raises ethical concerns about how AI may produce or exacerbate vulnerability through exclusion, marginalization, labor exploitation, and emerging risks for older adults and care workers. This project examines how vulnerability is constructed, negotiated, and practiced in using and implementing AI-automated home care in Estonia, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. It focuses on four empirical dimensions: (1) how AI, aging, and care are represented in regulatory frameworks; (2) how innovation leaders frame user needs, opportunities, risks, and worst-case scenarios; (3) how older adults perceive and experience AI in home care; and (4) how care workers respond to AI integration in the workplace. We propose “vulnerability intersections” as a conceptual approach to examine how vulnerability emerges at the intersection of biographical histories, social identities, and shifting structural conditions. The project draws on political economy, life course theory, intersectionality, and the sociology of translation to enable a multi-level understanding of vulnerability as socially and institutionally produced.
Empirically, the study examines policy texts, expert interviews with innovation leaders, and life course narratives of older adults and care workers, using qualitative methods. A critical and comparative perspective informs analysis, ensuring sensitivity to cross-country variations in sociocultural contexts. The project will generate new knowledge on how AI-driven automation shapes care experiences, labor, inequality, and welfare systems, while informing policy and practice by identifying structural disadvantages and highlighting promising and problematic responses to vulnerability. To maximize societal impact, we will implement a targeted communication, dissemination, and stakeholder engagement strategy to involve policymakers, practitioners, and the public in support of strengthening social resilience of older adults and care workers and fostering ethical and responsible use of AI. An interdisciplinary team of early-stage, junior, and senior researchers will conduct the research, supported by capacity building and academic exchange activities.