Dr. Kaisa Huhta is a Professor of European law, especially energy law at the UEF Law School and the Co-Director of the Centre for Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Law. She also holds a part-time professorship at the European University Institute’s Florence School of Regulation. In addition to her professorships, Dr. Huhta is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Energy and Natural Resources Law. She is also an expert member of the Finnish Market Court and actively carries out consultancy work in the field of EU and Finnish energy law.
Dr Huhta’s research focuses on EU energy law. She is the principal investigator of the INTEL project (funded by the European Research Council, 2024-2029) and the FOUNDATIONS project (funded by the Academy of Finland, 2024-2028), which seek to develop the foundations of energy law in Europe. She is also a work package leader in the RELIEF project (2023-2026), funded by the Strategic Research Council, which studies the role of law in sustainability transformations.
Dr. Huhta has published in top level international journals such as the European Law Review, the International and Comparative Law Quarterly and Global Environmental Change. In total, she has published more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, books, book chapters, expert statements and other publications. Previously, she has been a visiting researcher at the University of Oxford, the European University Institute (EUI), the University of Tilburg, the University of Iceland and the University of Waikato.
Dr. Huhta’s lecturing responsibilities at the UEF Law School has covered courses in general EU law as well as energy law. She supervises Master’s theses in energy law and EU law. She also teaches research methodologies to doctoral researchers. She is available to supervise doctoral candidates in the field of energy law.
I am a Doctoral researcher at the Center of Welfare and Law at UEF.
My research is socio-legal scholar, I research Law with social scientific methods. My background is in political/social sciences. I am interested in the effects and interplay of both legal and and non-legal norms to people’s lives.
In my PhD dissertation I am researching the legal consciousness, access to justice and well-being of LGBTIQA+ people in the context of intimate relationship troubles.
My research interests are broadly in the rights, legal consciousness, access to justice and well-being of societally marginalized and vulnerable people.
I work as Director of the UniPID network. The Finnish University Partnership for International Development (UniPID) is a network of ten Finnish universities that has the mission to strengthen the capacity of member universities to enhance global responsibility and Global South perspectives in their education, research, and societal engagement. UniPID promotes equitable and inclusive global partnerships that advance sustainable development.
Responsible for:
- Directing and strategic planning of UniPID activities, board management
- UniPID operational team leader
- Financial planning and management
- Member university engagement
- Strategic partnerships and national tasks and responsibilities
- Global South partnerships
- TFK Globus project
- Administration and co-coordination of the Finnish Scholar Protection Scheme
Key policy dialogue areas:
- Higher education internationalization and global responsibility
- Development policy and cooperation
My tasks include coordinating our development of researcher training, as well as developing the study administration of doctoral education together with the faculties and doctoral programs. I also participate in the activities of the national doctoral education network.
Kaisa Näkki (LL.D./LL.M., trained on the bench) is a postdoctoral researcher at the Law School. Her current research focuses on the rights of older persons.
Näkki’s interdisciplinary doctoral dissertation Assessment of Mental Capacity and the Need for Legal Guardianship in Individuals with Dementia: Legal and Medical Perspectives, integrates socio‑legal studies, guardianship law, and neurology.
Näkki has previously worked as an attorney-at-law and a licensed trial counsel.
Näkki is a member of the European Law and Ageing Network (ELAN) and the Finnish network of experts on elder law (VAASI).
Kaisa Paldanius is a Doctor of Philosophy (biochemistry, molecular neurobiology) who is the scientific coordinator of international EU-funded research projects on ageing and dementia risk prevention: AD-RIDDLE, Prominent and 2D-BioPAD. Kaisa has over 20 years of experience in academic research as well as preclinical phase research in a global CRO company. She utilizes these skills in a variety of development and communication tasks at the Brain Research Unit.
I work as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education, and I lead the Support for Lifelong Learning research group, where we study learning, participation, and well-being from a lifelong learning perspective. I utilize diverse research methods, with an emphasis on visual and participatory approaches. I have participated in numerous transdisciplinary research projects both nationally and internationally. Currently I coordinate a Horizon Europe project called Supporting the mental health of youth in education, training and work – SUPPORT-Y (2026-2031). I have worked as a visiting scholar at Queensland University of Technology in Australia, Karlstad University in Sweden, and the University of Siegen in Germany. In addition to research, I teach and supervise master’s and doctoral students. I hold the title of Docent in Lifelong Learning at the University of Lapland.
Coordinating and tutoring teacher in the Bachelor´s degree programme in Human and Planetary Health.
Researcher in the Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition in the Faculty of Health Sciences in the Food and Health research group.
I have knowhow in food analysis, microbiology, microplastics, clinical nutrition interventions and biorefining, and special expertise in analysis of volatile compounds (GC-MS).
I am also a contact person of Food Valley network, which is promoting the local food sector.
Kaisa Viinikka (PhD, ThM, M.Soc.Sc) is a teacher of Evangelical Lutheran religion, psychology, history and social studies. In addition, she has the qualifications of principal and priest. Viinika’s teaching is especially related to pedagogy of religion. Her research interests focus on religious education pre- and in-service teachers, religious education, professional development and teacher education.
I am a music researcher, ethnomusicologist and music educator. Since January 2025 I work as a senior researcher at the University of Eastern Finland in the “SOMECO – Sonic Mediations and Ecocritical Listening” project, funded by the Research Council of Finland. My earlier research, especially my doctoral research (Åbo Akademi university 2017), has focused on the ubiquitous music of everyday life, explicitly on practices related to the use of recorded music during team sporting events in Finland. I am a founding member of the Research Association Suoni and 2021–2024 I was a part of the association’s research project “Music Researchers in Society: Advancing Social Justice through Activist Music Research”. In the project I focused on musical practices of the sports movement (c.1875–1939).
In the spring of 2021, I received the Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy’s Bernadotte Scholarship and served as a visiting researcher at Umeå University (ethnology) 2021-2023. In 2024 I was appointed as corresponding member of the Academy. Earlier in my career I have had various roles as a teacher and an administrator in both basic arts and vocational education in Finland. I also work as a freelance music critic for the Swedish language press in Finland.
