The economy and the environment are fundamental elements of sustainable Finnish, European and indeed global futures. The EU continues to strive towards a more competitive economy, while it at the same time faces enormous environmental challenges in many areas from resource use to biodiversity and climate change. Moreover, these environmental and economic challenges are tightly intertwined. The search for increasing global welfare needs to take place within the limited boundaries of the natural resources available today and for the generations to come. This challenge promises on the other hand also opportunities for those that are the most advanced in “greening their economies”.

These societal challenges and opportunities are at the core my professorship on the “circular economy” and the EU and international economic law. The societal objectives and the support for achieving them takes to a notable extent place in the laws and policies that govern the fast evolving environmental and economic sectors, and their interactions in Finland, the EU and beyond. The objective of my professorship is to deliver theoretically advanced, interdisciplinary and policy relevant research and education on this environment-economy nexus, focusing on the circular economy, sustainable trade agreements and green public procurement.

While pursuing this vision, I have engaged in the development of legal theories on e.g. the role of law in sustainability transitions, the notion of extended producer responsibility, ‘flexilateralism’ in EU trade policy, ‘market access’ in EU internal market law, as well as the interstate law heuristics of the EU and the USA. My  methodological contributions include  ‘comparative judicial discourse analysis’ as well as approaches to legal ‘coherence’ and the ‘softness’ of governance instruments. Empirically, my research has investigated e.g. the mechanisms of mediating environmental and economic considerations in law, the coherence between EU trade policy and the European Green Deal, the interactions between of data law and competition law, and of competition law with trade law. I frame my work through significant societal questions, such as waste electronics, electric vehicles, pirated content online and the sustainability of aviation fuels, usually in the context research projects funded by e.g. Academy of Finland, Strategic Research Council (STN), HorizonEurope, LIFE and ERASMUS+. My PhD in 2004 (‘e-Cycling’) was amongst the first broad legal analyses of what has become known as ‘the circular economy’.

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Head of Financial Services Unit which comprises Financial Administration and Facilities Management Services. Guidance and support in financial issues, investments.
Donations also [email protected].

Hi! I’m Helena, a postdoctoral researcher in the field of social psychology. I work in a research project “Intergroup relations and local encounters” which is funded by the Kone Foundation and led by Associate Professor Jari Martikainen from the University of Eastern Finland. The research project focuses on studying how Ukrainian, Middle Eastern, and Finnish young people living in the Savo area perceive each other, their lives, and their future in multicultural Savo. In my own research, I focus on how people’s representations of themselves and others shape their actions in society and intergroup relations through qualitative research. Alongside the research itself, I teach and supervise in the subject of social psychology. In my doctoral thesis, published in 2025, I studied Finnish lay people’s perceptions of populism. In my research, I delved into how voters for the radical right populist Finns Party and other parties constructed social divisions in the interview data. My dissertation was a part of a larger research project called “Mobilizing Populism”, which was lead by Professor Inari Sakki from the University o Helsinki. My doctoral thesis and its sub-studies are listed below:

• Rovamo, H. (2025). ”Aren’t they accusing the Finns Party of being populist?” Dialogical construction of social categories in Finnish voters’ discourse. Doctoral dissertation. Dissertations in Social Sciences and Business Studies, 354. University of Eastern Finland. https://erepo.uef.fi/items/6aafd684-511a-4c28-beed-0f81ee5e85e4
• Rovamo, H., Pettersson, K., & Sakki, I. (2023). Who’s to blame for failed integration of immigrants? Blame attributions as an affectively polarizing force in lay discussions of immigration in Finland. Political Psychology, 45(2), 235–258. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12917
• Rovamo, H., & Sakki, I. (2023). Lay representations of populism: discursive negotiation of naturalized social representation. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology., 34(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2755
• Rovamo, H., & Sakki, I. (2024). Mobilization of shared victimhood in the radical right populist Finns Party supporters’ identity work: A narrative-discursive approach to populist support. European Journal of Social Psychology, 54(2), 495–512. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.3021

Before my studies in social sciences, I graduated as a nurse from the Savonia University of Applied Sciences. I consider that my professional strengths are, on the one hand, my ability to be analytical and systematic and, on the other, my ability to listen and have empathy towards others. In my work, I get excited about learning or practicing something new every day. I enjoy conversations and listening to others. I sometimes immerse myself in details, but I also love to outline big patterns.