UEF2020
UEF2020

Strategy

Our strategy is built around global challenges for which we seek to find solutions through interdisciplinary research and education. Research and education constitute means for creating a responsible and sustainable future.

INTERDISCIPLINARY
SOLUTIONS

Multidisciplinary, renewal-driven
and international research

I

Solutions to global challenges

Finding solutions to the complex challenges of our changing world calls for an ability to think and combine things in a novel way. Research and education are expected to provide interdisciplinary solutions and skills to create a responsible and sustainable future.

The University of Eastern Finland has identified four global challenges for which we seek to find solutions through our strong research areas rooted in the basic sciences and through research-based education that meets the challenges of tomorrow’s working life. These solutions call for multidisciplinary research collaboration, as well the identification and transparent use of different impact channels.

We build competence and generate new information in close interaction with the surrounding society. We strengthen this dialogue by making our education and research increasingly open. The university’s impact is the result of a high standard of research and high-level education.

4

global
challenges

Ageing,
lifestyles
and health

Learning in
a digitised
society

Cultural encounters,
mobilities
and borders

Environmental
change and sufficiency
of natural resources

II

Strategic outlines and goals

UEF MISSION

We are an international, multidisciplinary
and student-centred university whose high
standard of research and appealing
academic offering build the competence
base of the future.

UEF VISION

We are an internationally attractive
university, which seeks to find
interdisciplinary solutions to
global challenges.

UEF VALUES

Freedom of science,
teaching and learning

Transparency and courage

Responsibility and impact

We make use of the expertise of the entire academic community in our activities.
Our activities are guided by principles
relating to ethicality and sustainable development.

DRIVERS OF CHANGE

Open science and research

Digitalisation of information

Internationalisation of university
education

Changes in working life

Impact and interaction

Strategic goals 2020

The university’s
research is of a high international standard
and impactful.

We are ranked among the leading 200 research universities in the world and, in our focus areas in research, among the world’s leading 50 research universities.

The university’s education is based on latest research findings and we train experts for tomorrow’s working life.

We are home to Finland’s best academic learning environment and learning processes of a high standard. The university is a sought-after place to study in, our teaching is student-centred and our students graduate within the target time.

The university
is a socially
impactful actor.

We are known as a partner who takes the initiative. Through our open operating culture and extensive networks of collaboration, we carry out our educational mission and strengthen our impact.

III

Multidisciplinary, renewal-driven and
international research

The university’s research profile comprises four profile areas, in which we carry out top
-level research to solve global challenges. Multidisciplinary research and a high-level
research infrastructure constitute the foundation of our profile areas. The impact of the
profile areas is realised in open innovation ecosystems.

PROFILE AREAS in research

Finding solutions to the complex challenges
of our changing world calls for an ability
to think and combine things in a novel way. Research and education are expected to provide interdisciplinary solutions and skills
to create a responsible and sustainable future.

Ageing,
lifestyles and health

healthlife

Focus areas
in research

  • Cardiovascular and
    metabolic diseases

  • Neuroscience

  • Musculoskeletal disorders

  • Translational cancer research

Strong
expertise

  • Gene therapy

  • Genomics and epigenomics

  • Imaging and modelling

  • Nutrition and lifestyles

  • Health promotion

Expertise to be
strengthened

  • Effectiveness in healthcare
    and social services

  • Targeted drug delivery
    technology

  • Big data and bioinformatics

Learning in
a digitised society

digilearn

Focus areas
in research

  • Changes in education

  • Technology in learning and teaching

  • Intelligent technologies

Strong
expertise

  • Lifelong learning

  • Teacher education research

  • Supportive pedagogy and
    environment

  • Science pedagogy

  • Interactive learning environments

  • Digital learning and technologies

Expertise to be
strengthened

  • Modelling of learning processes

  • Intervention research

  • Participatory research
    and citizen science

  • Big data and learning analytics

Cultural encounters,
mobilities and borders

cultchange

Focus areas
in research

  • Cultural encounters

  • Mobility and society

  • European borders

Strong
expertise

  • Interdisciplinary study of Russia

  • Transnational migration

  • Linguistic and cultural contacts

  • Interdisciplinary border studies

Expertise to be
strengthened

  • Ethnographic and narrative research

  • Cognitive geographies

  • Immigration research
    methodology and policy

  • Methodologies of area studies

  • Big data and digital methods

Environmental change and
sufficiency of natural resources

sustenviron

Focus areas
in research

  • Forests, global change and bioeconomy

  • Aerosols, climate change
    and human health

  • Sustainable governance
    of natural resources

Strong
expertise

  • Aerosol physics and chemistry

  • Plant and forest ecology

  • Biogeochemistry

  • Environmental health

  • Mathematical modelling

  • Environmental policy and law

Expertise to be
strengthened

  • Energy technology

  • Business modelling

  • Geoinformatics

  • Big data and artificial intelligence

The profile areas in research are developed
within multidisciplinary research areas

Top-level international
research areas

  • Aerosols, climate change and human health

  • Cardiovascular and
    metabolic diseases

  • Forests, global change
    and bioeconomy

  • Neurosciences

  • Borders, mobilities and
    cultural encounters

Advanced-level
strong research areas

  • Photonics: theory, materials
    and applications

  • Sustainable governance
    of natural resources

  • Learning in interactive
    environments

  • Translational cancer research

  • Musculoskeletal disorders

Emerging research
areas

 

  • Identifying and supporting
    emerging research areas
    constitutes part of the
    faculties’ strategy work.

IV

A student-centred university

The University of Eastern Finland puts students, learning processes of a high standard, and student well-being first. Students participate in decision-making that is relevant to them.

Our education provides students with the skills needed in tomorrow’s working life, and it opens the door to doctoral education.

We strengthen our attractiveness by developing the content and structure of our education, as well as open learning environments.
We stand out by making available study modules that address
global challenges.

We develop our curricula on the basis of latest research findings, working life relevance and societal needs. Openness and multimodality in teaching together with our extensive education offering and flexible modes of study increase the accessibility of education and opportunities for lifelong learning.

The university’s most important contribution to society are its graduates, who have the skills needed in changing working life
and international operating environments.

The university’s multidisciplinary
education provision is comprised of three extensive education clusters:

Health

Teacher training
and education

Fields preparing
students for careers
in expert positions
and supporting the
university’s defined
profile

V

Open science creates impact

Impact constitutes part of the research and education activities of the University of Eastern Finland. Through high-level research and up-to-date education, the university generates new knowledge and innovations, and educates experts for different sectors of society.

Our open operating culture increases interaction, which boosts knowledge transfer and the commercialisation of research findings, as well as and their extensive, collaborative use with the surrounding society. Furthermore, technological solutions help make scientific research available to an increasingly wide audience, making it possible to create new applications that are based on research findings.

The channels of impact for our research and education are diverse. In the university’s profile areas, we create innovation ecosystems to implement our open operating culture. These ecosystems make it possible to create new practices in collaboration between researchers, students, companies, public institutions, organisations and citizens.

With its strong impact, our university provides support for local and global well-being alike.

VI

An encouraging academic community

The university’s staff and students are its most important asset. The university is an international, creative, encouraging and dialogue-driven scientific community, and an active and responsible actor in society.

Achieving the university’s strategic goals calls for making bold choices, and we allocate our human resources accordingly. We offer our teachers and researchers a goal-oriented and incentive career model.

Our leadership system steers the university’s activities and supports the realisation of strategic choices at all levels of leadership. We develop supporting services for leadership and the management of human resources so as to allow the staff to focus on duties that correspond to their expertise at different stages of their careers. Our administrative and supporting processes are effective, allowing our teaching and research staff to focus on their core duties.

Staff

A skilled and motivated
resource that implements
the strategy.

Scientific community

Creative, rewarding
and tolerant. Multicultural
and encouraging of
international cooperation.

Implementers
of the strategy

staff | students | partners

VII

An internationally recognised university

Our goal is to significantly improve the international and national image, reputation and attractiveness of the University of Eastern Finland by 2020.

We strengthen international education and research collaboration together with our key strategic partners. We take the initiative in establishing international networks and consortia in research and education alike.

We take an active role in the international education markets by making available Master’s degree programmes that are based on our strong expertise in research, as well as module-based studies.

In order to enhance our competitiveness, we support our staff members’ international mobility periods in the leading universities and research institutes of their fields. We make efficient use of mobility schemes and funding opportunities which promote the mobility of students, teachers and researchers.