vera presentation by ilkka liikanen, uef
TRANSCRIPT
Karelian Institute
Ilkka LiikanenProfessor, Director of the VERA CentreUniversity of Eastern Finland (UEF)
Cross-border Cooperation and the Research Profile of the UEF
Karelian Institute
UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND (UEF) UEF WAS ESTABLISHED IN 2010 AS THE RESULT OF THE MERGER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF JOENSUU AND THE UNIVERSITY OF KUOPIO
Three campuses:Joensuu, Kuopio, Savonlinna
15.000 students
15.000 students in Open university & continuation education
2574 staff
Four faculties: Science and Forestry, Health Sciences,
Philosophical, Social Sciences and Business Studies
Karelian Institute
RUSSIAN AND BORDER STUDIES AT THE UEF
Today one of the rising new areas of expertise in strategy of the UEF
“Broad-based Expertise Pertaining to Russia”
“In research relating to Russia and the European borders, border regions and fringe areas, the university seeks to reach the international top level… “
Karelian Institute
VERA Centre established in October 2013
Building a multi-disciplinary research community across faculty and department lines
The project for establishing the VERA Centre
Started in the spring 2011
Funded by the European Social Fund, Regional Council of North Karelia and the UEF
CENTRE FOR RUSSIAN AND BORDER STUDIES
Karelian Institute
PROFILE OF RESEARCH EXPERTISE
Research themes:
1. Power, institutions and beliefs in Russia and bordering landslead by Prof. Jeremy Smith (history)
2. European borders and neighborhoodlead by Prof. James Scott (human geography)
3. Transitions in border regionslead by Prof. Laura Assmuth (social policy)
4. Cross-border cultural interaction: tendencies, ideas and concepts on the movelead by Prof. Maija Könönen (Russian language)
5. Tourism, business and Russialead by Prof. Antti Honkanen (Tourism research)
Karelian Institute
•Strong international research community, 20 professors, 30 post-doc researchers
•High profile in international publishing•Successful graduate training•Strong external funding 2011-2013
VERA CENTRE FOR RUSSIAN AND BORDER STUDIES
EU, FP 7, ESPON, ESFFinnish ministriesAcademy of FinlandESR, ENPIFoundationsTotal
885 9521 688 2792 171 933931 310949 1046 626 579
Karelian Institute
•2013 5 dissertations, as many as during the two first decades of Joensuu university (before 1991)•During the two decades following the opening of the border the number of dissertations seven times bigger than earlier•Number of dissertations during the three first years of UEF doubled and lets us expect that the growth will continue•Young scholars – the guarantee of the future of Russian and border studies
Rise of Russian and Border Studies
Karelian Institute
•1991 from para-diplomatic to project based research cooperation
•First projects with scholars in Petrozavodsk and St Petersburg•Comparative research tradition counterbalancing the weakness in Russian studies
•1995 Finnish EU membership and the deepening cooperation with the support of Interreg projects
•1997 European peripheral and border areas as a focal area of Joensuu university strategy•BRIT conference as the starting point for international cooperation in the field of border studies (with sessions in Sortavala)
•2003 onwards, participation with Russian scholars in ENPI projects and 4 EU FP projects
•Russia and borders as focal area in the strategy of Joensuu university
•Cross-border cooperation with Russian scholars as a springboard to international research cooperation
CBC as starting point for the rise of Russian and border studies
Karelian Institute
INTERNATIONAL LEVEL EXPERTISEON BASES OF FINNISH-RUSSIAN
COOPERATIONChallenge today is to strengthen the international profile
through further specialization
Vision:Leading research unit in
Russian and Border Studies
Building on position as• Number one Russia expert in the field of Border studies• Number one expert on borders and border areas in field of
Russian studies
Karelian Institute
Thank You!
The VERA Centre for Russian and Border Studies http://www.uef.fi/veraUniversity of Eastern Finland, Karelian Institute, Aurora II
Building,Yliopistokatu 2, FI-80100 Joensuu, Finland
• Ilkka Liikanen, Director of the Centre• Joni Virkkunen, Head of Research• Minna Piipponen, Head of Education• Tatjana Lipiäinen, International Affairs Officer
Tel. +358 (0)294 45 1111 Emails: [email protected]