CoE Programme 2026–2033

Blande, James UEF; Hao, Liqing UEF; Hellén, Heidi FMI; Huynh, Tan Phat ÅAU; Joutsensaari, Jorma UEF; Kivimäenpää, Minna Luke; Pinto Zevallos, Delia Milagros UEF; Salminen, Juha-Pekka UT

A diverse array of ecological interactions in forest ecosystems is mediated by biological chemicals. These include volatile compounds that function as information-bearing odours, as well as defence-related toxins. Recent research indicates that air pollution affects chemically mediated interactions in complex ways. Importantly, findings suggest that information encoded in chemical cues may change in time and space in ways that have not previously been documented.

The ACE-Forest Centre of Excellence investigates biochemicals across soil and atmospheric environments. The research spans defence-related plant polyphenols, through volatile compounds, to their reaction products in the atmosphere. The aim of the CoE is to establish a new branch of chemical ecology that integrates processes operating at the biosphere–atmosphere interface.

Heikkilä, Tero UJ; Hakonen, Pertti AU; Lado, Jose AU; Ojanen, Teemu TU; Prunnila, Mika VTT; Shawulienu, Kezilebieke UJ; Sun, Zhipei AU; Törmä, Päivi AU

The present information society builds on our ability to customise the properties of materials according to their intended use. This ability is based on our understanding of the microscopic structure of materials. The understanding is, however, far from complete, as we cannot properly control many of the macroscopic quantum properties of matter, such as quantum entanglement.

The aim of the Centre of Excellence in Quantum Materials is to build foundations for future materials technologies. The CoE will provide fundamental new information about quantum properties of materials by harnessing two-dimensional materials, electric and optical measurement techniques, artificial intelligence and quantum computing. In recent years, technological advances made in all these areas have been very rapid. The CoE will create and characterise novel quantum materials whose functionality can be used in electronics and photonics applications.

Katajisto, Pekka UH; Balboa, Diego UH; Helle, Emmi UH; Hietakangas, Ville Ilmari UH; Ikonen, Elina Maria UH; Najumudeen, Arafath Kaja UH; Wartiovaara, Anu UH

Metabolism constitutes the chemical foundations of life. In living organisms, such as humans, metabolism is divided into compartments. In these compartments, each cell organ, cell and tissue has its own internal metabolism. However, the separate metabolic compartments are interconnected as they exchange metabolites in a strictly regulated manner. The compartments form an interconnected and integrated metabolic network, where a change in one compartment is also reflected in another compartment.

The Centre of Excellence in Metabolic Integration (MetaScale) will explore how metabolic networks develop as cells differentiate and how they respond to external changes. In many diseases, such as diabetes or mitochondrial diseases, metabolism works in an abnormal manner. The CoE also aims to understand how the functioning of metabolic networks becomes disturbed in these conditions. This information will be applied to developing new precision therapies.

Kivimäki, Ville FLS; Savolainen, Ulla UH; Vahtikari, Tanja TU; Östman, Ann-Catrin ÅAU

The Centre of Excellence in Nationalism Research in the Humanities studies nationalism particularly from the perspectives of historical scholarship and cultural memory studies. Its research task is to explore how people’s experiences, emotions and memories interact with national systems of meaning-making, and how nations are constructed in human action.

The unit uses and develops approaches and concepts of everyday and personal nationalism, minority nationalism, memory studies, national indifference and critical archival studies. The aim of the CoE is to explain how nationalism works in practice, how it influences the lives of different groups of people, and to expand our understanding of nationalism’s various manifestations and functions.

Lummaa, Virpi UT; Laippala, Veronika UT; Onkamo, Päivi UT; Vesakoski, Outi UT

The human biological, linguistic and cultural diversity has developed through continuous contacts between populations. The Centre of Excellence for Human Diversity through Contacts (HuDi-Con) will bring together researchers of genetics, lifecycle research, computational historical linguistics and digital language research.

The CoE will create a new perspective on how contacts between people have shaped human diversity as we know it now, and how they will continue to shape future generations. The team includes evolutionary biologists and demographers, linguists, AI specialists and archaeologists. The research will utilise unique data that do not exist elsewhere in the world. The research results of the CoE will help develop better policies on migration and social integration and public health research. The results will also enhance the forecasting of how our genomes, cultures and epidemiology will change in the future.

Mäkinen, Taija UH; Jacquemet, Guillaume ÅAU; Sahlgren, Cecilia ÅAU; Vaahtomeri, Kari UH

Our immune system protects the body against infections and diseases, and recent advances in immunotherapy have transformed the treatment options for several cancers in particular. However, when immune activity becomes dysregulated, it can drive chronic inflammation or trigger autoimmune diseases. Although the systemic immune regulation of the whole body is increasingly well understood, it has become clear that crucial regulatory processes also occur locally within inflamed tissues. These local mechanisms, however, remain poorly characterised.

IMMENs focuses on uncovering how the endothelial cells lining lymphatic vessels communicate with immune cells and control their functions. The CoE will develop new methods and tools for studying these interactions. By identifying molecular mechanisms that regulate local immune responses more precisely, the CoE will pave the way for more precise and effective treatment strategies in the future.

Palmroth, Minna UH; Aikio, Anita UO; Juusola, Liisa FMI; Kilpua, Emilia UH; Praks, Jaan AU; Vainio, Rami UT

Near-Earth space utilisation is under a dramatic transition: commercial use of space, space-related regulation and geopolitics are changing. Furthermore, the demand for green and digital transition is growing rapidly. All these rely increasingly on satellite technologies, making society increasingly dependent on space. Two issues in particular are of great importance for the future: the use of Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) under 450 km altitudes and the reliability of satellites under the most extreme space weather conditions.

The Centre of Excellence in Space Resilience brings together leading space physics and technology experts in Finland in the same consortium. The consortium’s world-wide unique combination of modelling and observations in the near-Earth space will provide new quantitative information on the characteristics of the ionosphere–thermosphere system both during moderate and extreme space weather conditions. The CoE will crucially improve the resilience of society in ever-changing space conditions.

Pihlström, Sami UH; Kivistö, Sari TU; Koistinen, Timo UH; Mäkinen, Virpi UH; Utriainen, Terhi UH

According to meliorist philosophy (Lat. melior, better), the world is neither the worst nor the best that we can have but it can be made better through human actions. According to meliorist thinking, a positive outcome is neither guaranteed (optimism) nor impossible (pessimism) but something we may hope for if we do our best to actively make it real. Serious hope in our times must recognise the realities of the human condition, criticising the illusory promises of naive optimism. Given the significance of suffering as constitutive of the human condition, the philosophy of suffering does not occupy an adequate place within philosophical research.

The interdisciplinary Centre of Excellence in Meliorist Philosophy of Suffering will place suffering at the centre of philosophical reflection and offer conceptual tools for a deeper understanding of suffering and our approaches to it. The starting point is the meliorist idea that the world can and should be made better by means of piecemeal human efforts. Integrating philosophy with more general humanities-based approaches, the unit will develop an empirically enriched, pragmatically meliorist philosophy of suffering. The research work of the CoE will renew both academic and societal discourse.

Tuittila, Eeva-Stiina UEF; Aalto, Tuula FMI; Lohila, Annalea FMI; Rautiainen, Miina AU; Väliranta, Minna UH

The Centre of Excellence in Peatlands, Climate Change and Restoration studies the ongoing change in northern peatlands: how climate change impacts their biodiversity and climate response, and how upcoming large-scale restoration in Finland and elsewhere in Europe will affect them. The CoE also examines how to make informed decisions on restoration if its impacts on biodiversity and climate conflict. In its research, the unit combines long time series, palaeoecology, remote sensing, experimental ecological research, modelling and disaggregative decision support methods in a novel and original way.

The research will be carried out as a joint project of researchers operating at the Universities of Eastern Finland, Helsinki and Aalto and the Finnish Meteorological Institute, and in close cooperation with leading international researchers and stakeholders. The CoE will educate new experts to solve problems that require multidisciplinary understanding.

Valkonen, Sanna UL; Viikari, Lotta UL; Virtanen, Pirjo UH

In Indigenous thought, as well as political and legal orders, humans and their social worlds are indivisible from the environment: humans co-construct shared societies with other beings.

The Centre of Excellence Towards Multibeing Justice. Humanity and Human Responsibility in Indigenous Societies studies the ultimate human responsibility for ensuring a good and just life for all life forms. The CoE is developing the concept of multibeing justice to encapsulate both Indigenous understandings of justice, which are rooted in relational ontologies, and the potential for this perspective to radically rethink Western legal frameworks. The CoE’s transdisciplinary research draws on Indigenous thought, knowledge systems and conceptual frameworks, which are brought into dialogue with human, social, environmental and legal sciences.

Vuorinen, Aleksi UH; Kankainen, Anu UJ; Kortelainen, Markus UJ; Nättilä, Joonas UH; Poutanen, Juri UT

Neutron stars – collapsed remnants of massive stars – contain the densest matter in the observable Universe, with one teaspoon of their interiors weighing a staggering 10 million tons. Despite the extremely small size of neutron stars, in recent years a vast amount of data has been gathered on neutron stars and the matter they contain by means of gravitational-wave and X-ray observations.

The Centre of Excellence in Neutron-Star Physics will join nuclear, particle and astrophysics experts at Finnish universities to work on a common goal. The CoE’s aim is to better understand the structure and properties of neutron stars and to solve mysteries of fundamental physics related to stars. The research will focus, among other things, on the structure and dynamics of the neutron-star surface and magnetosphere, aiming to use them to solve the origins of heavy elements and fast radio bursts. In addition, the CoE will explore if a new phase of matter, quark matter, can be found inside neutron-star cores.