NOVEL Postdoctoral Programme offers research possibilities in four research areas: Prevention and Care; Methods and Data; Innovation and Society; and Ethics and Well-being. You will define your own research topic within these four broad areas.
NOVEL research areas
We target diverse talents and a variety of brain health research perspectives. We welcome researchers from diverse social, cultural and disciplinary backgrounds, and accommodate interdisciplinary research designs.
We are recruiting Postdoctoral Researchers into two research areas per call. The first call focuses on the research areas of Prevention and Care as well as Methods and Data. The second call focuses on the research areas of Innovation and Society as well as Ethics and Wellbeing.
Call 1: March 2025-May 2025
Nine positions are open in the first call in two research ares: Prevention and care and Methods and data.
Research Areas 1 and 2: Prevention and Care & Methods and Data
Both genetics and environmental factors contribute to brain diseases, with environmental and lifestyle factors significantly influencing their global burden. In addition to genetics contributing to the disease risk, we emphasize the importance of environmental and lifestyle factors. Effective prevention will require integrating large exposure datasets, multi-omics, imaging, epigenetics, and advanced data analytics to uncover biomarkers, assess disease risk and suitability of treatments. This knowledge will support better personal lifestyle choices, identify therapeutic targets, reduce healthcare costs, and guide regulatory efforts to protect public health.
We also actively develop human-based disease models and technologies related to the use of human brain tissue samples. iPSC technologies, patient brain biopsies and resections, and novel human-based cellular models will be used to study genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors in brain disorders. These efforts are complemented by studies on living human brain material using electrophysiology, single-cell technologies, and omics approaches to bridge preclinical findings with clinical applications.
By integrating human-based models and advanced methodologies, we aim to uncover disease mechanisms, identify therapeutic targets, and develop novel diagnostic and prognostic tools. Approaches include omics-based analyses (transcriptomics, epigenomics, proteomics), imaging, behavioral studies, deep phenotyping, electrophysiology, histopathology, and AI-driven neuroinformatics, enabling personalized insights into brain disorders. We actively develop new AI-based approaches to answer the needs in analyzing and integrating heterogenous brain data originating from a variety of sources and measurements.
Research Groups in These Areas
Here you can find the research group descriptions for the research areas Innovation in society and Ethics and wellbeingincluding information about the leader(s) of the group, faculty, group composition, and the group’s contact details. The group descriptions are in alphabetical order.
You can find videos of the research group leaders presenting their groups on our YouTube channel. We are currently uploading the videos, so stay tuned!
Leader: Dr. Riikka Martikainen, Research Director in Stem Cell Center
Faculty: A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences
The Stem Cell Center at A.I. Virtanen Institute, Kuopio campus of the University of Eastern Finland uses stem cell technology to develop models for human disease. Our own research focuses on mitochondrial diseases and common neurodegenerative diseases, like Parkinsons disease. We also serve as a service platform at Biocenter Kuopio and provide generation of pluripotent stem cells from material provided by the clients.
Induced pluripotent stem cells, iPSC- cells, have revolutionised the use of patient material in research. iPS-derived cells can serve as models to study human development or pathophysiological mechanisms of diseases. They can also be used in drug trials and lead to development of novel treatments or discovery of biomarkers.
We utilise this technology to generate patient derived cell models for research purposes focusing on neuronal and cardiac disease.
Leader: Dr. Pauli Miettinen, Professor of Data Science
Faculty: School of Computing, Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology
Group Composition: The Algorithmic Data Analysis research group, led by Prof. Miettinen, currently consists of a university lecturer, a post doc and three PhD researchers.
Contact: Pauli Miettinen, pauli.miettinen(at)uef.fi
The group develops new data analysis methods and studies their applications, concentrating on interpretable methods such as redescription mining, graph mining, and matrix and tensor decompositions, with applications ranging from palaeontology to neuroscience. You have the opportunity to work with expert data scientists and method developers in tight collaboration with clinical experts, such as Ville Leinonen, and experts in medical imaging analysis, such as Jussi Tohka.
Leader: Dr. Jussi Tohka, Professor of Biomedical Image Analysis
Faculty: A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences
Group Composition: 1 professor, 1 post-doctoral researcher, 1 academy reseach fellow, 1 visiting researcher
Rapid advances in non-invasive neuroimaging methods have revolutionized the possibilities to study changes occurring in living brain across a variety of time-scales ranging from seconds to an entire life span. A large part of these advances can be attributed to the development of dedicated computational algorithms, which are essential in extracting quantitative information from images. The group develops such computational methods to analyze the brain imaging data.
Our current research focus lies in identifying biomarkers of brain disorders from neuroimaging data, which is an exciting and rapidly growing research area at the intersection of machine learning, biomedical engineering and neuroscience. Conventional approaches towards imaging biomarkers reduce the data dimensionality by averaging the image information to one or few variables of a-priori interest – for example, the volume of Hippocampus for Alzheimer’s diagnosis. However, such methods discard much information present in brain images. Instead, allowing machine learning algorithms to decide what is important and decipher the predictive pattern (sometimes called statistical biomarker) is projected to be beneficial. This leads to challenging and underconstrained machine learning problems where the data dimensionality is larger than the number of samples and advanced computational techniques are required to solve these problems. We develop these techniques and apply to them to large brain image databases to help neuroscientists to find imaging markers to different brain disorders.
Magnetic resonance techniques have shown great success for non-invasive detection of structural, metabolic and functional abnormalities in progressive pathologies. Our goal is to address fundamental neurobiological questions using modern MRI technology in combination with disease models. We use the latest existing MRI methodologies as well as develop novel (f)MRI techniques in order to understand how the brain functions and to find surrogate markers for processes associated with neurodegenerative diseases. The recent interest area has been a combination of novel fMRI techniques with brain stimulation and electrical recording in anesthetized and awake animals. The search for clinically relevant, non-invasive surrogate markers for neurodegenerative processes is of ultimate importance, both for clinical patient management and for the development of specific drugs for treating these processes.
Leader: Dr. Katja Kanninen, Professor of Cellular Neurobiology
Faculty: A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences
Group Composition: A highly multidisciplinary team currently including 1 senior researcher, 2 postdocs, 6 PhD students, 1 technician, and several trainees.
The Kanninen lab investigates how environmental factors impact brain health. The technical skillset of the group ranges from human cell modelling, animal studies, multiomics, and computational analysis expertise. You will have the opportunity to work in a highly interdisciplinary environment and interact with neuroscientists, environmental scientists, computational scientists, and clinicians.
Clinical Epilepsy Research build upon close collaboration between researchers within the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital Epilepsy Center. Professor Reetta Kälviäinen leads the research group with the focus on clinical epileptology including identifying biomarkers of seizure activity, epileptogenesis, progression, and drug-resistancy in cohorts of newly diagnosed and drug-resistant chronic patients. These aspects of scientific projects are combined with therapeutic neuropharmacological and neurosurgical interventions. The group uses genetic data from carefully phenotyped patient cohorts to discover genes related to epilepsy syndromes and to characterize patient disease trajectories. Reetta Kälviäinen is an expert on rare, neurodegenerative progressive myoclonus epilepsies and has collected and deep-phenotyped the largest cohort of progressive myoclonus type 1 (EPM1) patients in the world.
The overall objective of the clinical epilepsy group is to optimize the treatment outcomes of patients with epilepsy both using current therapies but also striving to develop new more effective and safer treatments for tomorrow. Our group achieves these goals through a multi-disciplinary team of investigators including specialists in adult and pediatric epileptology, neuropsychology, neurophysiology, neuroradiology, neuropathology, and genetics. We also immediately incorporate our research efforts in routine clinical care.
Clinical Epilepsy Research belongs to UEF Neuroscience Research Community NSciRC the goal of which is to understand the disease-specific and common molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases and epilepsy, and to identify biomarkers and novel therapeutic approaches for their prevention and cure by merging biological and computational neurosciences.
Cooperation partner: Epilepsy Center / Kuopio University Hospital Neurocenter
The Epilepsy Center offers diagnostics and treatment of difficult epilepsy for adults and children. This center of excellence combines expertise in several specialist fields. It is a member in the European Reference Network (ERN) for Rare and Complex Epilepsies EpiCARE. Specialist services include genetical evaluations, intracranial EEGs and epilepsy surgery.
Leader: Dr. Eino Solje, Associate Professor of Clinical Research and Director of the UEF Brain Research Unit
Faculty: Institute of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences
Group Composition: 3 senior researchers, 5 post-docs, 7 PhD researchers, 2 research nurses, 5 undergraduate students
The research group has a wide expertise in clinical research as well as molecular genetics in early onset dementias, especially in FTLD. During the last years, the main focus has been in the C9ORF72 repeat expansion-associated FTLD.
We aim to identify and characterize novel diagnostic tools, imaging methods (including functional MRI), biomarkers and etiological factors as well as the underlying pathogenesis of FTLD and other neurodegenerative disorders.
Our research focuses also on psychiatric manifestations of the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and cognitive decline in psychiatric disorders.
Our major research areas are:
Psychiatric manifestations in frontotemporal dementia
Role and etiology of cognitive decline in psychiatric disorders
Imaging and biomarkers in diagnostics and predicting the clinical course of frontotemporal lobar degeneration
Genetics of frontotemporal lobar degeneration and other early onset dementias
We are a partner in
FinFTD reserach network
SynaDeg JPND EU-funded project
GENFI ( Genetic FTD Initiative, www.genfi.org)
FPI (FTD prevention Initiative, www.thefpi.org)
NIC-FTD (Neuropyschiatric International Consortium on Frontotemporal Dementia (https://www.alzheimercentrum.nl/wetenschap/lopend-onderzoek/nic-ftd/#1470052967796-59f78775-9a7f)
FRONTIERS (FRONTotemporal dementia Incidence European Research Network
We develop physiologically relevant human-based models for studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying neurological diseases, as well as predicting drug transport into the brain. By using patient-derived cells in 2D and 3D culture systems, such as organoids and microfluidic chips, we aim to mimic pathological conditions in the diseased brain. Our methodology combines approaches like single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, proteomics, electrophysiology and imaging technologies to reveal novel therapeutic targets and improve early disease detection. We provide a collaborative multidisciplinary research environment which includes basic and clinical researchers, bioinformaticians and computational biologists. We tightly collaborate with clinical experts Ville Leinonen, Antti Huotarinen, Henna-Kaisa Jyrkkänen, Filip Scheperjans (HUS) and Liisa Myllykangas at University of Helsinki.
Leader: Dr. Mikko Hiltunen, Professor of Tissue and Cell Biology
Faculty: Institute of Biomedicine and Institue of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences
Group Composition: 1 professor, 5 senior researchers, 2 PhD researchers, 3 other members
Website: https://uefconnect.uef.fi/en/molecular-genetics-of-alzheimers-disease-hiltunen-lab/ (Includes current team members)
Research Group Presentation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/HdRBwlKSoqI?si=9G2HcTCns8X_wdaB
Contact: Mikko Hiltunen, mikko.hiltunen(at)uef.fi; Tuomas Rauramaa, tuomas.rauramaa(at)uef.fi
Research Goals:
• To identify novel risk gene variants associated with AD and to elucidate their effects on processes relevant for pathogenesis of AD. Risk variant correlations with established biomarker levels in the brain, plasma, and cerebrospinal fluid samples of AD patients are applied.
• To characterize the functional role of AD-related risk genes, pathways, and co-morbidities in AD pathogenesis using in vitro and in vivo disease models. The focus in these models is set to the factors that affect early synaptic dysfunction, function of glial cells as well as ß-amyloid and tau pathology.
Scientific and Societal Impact of Research:
It is expected that the novel mechanistic insights and biomarker potential related to molecular targets, which contribute to the synaptic dysfunction in the early pathogenesis of AD will be discovered. This allows the development of novel intervention approaches aimed at slowing down the progression of AD as well as other neurodegenerative diseases involving similar mechanisms. It is also likely that potential AD-related early biomarker targets will be identified, which can be later evaluated in the early diagnosis and disease progression of AD.
Leader: Dr. Annakaisa Haapasalo, Professor of Molecular Neurodegeneration
Faculty: A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences
Group Composition: Haapasalo Lab includes 3 postdocs, 3 PhD researchers, and 1 project researcher.
We utilize patient-derived pluripotent stem cell models to investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms of different neurodegenerative disorders by using diverse cell and molecular biological methods and transcriptomic and proteomic studies. We also aim to identify new biomarkers for diagnostics and prognostics of neurodegenerative diseases. We offer an internationally well-networked and collaborative multidisciplinary research environment focusing on neurodegenerative diseases, which includes basic and clinical researchers, bioinformaticians, and experts in law. Our key clinical collaborators are Drs. Eino Solje and Ville Leinonen at UEF and Johanna Krüger at University of Oulu.
Leader: Dr. Alejandra Sierra Lopez, Research Director in Multiscale Imaging Group
Faculty: A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences
Group Composition: The Sierra Lab is a multidisciplinary research team comprising three postdoctoral researchers, seven doctoral candidates, and one technician.
Contact: Alejandra Sierra Lopez, alejandra.sierralopez(at)uef.fi
The group brings together a diverse and complementary skill set, ranging from expertise in advanced neuroimaging technologies, mathematics and computational analyses to neuroscience, microscopy and biology. Our lab fosters a collaborative culture where researchers from diverse disciplines work closely together, encouraging the cross-pollination of ideas and methodologies. This dynamic environment provides a unique opportunity to engage in collaborative research at the intersection of neuroscience, physics, and computational science. Additionally, we maintain collaboration with leading clinical experts, including Professors Reetta Kälviäinen, Ville Leinonen and Tuomas Rauramaa ensuring that our research is both translational and clinically relevant.
Leader: Dr. Heikki Tanila, Professor of Translational Neuroscience
Faculty: A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences
Group Composition: The Tanila lab is a compact international team comprising 2 senior researchers, 4 PhD students, 2 senior technicians and 3-4 undergraduates at a time
We work with genetically modified mouse disease models and combine behavioral neuroscience, neuropharmacology, in vivo electrophysiology with advanced signal analysis, and cellular neuropathology with digital image analysis in most studies. In addition, we run experiments that combine functional MRI with in vivo electrophysiology in collaboration with the Gröhn lab. You have the opportunity to work in a multidisciplinary team and see the big picture of up-to-date preclinical neuroscience.
Leader: Dr. Tarja Malm, Professor of Molecular Neurobiology
Faculty: A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences
Group Composition: The Malm lab consist currently of a scientifically multidisciplinary team of 3 senior researchers, 9 postdocs, 10 PhD students and 4 technicians.
The technical skillset of the group ranges from induced pluripotent stem cell modeling, electrophysiology to computational and signal analysis expertise. You have the opportunity to work in a multidisciplinary environment and interact with neuroscientists, computational scientists and clinicians. We tightly collaborate with the clinical experts Ville Leinonen, Tuomas Rauramaa and Eino Solje
Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is a poorly understood neurological disorder presenting with impaired cognitive, gait and continency functions in various combinations as well as enlarged I-IV ventricles.
NPH patients may significantly benefit of shunt surgery. The most frequent differential diagnosis is Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Since 1991 until 2010, our NPH protocol has included 24-hour intraventricular pressure monitoring together with a small right frontal cortical biopsy to exclude other neurodegenerative processes. Since 2010 the protocol has included systematic CSF sampling and brain biopsy is included in the shunt surgery.
Selected patients undergo advanced AD imaging at Turku PET Centre.
Kuopio NPH and AD Registry and Tissue Bank contains clinical and long-term follow up data as well as cortical biopsy samples of over 1100 patients investigated for possible NPH.
Kuopio NPH Research Group has a unique research window to NPH and AD through the cortical biopsy and CSF samples and long-term outcome data. This project is multidisciplinary approach, in which expertise from several fields of neuroscience at KUH and UEF campus area as well as national and international level are combined.
Aims of Research
Genomic factors predisposing sporadic and familial idiopathic NPH.
Novel biomarkers of iNPH and neurodegenerative diseases diagnostics and prognosis.
Validation of CSF and PET diagnostics against brain biopsy in iNPH and AD.
Personalized treatment of iNPH.
Leader: Dr. Alina Solomon, Professor of Neuroepidemiology
Faculty: Institute of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences
Group Composition: 2 professors, 2 senior researchers, 1 PhD researcher, 7 other team members
The UEF – Nordic-UK Brain Network (UEF-NBN) research team led by Alina Solomon focuses on promotion of brain health and prevention of cognitive decline and dementia. We work on a wide range of projects which include longitudinal clinic- and population-based cohort studies, as well as randomised controlled trials. We are also actively involved in projects focused on the biological mechanisms of dementia and its prevention, as well as the development of biomarkers for early diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment monitoring. The larger NBN collaborative platform includes five sites in Finland, Sweden and the UK.
Call 2: November 2025-January 2026
5 positions are open in the second call in the research areas of Innovation in society and Ethics and wellbeing.
Research Areas 3 and 4: Innovation in Society & Ethics and Wellbeing
Innovation in society and the ethics and wellbeing research areas focus on how brain health is shaped within society, focusing on the ways in which social, economic, and legal forces both support and challenge brain health and the efforts to seek novel solutions in this context. By understanding these dynamics, the research sheds light on how new approaches in care, policies, and technologies emerge and interact with everyday life.
The study considers how social and economic realities shape access to services, rights, and participation in care in the broad context of brain health. Ethical concerns and questions of wellbeing are explored alongside the impact of economic structures on the availability and accessibility of treatments, preventive measures, and support systems.
A key aspect of this research is Public and Patient Involvement (PPI), which provides insights into how individuals and communities engage with research and innovations, as well as treatment and care. The study investigates the role of patient rights, service accessibility, and economic, social and cultural contexts in shaping experiences and outcomes.
The research is grounded in a range of methods, including interviews, surveys, registry data analysis, and participatory approaches. By bringing together different perspectives, it generates knowledge that connects scientific advancements with lived experiences, ensuring that innovations in brain health remain responsive to the needs of diverse populations.
For further details, see descriptions of the research groups and supervisors.
Research Groups in These Areas
Here you can find the research group descriptions for the research areas Innovation in society and Ethics and wellbeingincluding information about the leader(s) of the group, faculty, group composition, and the group’s contact details. The group descriptions are in alphabetical order.
You can find videos of the research group leaders presenting their groups on our YouTube channel. We are currently uploading the videos, so stay tuned!
Leaders: Ismo Linnosmaa, Professor of Health and Social Economics (vice-leader)
Faculty: Department of Health and Social Management, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies
We investigate decision-making in social and health care at different levels of the society. Our research related to consumers decision-making is focused on consumers’ choices and decision-making related to social and health services and medicine use, with a focus on consumer behavior, preferences, and demand for health services.
We study decision-making also at the organizational level focusing on the implementation of clinical guidelines and the decision-making of physicians and managers. In particular, we are interested in the use of cost-effectiveness information in clinical decision-making and the effects of clinical guidelines on medicine prescribing. In addition, we examine physicians’ adherence to clinical guidelines and factors involved in the treatment decisions.
We evaluate the economic and social sustainability of policies and the cost-effectiveness of social and health care services and interventions to support societal decision-making. We have strong expertise in economic evaluation, and our aim is to explore the willingness-to-pay threshold in Finland. Threshold is required to interpret results of cost-utility analysis.
Objective
Our aim is to provide knowledge of well-being in the society and economic and social sustainability. Our research focus is in the social and health care and pharmaceutical markets, and we conduct research related to different populations. In particular, our research focuses on older long-term care and home care clients, multimorbidity, children and adolescents, and mental health promotion.
Theoretical and methodological competence
Our research group has strong expertise in the theory of health economics and general economics, especially in the economics of welfare, industrial economics and production theory. We study the supply, utilization and demand of social and health care services, and the themes related to health equity, i.e. health and socioeconomic equality. We apply industrial economics to study social and health care market structures and the connection between producer ownership and quality, costs and service structure. We study the performance of the health care system, and its determinants, using production theory of efficiency analysis.
Our research group has extensive expertise in econometrics and statistics, in particular in applied econometrics, quasi-experimental methods and the utilization of national registers. We conduct economic evaluations of social and health care services and interventions based on experimental methods (controlled and observational settings), registry studies, decision-modelling and systematic reviews. In addition, we use a broad range of other quantitative and qualitative methods in our research.
Collaboration
Our research is multidisciplinary, and we work in collaboration with various fields of sciences, such as pharmacy, sports medicine, medicine, psychology, health science, statistics, and social sciences. We also collaborate with various research organizations and well-being services counties. Our current partners are The Finnish Medical Society Duodecim, The Finnish Centre for Pensions, The Finnish Medicines Agency, The Social Insurance Institution of Finland, The Labour Institute for Economic Research, The Finnish Medical Association, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, VATT Institute for Economic Research, Universities of Helsinki, Oulu, Tampere and Turku.
Our research group is part of The Effectiveness of Social and Health Services (EFFECTIVENESS) research community, which comprises top-level researchers and experts in effectiveness research. The research community produces effectiveness and cost-effectiveness knowledge based on scientific research on social and health services and the promotion of health and well-being. In addition, we coordinate National Implementation Research Network in the EFFECTIVENESS research community. Our PhD students take part in the Welfare, Health and Management (WELMA) doctoral programme.
Keywords: clinical guidelines,consumer behavior,cost-effectiveness,economic evaluation,economic sustainability,economics and econometric analysis,health economics,implementation,medicine use,preferences,production,productivity,rational pharmacotherapy,social and health care,social and healthcare reform,sosiaali- ja terveydenhuolto,statistics,well-being,well-being of society
Leaders: Dr Anna Mäki-Petäjä-Leinonen, professor of Law and Ageing and Dr Kaijus Ervasti, professor of Law and Society.
Faculty: Law School, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies.
Group composition: 3 professors (Mäki-Petäjä-Leinonen, Ervasti, Aaltonen), 4 associate professors (Saarelainen, Solje, Tiilikainen, Ylhäinen), 1 university researcher, 3 postdoctoral researchers, 3 PhD researchers and 1 research assistant.
Neuro-Ethics and Law research team is performing highly novel research related to legal status and legal protection of people with brain diseases and other disabilities. In line with a holistic approach, their aim is to ensure that patients and their families, despite of the illness, have the opportunity to live a good life with dignity and to be recognised as full members of society. New research approaches are developed by combining empirical knowledge with doctrinal legal research. Mixed research methods and materials allow to obtain a comprehensive picture of the legal rights and access to justice of this vulnerable group. In addition, the philosophy of “nothing about us without us” is adopted by acknowledging the fact that many persons with brain diseases and other disabilities are fully capable of representing themselves or speaking up for those who are no longer able to do so. People with brain diseases, carers and their organisations are involved to co-design and co-create our research, and to promote their legal rights.
Keywords: Access to Justice, Ethics, Law and Society, Law and Ageing, Patient and Public Involvement, Human Rights
Ongoing research projects
Shadows in Paradise? Rights of People with Dementia in a Welfare State (VAPA, 2021-2025). Funded by the KONE Foundation.
Access to Justice for Marginalized Groups of Older People in Ageing Society (AMIS, 2023-2027). Funded by the Research Council of Finland.
The Law Clinic established and piloted (2023-2024) in collaboration with the Brain Research Unit, Kuopio, Finland.
Realization of the Rights of the People with Epilepsy in a Welfare State (VAHVA). Funded by the Angelini Pharma Nordics AB.
Overcoming Barriers to Democratic Participation with Minoritized and Marginalized Groups (OBAMA; 2025-2027). Funded by the Strategic Research Council of Finland.
Leaders: Dr Päivi Eriksson, professor of management and Dr Tero Montonen, associate professor of neuro-innovation and impact.
Faculty: Business School, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies.
Group composition: 2 professors (Päivi Eriksson and Simcha Jong), 1 associate professor (Montonen), 4 postdoctoral researchers, 5 PhD researchers, 2 visiting researchers.
The NOVA group explores the broad field of health-related innovation and impact, using diverse disciplinary lenses and employing a wide array of research designs and methods. We integrate social and economic perspectives, drawing on traditional and contemporary theories. By examining collaborative and competitive processes, we investigate how innovation is created and implemented within diverse contexts. This includes engaging with companies, social enterprises, and multiple stakeholders, such as healthcare providers, citizens, patients, and decision makers. We seek to understand how these actors influence and are influenced by various socio-economic forces and contexts, and how this shapes the development and adoption of innovative initiatives and solutions that address health challenges locally and globally.
Organising meaningful collaborative research (CO-RESEARCH) funded by the Research Council of Finland. In collaboration with the Centre for Patient and Public Partnership (CEPPP) in Montreal, Canada; SPOR Unit Alberta and Cumming School of Medicine, Calgary, Canada; Social and Health Management and Social Psychology at the UEF (2022-2026).
Global health research networks, in collaboration with the Global Business School for Health at the University College London, UK (2023-2028).
Public and patient involvement (PPI) in research, in collaboration with the UEF Brain Research Unit (2023-2025).
High-skilled internationals: bottom-up insights into policy innovation for work and entrepreneurship in Finland, in collaboration with Turku School of Economics Business School, Finland (2022-2024).
Institutional work in the field of sleep apnoea diagnostics, in collaboration with academic units and companies (2022-2026).
Remote monitoring of patients at home, in collaboration with the Kuopio University Hospital Neurosurgery unit, Kuopio, Finland. (2022-2026).
Research Infrastructure
UEF has state-of-the-art infrastructure for neuroscience driven research, and all facilities are included and partly funded by Biocenter Kuopio (BCK). The core infrastructures include:
Neurodata infrastructure
Stem Cell/iPSC Core Facility
In Vitro and Ex Vivo Electrophysiology Core Facility
Kuopio Biomedical Imaging Unit
Brain Research Unit
Biomarker Laboratory
Phenotyping Center, Neurophenotyping Unit
Other key infrastructures include:
Genome Center of Eastern Finland
Biobank of Eastern Finland
Lab Animal Center
Clinical Research Center
Cell and Tissue Imaging Unit
National Virus Vector Laboratory
In Vitro and In Vivo Imaging Center
SIB Labs
LS-MS Metabolomics Center
YHKA and Business School Facility
Kuopio University Hospital infrastructures include KUH Data Lake and PET/MRI imaging at KUH Imaging Centre.
Human cohorts (e.g., AD cohorts ADGEN and UEF-BRAIN; population-based cohorts FINGER and CAIDE; large EpiBiomarker-cohort, NPH cohort, clinical FTD cohort, EADB; appr. 500 000 patients and control samples) have been collected and extensively used for assessing genetic background of diseases, multidomain intervention, clinical trials and discovery and longitudinal validation of biomarkers. Many of these cohorts are transferred to the Biobank of Eastern Finland, which allows to increase the amount of personalized genetic data via the GWAS-based screenings as a part of the ongoing FinnGen research project, focusing on global genetic screening of 500 000 individuals in Finland.
A data lake is a centralized repository that allows to run a large spectrum of analyses – from dashboards and visualizations to big data processing, real-time analytics, and machine learning to guide better decisions. Conversely, “registromics” -based platforms and IT solutions will enable to connect multiple outcome registries (e.g., KELA and THL) with different biomedical data sources and enable to conduct reversed data mining.
Read more about the University of Eastern Finland’s research infrastructure and data sets:
Open science practices are implemented as an integral part of the NOVEL programme following the Horizon Europe, MSCA and UEF Open Science policy programs on “as open as possible as closed as necessary” principle. Our researchers receive training on open Science and data management.
NOVEL promotes:
early, open sharing of research through pre-registration, pre-prints and crowd sourcing
open sharing of data, software, algorithms and workflows through deposition in trusted repositories
participation in open peer-review, and publication venues that use open peer-review
involving end-users in co-creation through the stakeholder networks.
According to the UEF policy, peer-reviewed publications will be open access. The Finnish universities have joint contracts with all major publishers on open access publishing free of charge. In addition, UEF library automatically makes all publications available in the open access UEF E-repository (UEF eRepo). UEF provides financial support for open access publishing in journals meeting the ranking criteria and research groups allocate additional funding for open access publishing.
Our researchers will prepare a Data Management Plan explaining how their research will comply with the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles. In the spirit of NOVEL, all our reseachers have the opportunity to involve all relevant knowledge actors in their research, and thus involve citizens, patient advocacy groups and business actors in co-research practices.
