Research centres, communities and institutes

The Aleksanteri institute is a national research centre for Russian and Eastern European studies.

The institute's research focuses on humanities and social sciences. It is one of the world's largest and best-known centres in the field of Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian studies.

The Aleksanteri Institute operates as a Department of the Faculty of Arts.

The Centre for Consumer Society Research studies the development of the consumer society from the perspectives of societal structures and consumers.

A problem-oriented and multi-disciplinary approach best describes the nature of research conducted. The centre makes critical use of participatory methods in its research work, conducts action research, and supports development of innovations by means of research.

The centre also studies the impact of economic phenomena and politics on consumers and the consumer society.

The Centre for Consumer Society Research is a part of the Faculty of Social Sciences.

The Centre for Educational Assessment CEA studies Finnish education and learning.

The centre's research is focused on learning, studying, assessment, and educational systems and their development. It also produces and offers versatile assessment and research services on every step of education from early childhood education to universities.

CEA works in collaboration with schools and municipalities, as well as with the National Board of Education and Ministry of Education and Culture concerning educational assessment and other strands of educational research and development.

The Centre for Educational Assesment is a part of the Faculty of Educational Sciences.

The Centre for European Studies is a multidisciplinary research unit, which practices and promotes research in European Studies from a variety of perspectives.

The Centre works as a host unit for researchers and multidisciplinary research projects as well as it regurarly hosts seminars and conferences.

One of the Centre's purposes is to support researchers' international connections.

The Centre for European Studies is part of the Faculty of Social Sciences.

The Centre for Social Data Science promotes the use of data science methods and data-driven inquiry within social sciences.

The centre conducts both methodologically oriented basic research about research methods and applied research within social sciences where advanced methods are required.

The centre develops and maintains infrastructures for data collection and analysis.

The Centre for Social Data Science is part of the Faculty of Social Sciences.

The Centre for University Teaching and Learning (HYPE) investigates learning and teaching across all faculties and disciplines at the University of Helsinki.

The Centre supports degree programmes and faculties in the development of learning and teaching, and enhances pedagogical expertise among university staff members.

The Centre for University Teaching and Learning is part of the Faculty of Educational Sciences.

The Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence FCAI develops new types of AI, which can operate with humans in the complex world.

FCAI is a community of experts that brings together top talents in academia, industry and public sector to solve real-life problems using both existing and novel AI.

The center is directed by Aalto University. The University of Helsinki is a partner in this research flagship project.

The Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention VERIFIN does research that supports the disarmament of chemical weapons.

The institute develops identification methods for chemical warfare agents and provides education in its subject area for for chemists from Finland and developing countries.

VERIFIN acts as the National Authority of Finland for the Chemical Weapons Convention. It assists the Organisation for the Prohibition of the Chemical Weapons, OPCW, and the United Nations.

VERIFIN is primarily funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. It is part of the Faculty of Science.

Helsinki Centre for Data Science HiDATA a multi-disciplinary network of researchers working on both methods and applications supported by our Data Science infrastructure.

The Centre improves use and development of computational infrastructures. It advances open science and increases collaboration between data science, application disciplines and industry.

Keskus kehittää datatutkimusinfrastruktuurien hyödyntämistä. Se edistää avointa tiedettä ja tuo datatieteen ja suurten datamassojen hyötyä muiden tieteenalojen käyttöön.

HiDATA is a join venture between the University of Helsinki and Aalto University.

Helsinki Centre for Digital Humanities (HELDIG) is a Finnish research network and infrastructure for solving research problems in humanities and social sciences with novel computational methods, and for studying digitalization as a phenomenon.

HELDIG also supports education in Digital Humanities and application development. Initiated as a strategic profile building research area, its goal is to form an ecosystem that fosters collaboration between academic research groups, memory organizations, companies, and the general public.

The Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies is an independent institute of advanced study in the humanities and social sciences.

The Collegium promotes innovative interdisciplinary cooperation, both within the Collegium and at the University of Helsinki. Collegium fellows are recruited annually in a highly competitive fellowship call to work on their research projects.

The Collegium provides a top-class, international research environment for scholars in the humanities and social sciences.

Helsinki Inequality Initiative (INEQ) is a multidisciplinary research community, whose work enhances understanding of causes and consequences of intersecting inequalities.

INEQ raises the quality and international academic impact of research on different forms of social inequalities and their interrelations. Researchers at INEQ are mainly scholars of the humanities and social sciences.

Helsinki Institute for Information Technology is a research unit that combines basic and applied research in information technology.

HIIT conducts top-level research, seamlessly moving between fundamental methods and technologies to novel applications and their impact on people and society.

The institute is a strategic partnership between Aalto University and University of Helsinki for enhancing the quality, visibility and impact of Finnish IT research.

Helsinki Institute for Information Technology operates at the Faculty of Science.

Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities promotes a new interdisciplinary research culture nationally and internationally in the social sciences and humanities.

The institute is a pioneer in multidisciplinary research in the human sciences. It creates new multidisciplinary and inspiring research collaboration as well as promoting content and methodology in the research fields in social sciences and humanities.

Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities coordinates the efficient use of research infrastructures and develops research methods and the utilization of digital data in the human sciences.

Helsinki Institute of Life Science HiLIFE is a multidisciplinary research institute, which supports high quality life science research across campuses and faculties.

HiLIFE coordinates top-notch research infrastructures in life sciences and provides research-based interdisciplinary training.

HiLIFE is divided into three subunits:

• Institute of Biotechnology
• Neuroscience Center
• Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM).

Helsinki Institute of Physics (HIP) is a research institute whose activity covers an extensive range of subjects in theoretical physics and experimental subatomic physics.

The institute carries out and facilitates research in basic and applied physics as well as in physics research and technology development at international accelerator laboratories. It is responsible for the Finnish research collaboration with international physics organisations such as CERN.

Helsinki Institute of Physics comprises researchers from the University of Helsinki, Aalto University, Jyväskylä University, LUT University and Tampere University.

Helsinki Institute of Physics operates at the Faculty of Science.

Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science is a cross-faculty research unit in sustainability science.

The Institute gathers together the core expertise from the University of Helsinki in collaboration with other universities and research institutes in the Helsinki area. It also includes non-academic stakeholders in order to contribute to sustainability transformations in society.

The research focuses in particular on Urban Studies, Consumption and Production, the Global South, and Arctic contexts.

Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies (URBARIA) is the first multidisciplinary research unit in Finland that focuses on urban and regional studies.

The Institute promotes high-quality urban studies, teaching of urban studies and societal impact of urban studies experts and research.

Helsinki One Health is a network that coordinates research actions within the area of One Health, that is how human, animal and environmental health are linked.

Helsinki One Health encourages various disciplines and professions to work together to resolve emerging health problems concerning animal and human populations worldwide.

The Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR) performs multiscale research from molecular to global scale and focuses on climate change, air quality, biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem processes. It is one of the world's most acclaimed research units in its field.

NAR aims to strengthen the University's internationally leading, integrated multidisciplinary research and education environment for atmospheric and Earth system science and to feed in scientific results for the national and international environment and climate policy.

The institute's work is based on a network of field stations. The stations produce extensive long-term data on atmospheric properties and ecological mass fluxes in different types of environments and regions, including Arctic, boreal and tropical ecosystems. Important aspects are also remote sensing, focused experiments and modeling.

INAR is part of the Faculty of Science.

The Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy (Krimo) is a research institute specialising in research and monitoring of crime and legal policy in Finland.

The institute monitors, analyses and reports on trends in Finnish legal policy and crime, and maintains research databases that are necessary for the research.

The Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy is a part of the Faculty of Social Sciences.

The Institute of Seismology performs research, education, continuous Earth monitoring, and helps government and private organisations in their projects requiring seismological expertise.

The institute's research activities focus on seismic structural studies, monitoring seismology, developing methods related to monitoring seismology and earthquake research in the Fennoscandian region.

The institute is responsible for seismic monitoring in the field of civil protection and nuclear test control based on international agreements.

The Institute of Seismology is the only research unit in its field in Finland. It is a part of the Faculty of Science.

The Max Planck – University of Helsinki Center for Social Inequalities in Population Health (MaxHel) studies the root causes of health inequalities and the ways in which these could be tackled.

MaxHel goes beyond standard observational research by using exceptionally detailed linked family-based data, natural experimental designs, genetically-informed social epidemiological data, and advanced dynamic modelling techniques that enable us to unearth the pivotal social processes that generate health inequalities.

The need to better understand the root causes of health inequalities is more pertinent than ever. Social inequalities in health and mortality have grown and the unprecedented health and social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic may hit the vulnerable the hardest, further exacerbating health gaps.

MaxHel is a joint research unit between the University of Helsinki, the Population Research Unit and the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR). It is based in Helsinki, Finland and Rostock, Germany.

The Ruralia Institute examines sustainable development and the changing relationship between global and local issues from the perspective of rural areas.

The Ruralia Institute conducts multidisciplinary research that transcends the boundaries of various academic fields. Core areas of research include phenomena in the fields of entrepreneurship and well-being from the perspective of rural areas.

On a social level, the institute examines sustainable development and the interaction between rural and urban areas in a globalising world. The institute coordinates and participates in development processes designed to create and pilot new operating models and innovations pertinent to the development of rural areas.

The Ruralia Institute is a part of the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry.

The Science Education Centre studies and develops new pedagogical solutions that inspire children, young people and whole families to learn about science.

The centre educates both future and current teachers for their use in all types of education, in diverse collaboration with numerous national and international organizations.

The centre's research results in both new theories and practical innovations, which increases the impact of the research.

The Swedish School of Social Science is an autonomous unit for education and research.

The Swedish School of Social Science conducts research in social sciences. The research focuses on the Nordic welfare state, ethnic relations and communication. A strength that stands out is the timeliness and social relevance of Soc&kom’s research.

The Veterinary Teaching Hospital is a top-level unit of veterinary care, including the Small Animal Hospital and Equine Hospital in Viikki, Helsinki, and the Saari Clinic in Mäntsälä.

The Veterinary Teaching Hospital serves as the teaching hospital for students of veterinary medicine during their fifth year of studies. The hospital also serves as a postgraduate professional education institute for specialising veterinarians and as a training institute for nurses training as veterinary nurses.

The best possible treatment for animals is guaranteed by the staff’s expertise.

The hospital operates around the clock every day of the year.

The Veterinary Teaching Hospital is part of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.