Impactful research, development, and innovation activities
Laurea annually collects feedback from its partners who have been involved in projects that Laurea has coordinated. The year’s projects received excellent grades in the surveys sent to Laurea’s project partners, and all respondents ranked Laurea’s overall success in coordinating each project as good or exemplary. The survey asked respondents to evaluate various factors, such as the different areas of a project, the significance of its outcomes, and their willingness to recommend Laurea. Laurea’s recommendation index (NPS) was 60, which is an improvement compared to the result from the previous year (57).
Laurea’s project-related success has granted it access to new areas, such as project consortia that aim for internationally competitive project funding. For example, towards the end of the year, Laurea participated in four security management project applications that were granted funding from the EU’s Horizon Europe programme.
Laurea’s recommendation index (NPS) was 60 when the partners of projects coordinated by Laurea were asked about Laurea's success.
The growth in external RDI funding received by Laurea continued in 2023, reaching a record level of EUR 8.3 million. In 2022, this figure stood at just EUR 7 million. In other words, in only three years, Laurea has almost doubled its external RDI funding.
The EU-HYBNET project network, which is coordinated by Laurea and focuses on combating hybrid threats, grew to over 130 organisations. This demonstrates how the project’s outcomes have formed a solid basis for determining and recommending what is necessary for society at large. The European Commission and many EU institutions and Member States have expressed their interest in hearing about EU-HYBNET’s results, and the project has been invited to present its outcomes and future perspectives at numerous, highly important events.
Organisations in Uusimaa developed their RDI expertise and skills in applying for European research funding in a project for developing and strengthening European RDI collaboration in Uusimaa, which ended in autumn 2023. The project focused on developing multi-actor collaboration, especially among companies, and created the foundation for forming RDI partnerships, especially with international partners. The project’s ultimate goal was to ensure that the actors in Uusimaa have access to sufficient innovation funding. The project included the creation of five MOOC courses on RDI activities and their different areas.
As part of Laurea’s Roadmap for Openness, Laurea’s data catalogue was opened to supplement the project descriptions on our website. The data catalogue highlights the metadata of the research and development materials produced in the projects, as well as the possibilities for reusing their datasets. Data management and reuse are sustainable development-friendly activities that strengthen our societal impact. This impact is created through various measures, such as the identification of materials and their operating environment; the management of data and infrastructures; legal, ethical and technological competence; and the reuse and further use of data.
Laurea’s increasingly diverse selection of publication channels has also strengthened its societal participation and impact. Podcasts and videos are fairly new ways of producing and sharing information about our activities and reaching new audiences. We highlighted Laurea’s activities and achievements not only in podcasts and videos but also in a record number of text publications. Since 2022, our publication output has grown by nearly 35%. In addition, we published regularly on Laurea’s own publication channels – the Laurea Journal, Laurea Publications, and Laurea Long, our latest venture in long-form articles for professional audiences – and amassed an active reader base. In 2023, 375 articles were published in the Laurea Journal, 242 of which were professional articles and 133 were blog posts. All in all, we easily surpassed our publication targets for 2023.
Examples of impactful RDI activities
Good practice: The PamuRobo project
In 2023, the Laurea award for the year’s most impactful RDI activity was given to the PamuRobo project, which focuses on service development through technology, service design, and co-creation. The aim of the project is to map competence needs and produce new competences for working life, provide improved employment opportunities, develop personnel competence, promote collaboration with stakeholders, and produce an operating model for combining education, employment services, and working life.
The project’s educational aspects were implemented with career-changers, the unemployed, those at risk of unemployment, and those seeking to develop their careers, with the project’s participants amassing a total of 2,600 credits.
Principal Lecturer Teemu Rantanen was selected as Laurea’s Member of the Year
Principal Lecturer Teemu Rantanen was selected as the recipient of Laurea’s Member of the Year 2023 award. Rantanen, whose career at Laurea has spanned over 20 years, has been an active participant in Laurea’s Master's degree programmes in social services and RDI projects.
Rantanen’s selection criteria highlighted his role as a well-liked and respected colleague who has played a key role in the development and effective implementation of Laurea’s Master’s degree programmes. He has been described as a masterful writer of project applications, a man of principle, and an impactful facilitator of co-operation between different units.
“The enthusiasm and positivity of my students, and their desire to hone their skills further, have been a driving force for me as well. My Master’s degree students have helped me keep up to date on what’s happening in the different areas of the social services sector, as well as where the future may take us,” Teemu Rantanen said in his acceptance speech.
International eHealth conference was held in Laurea
Do digital services meet promised levels in social welfare and health care? The Finnish Society of Telemedicine and eHealth and Laurea University of Applied Sciences organised an international eHealth conference on 12–13 October 2023 in Vantaa at the Laurea campus. The research programme of Laurea and the main theme of the eHealth 2023 conference highlighted Laurea’s commitment to promoting and improving innovations in digital social welfare and health care. By focusing on a human-oriented approach, robust data production and the development of user-centred, security-conscious solutions, Laurea is poised to provide valuable contributions to the changing environment of digital social and health services.
CRITIS2023 conference gathered experts in critical information exchange infrastructure and cybersecurity to Laurea
Laurea University of Applied Sciences organised the CRITIS2023 International Conference on Critical Information Infrastructures on 13–15 September at the Tikkurila campus in Vantaa. The annual conference presented the latest research results and future challenges in critical information exchange infrastructure and critical infrastructure. New solutions related to the maintenance of information exchange and situational awareness were presented extensively and their strengths for the security of society were discussed. Read more about the conference.
Laurea takes an active role in reforming the evaluation practices of RDI activities
The international Coalition of Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) aims to renew research assessment practices. Laurea has signed the CoARA agreement and thus committed to following and promoting its principles. At the heart of CoARA is the idea that the merits of researchers and other people involved in research should be looked at more holistically. The participation of the UAS sector in the CoARA process is instrumental as our RDI work differs from the activities of traditional science universities. Learn more about the CoARA process.
Laurea is a competitive workplace for top researchers
Nikolina Koporčić, PhD in Technology and a Researcher at Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Uusimaa, was the first in the history of the university to pass the Researcher Career Path Assessment and was appointed as a Senior Researcher. This is a significant milestone in Laurea's Researcher Career Path, which was launched in 2021 to support and provide predictable and long-term career progression opportunities for researchers at the Laurea UAS. Learn more about the career path.
Recommendation of the IRWIN project: Finland needs an information model for civic information to strengthen its dialogue on preparedness
Information resilience refers to the ability of society as a whole to engage in knowledge-based preparedness. Civic participation in information resilience is a particular challenge, the significance of which has been demonstrated by various recent crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The policy recommendations published in the IRWIN project, which is funded by the Research Council of Finland, include recommendations on how information resilience can be strengthened with an information model for civic information. One solution proposed in the IRWIN project is the creation of an open and multilateral information model. Information resilience requires an open information model extending to civil society that is also available to fourth-sector actors, and it should define said actors’ roles, the principles of communication, the main information structure, and operational responsibilities.