ECRU, headed by Atte Korhola, forms one of the many research groups in the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, being also an integral part of the Faculty’s Ecosystems and Environment Research Programme as well as the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS). The central research theme in ECRU is the development and application of empirical, geospatial, computational and modeling tools to detect global environmental changes and to analyse their ecological, environmental and societal impacts. ECRU's work is primarily focuses on northern environments.