Welcome to the website of LUOVA!

The Finnish School in Wildlife Biology, Conservation and Management (Finnish acronym LUOVA) belongs to the Finnish doctoral programme system funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Academy of Finland. LUOVA started in 1995 and was one of the first doctoral programmes founded with the establishment of the system.

LUOVA trains postgraduate students in the fields of conservation, management and sustainable use of natural organisms to become top professionals in research, education, and administration. Member institutions in LUOVA are the University of Helsinki and the state-run research institutes within the field of the graduate school.

LUOVA organizes courses on different aspects of ecology, evolution, conservation, management and research methodology. The graduate school also offers its members various forms of support at different stages of their postgraduate studies, and a possibility to apply travel funding to attend courses abroad or collaborate on a PhD thesis chapter.

There are more than 60 students in LUOVA each year and approximately 25% of them are international. Currently 12 students a hold 4-year full time PhD position funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture. In 2011 six LUOVA students defended their doctoral theses. The employment rate of LUOVA graduates is very high.

You are welcome to apply LUOVA membership if:

1. You begin to work on a doctoral thesis related to any of the fields covered by LUOVA, and are not a member of any other graduate school.

2. You are enrolled as a PhD student at one of the departments listed below and will eventually be awarded a doctoral degree by the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Science or the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry.

• Department of Biosciences
• Department of Environmental Sciences
• Department of Forest Sciences
• Department of Agricultural Sciences

3. Your supervisor is one of LUOVA's supervisors.

For further information, please contact LUOVA's coordinator Anni Tonteri.