University of Helsinki

Welcome to the Ruralia Institute!

Ruralia Institute is an independently administrated multidisciplinary expert institute at the University of Helsinki. The mission of the Institute is to improve the welfare of rural people and develop the sources of livelihood in the rural areas through research, development, education and training.

The activities of the Ruralia Institute are multidisciplinary research, education and research based innovation development. On its activities Ruralia Institute creates new operations models and innovations based on the combination of scientific competence and practical knowledge. The development activities of the Institute serve economic life, foster innovation activities and support regional development.

Ruralia Institute does regional, national and international cooperation. Our partners in cooperation are various faculties and Schools of the University of Helsinki, other Finnish and foreign universities and institutes.

Ruralia Institute constitutes of two units: Mikkeli and Seinäjoki. In total the institute has about 80 employees.

Ruralia Visiting Scholars 2013

The University of Helsinki, Ruralia Institute Visiting Scholars Programme is a new opportunity for  experienced   scholars in the field of multidisciplinary rural research to visit Ruralia Institute for a period of one to three months, supported with a monthly grant of 2300 € during the academic year 2012-2013.

Ruralia Visiting Scholars can conduct research and interact with the researchers of Ruralia Institute and the academic community of University of Helsinki.

During the academic year 2012-2013, Ruralia Institute will host 5 Visiting Scholars working on e.g. the research of rural development and governance, sustainable food chains and rural entrepreneurship including co-operative entrepreneurship and rural innovation systems.The call for Ruralia Visiting Scholars Programme will be open from 27 April until 7 June 2012.

See more information: Ruralia Visiting Scholars

For the academic year 2011–2012, five Visiting Scholars will visit Ruralia Institute. Alexandra Franklin from the University of Cardiff United Kingdom, Rómulo Pinheiro from University of Agder Norway and David Watts from the University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom were selected to Seinäjoki unit. Katalin Kovács from Hungarian academy of Science Center for Regional Studies, Hungary and Matteo Vittuari University of Bologna, Italy were selected to Mikkeli unit of the Ruralia Institute.