INAR RI ecosystems management board regularly meets to discuss on INAR RI Ecosystems related developments, to plan for the future and to exchange information. Through workshops and communication activities, we are building the ecosystems research community in Finland. For example, in addition to general information meetings, we have already organised several data-, metadata and data management workshops and the First INAR RI Ecosystems Scientific conference will take place at Oulanka Research Station in 20-22 August 2018.
The scientific community using the INAR RI Ecosystems infrastructure has produced about 130 peer-reviewed articles in 2017 and during the first part of 2018. In addition, the research based on INAR RI Ecosystems infrastructure has been presented in multiple international and national meetings. The results are also used at least in five doctoral dissertations and several bachelor and master thesis.
INAR RI Ecosystems includes both observational and experimental facilities hosted by several universities and research organisations. The infrastructure is being developed and upgraded through funding from the hosting institutions and from the FIRI project of the Academy of Finland that lasts 2017-2021, with total budget of about 2.43M€.
INAR RI Ecosystems sites and platforms are located across Finland and cover all major terrestrial and inland ecosystems. They provide a multidisciplinary, holistic approach to environmental research, both observational sites LTER Finland and experimental platforms AnaEE Finland. INAR RI Ecosystems sites offer field and laboratory facilities with high quality, integrated services for a variety of user groups and communities. Importantly, they form the Finnish contribution to the European level ecosystem research infrastructures, such as AnaEE and eLTER RI.
INAR RI Ecosystems partners are active in the European ecosystem research activities. We are participating in several currently ongoing or planned research projects and research infrastructure initiatives. Participation in these international activities aims at improving research collaboration, increasing the knowledge and skills of Finnish ecosystem researchers to solve environmental challenges and bringing them more training opportunities.
The participation into the development of European scale Research Infrastructures eLTER (Integrated European long-term ecosystem, critical zone and socio-ecological system research infrastructure) and AnaEE (Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems) initiatives are our most important international activities. For example, we are part of Advance_eLTER and eLTER H2020.
INAR RI Ecosystems is updating the Finnish ecosystem research sites so that their equipment is corresponding to the requirements of European Research Infrastructures. This will strengthen the possibilities to be part of the European infrastructure landscape, bring visibility to the Finnish research and increase the interest of using our sites more efficiently.