Focus Europe

The University of Helsinki engages in versatile collaborations across Europe. Read more about our strategic partnerships, networks, and other collaborations with our European partners.
Strategic networks

Through selected strategic networks, we strengthen our global impact with leading research-intensive universities. The networks provide strategic platforms for policy influence and offer our students, researchers, and staff valuable opportunities for international connections, collaboration, and shared resources. 
Una Europa

Una Europa is a dynamic community across 11 European universities, working together to shape the future of education and research! The alliance brings together the strengths of partner universities to create a European inter-university environment with a shared research and innovation ecosystem, joint educational initiatives, and opportunities for mobility across borders, cultures, languages, and disciplines.

As part of the Una Europa alliance, the University of Helsinki contributes to the creation of a European research and education environment
Una Europa Partner Universities
League of European Research Universities - LERU

The University of Helsinki is a founding member of the League of European Research Universities (LERU), which is a network of 24 member universities and a prominent advocate for the promotion of basic research at European research Universities. 

LERU aims at furthering politicians’, policy makers’ and opinion leaders’ understanding of the important role and activities of research-intensive universities.
Universitas 21 Partner Universities in Europe

is a diverse, global network that brings together world-leading research-intensive universities across six continents. The member-led initiatives and programmes are designed to benefit staff, students, and member institutions, through sharing resources, learning together, and co-designing solutions to our common challenges. 
Strategic Partnerships in Europe

Strategic partnerships drive the University’s research and talent development agenda. Carefully selected partner universities with corresponding interests create strong and novel research as well as new opportunities for collaboration in other areas.
Strategic Partnership with Stockholm University

The University of Helsinki and in Sweden have been strategic partners since 2014.

The two universities want to strengthen world-class research collaboration and now run the CoastClim project.

brings together the major marine and atmospheric units at the two universities, and this effort offers a framework that provides state-of-the-art infrastructure. CoastClim explores the potential of coastal ecosystems as natural solutions to mitigate climate change by simultaneously quantifying biodiversity and climate feedbacks. The results are crucial to improve the management of our coasts and maximize their potential positive role in climate and environmental policies.

CoastClim is based on an earlier strategic cooperation project in Baltic Sea research between the University of Helsinki and Stockholm University, entitled the .
Strategic Partnership with the University of Edinburgh

The University of Helsinki and in the United Kingdom have been strategic partners since 2019. Together, they are creating joint positions for doctoral candidates in two areas where both universities have an outstanding track record of expertise and world-class research infrastructure: human genomics and forestry.

The two universities collaborate on several other activities, for instance, in the . The universities are also building and strengthening innovation ecosystems.
Strategic Partnership with KU Leuven and Aalto University

The University of Helsinki, in Belgium, and forged a trilateral strategic partnership in March 2022. The three universities boost collaboration through an exploratory seed funding instrument. 

The latest funding call took place in 2024, and 14 multidisciplinary projects with researchers involved from all three institutions were selected to receive the funding. 
Mobility opportunities

The University of Helsinki offers several opportunities for international mobility in Europe! For a full list of mobility partner universities in Europe, please visit the university's website.