Topi Tanskanen is the Helsinki One Health research coordinator and played a key role in establishing One Health as a Una Europa focus area. His work consists of supporting scientists and education, particularly through funding applications and local and international networking.
One Health is based on the idea that issues and problems affecting humans, animals and the environment are co-dependent. Its interdisciplinarity fits well with the University of Helsinki’s broad selection of faculties and disciplines.
How did you first learn about Una Europa and what drew your attention to the alliance?
After twelve years in Japan, I arrived at my new position as Helsinki One Health research coordinator without any knowledge about European university alliances. At that time, Una Europa had just granted seed funding for establishing One Health as a new focus area of the alliance, and it quickly became one of my main tasks to support this project.
Despite the challenges faced when coordinating the new focus area, it has become the highlight of my work. It is a valuable landmark which allows us to see where our University is strong and where we can learn from our partners. Una Europa provides a network with a huge pool of expertise both academically and administratively. We are benefiting tremendously from this European collaboration.
Why is it essential for One Health Helsinki to be part of a European alliance such as Una Europa? What are the partnership’s main benefits?
One Health focuses both on the human animal border and the interdisciplinarity of health issues. For instance, it is not enough to have a vaccine to fight a pandemic, but we also need to convince people to take it, think how to use it globally or how to survey data about its effectivity. It fits perfectly with the international nature of Una Europa because these kinds of problems do not know national borders. Therefore, international collaboration in research is highly needed and Una Europa provides a great network for it.
Una Europa is a bridge towards new connections, also beyond the alliance, as many partners have good connections to other parts of the world. It allows for many kinds of funding opportunities and builds long-term trusted relations. Scientifically the possibilities are almost endless, given the scope of expertise in the alliance.
Helsinki One Health organized the 2024 Una Europa One Health Summer School last June. What was unique about it? How did the different disciplines and sectors interact?
The Helsinki Summer School targeted doctoral students from both social and life sciences. The leading design principle was that every lecture given by a life scientist was commented on by a social scientist and vice versa.
The school was organized at Lammi Biological Research Station, and the fact that both participants and teachers were physically at one site around the clock facilitated fruitful discussions and interactions between people from different backgrounds. There were over twenty nationalities present, including several students with a relation to the Global South. The latter enriched the variety of perspectives and brought a critical view on some of the topics that wouldn’t have arisen otherwise.
This news piece was written by Paula Modrego Castaño