A doctoral degree is more than an academic achievement – it is a gateway to diverse and impactful careers.
RESDOC offers systematic support and training in skills that help translate the doctoral researcher’s expertise in research to the demands of rapidly changing labour market both inside and outside of the academy. This will support your learning and capacity building to:
Doctoral degree is possibile to complet in four years, if you work full-time. Upon graduation, doctoral researchers are expected to have a comprehensive understanding on the nature of different disciplines in their research field, central theories and concepts, and the key research methods used in them. They have also gained the ability to generate new scientific knowledge and its practical applications. They are expected to understand research ethics and the concept and applications of AI and possess an interdisciplinary mindset for research to be able to address multifaced systemic challenges caused by climate change and biodiversity loss, and this way also to confront other challenges requiring research-based problem solving capacity.
The doctoral degree at the University of Helsinki comprises the doctoral thesis and compulsory studies (30 ECTS credits) that support research work.
RESDOC contributes 20–25 ECTS credits through its structured training, with additional courses provided by discipline-specific doctoral programmes. RESDOC studies are specifically tailored and differ to some degree from University of Helsinki's doctoral programme studies.
Transferable skills are the specific focus of the Doctoral Base Camp and Annual Symposia. Grounded in doctoral researcher's own research work, these modules support systemic thinking and allow doctoral researchers to reflect on their topics in an interdisciplinary setting.
During the first year, the Base Camp brings together the doctoral researchers for an overnight retreat where expert-led discussions and workshops on RESDOC themes and general researcher skills form the core of the programme and build the RESDOC community.
The following years, Annual Symposium brings together the doctoral researchers, their supervisors, intersectoral mentors, associated partners and other organizations connected to RESDOC.
RESDOC doctoral researchers organize an annual Researchers’ Day, which focuses on different RESDOC themes each year. The basic idea of the event is to learn from all four RESDOC themes and systems thinking, but also to strengthen the sense of community among doctoral researchers and learn about other important research-related topics.
The doctoral researchers participate in a mandatory digital training module in AI to strengthen basic understanding and critical awareness of AI. A minimum of 3 ECTS credits are required to complete.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship module provides training on skills and capabilities for future career opportunities related to the business world and for development of innovation culture.
Citizen Science Team Assignments include planning and executing citizen engagement activities on social or environmental topic according to Una Europa Citizen Science Toolkit.
To supplement the RESDOC training programme, the doctoral researchers benefit from the
Special focus in RESDOC training in research skills is to acquire learning skills that are transferable to non-research settings.
Every RESDOC doctoral researcher participates in a two to four-month Secondment that can include one or several visits of different lengths. The Secondments are organized together with RESDOC Associated Partners. The aim of this intersectoral or interdisciplinary exposure is to offer all doctoral researchers an opportunity to develop their competence both in the academic and business world.
The Associated Partners provide introduction to working life or unique projects which are thematically suitable for RESDOC doctoral researchers to be incorporated into their thesis work. This module is recommended to be taken in the third or fourth year of doctoral studies, as it may open new avenues for future careers
During this period, doctoral researcher remains employed by the University of Helsinki and continue to receive normal salary, while gaining practical experience, exploring real-world applications of the research, and strengthening career prospects both within and beyond academia.
RESDOC brings together a strong network of 23 Associated Partner organisations from academia, the public sector, and private industry. These partners play an essential role in enriching the doctoral training experience by connecting research with real-world applications across different sectors.
Collaboration with Associated Partners takes place throughout the four-year doctoral training programme through activities such as secondments, business excursions, co-supervision, and networking events. This intersectoral engagement allows doctoral researchers to gain practical experience, build professional networks, and develop a broader understanding of career opportunities beyond academia.
RESDOC theme area: Just socio-ecological transition
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Demos Helsinki is established in 2005 to work towards more fair and sustainable societies and is now the leading independent think tank in the Nordics with 75 employees. Our research agenda is centred around an integrated, transdisciplinary approach to societal transformation. This involves combining knowledge across environmental sciences, urban studies and social sciences, and co-developing research outputs with stakeholders to foster sustainable and fair societies.
RESDOC theme area: Infectious Diseases and antimicrobial resistance
Location: Helsinki region, Finland
Orion is a globally operating Finnish pharmaceutical company working on developing, manufacturing and marketing human and veterinary pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients. Orion has two R&D centers and three plants for manufacturing and formulation of medicinal products in Finland. Orion’s subsidiary Fermion has two plants for synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients in Finland. In RESDOC: Orion will co-develop the benign-by-design conceptualization of APIs and contribute to training for regulatory environmental risk assessment of new APIs.
RESDOC theme area: Biodiversity and nature’s resilience
Location: Helsinki, regional offices, Finland
UPM Kymmene Oyj (UPM) is a global forest industry enterprise aiming to create value for its customers using sustainable raw materials. UPM’s products help mitigate climate change by replacing fossil-based products and materials with renewable alternatives.
In addition to the traditional forest industry products, the company is focusing also on new areas, such biofuels and biochemicals made of wood. Finland is the biggest platform for UPM. UPM Forest is an organization, which secures competitive wood and biomass for UPM’s businesses and manages UPM-owned and privately owned forests in Northern Europe. UPM Forest also provides forestry services to forest owners, from private forest owners to forest investors.
According to Company´s own forest strategy, they are also a platform for research and method development. For example, UPM Forest has committed to establishing a permanent sample area network to study continuous cover forestry (CCF). UPM Forest responds positively for launching research designs for studying the ecological impact of different forest management or environmental management regimes to company´s own forests. These forests could act as a field laboratory for selected doctoral theses.
RESDOC theme area: Secure and sustainable food and water systems
Location: Raisio, Turku region, Finland
Raisio Group (Raisio) is a Finnish company founded in 1939 and specializing in healthy, responsibly produced food and ingredients. The company is listed in NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd with appr. 41,000 shareholders. In 2024, the net sales of Raisio totaled 227 million euros. Raisio focuses on healthy foods and aims to be an innovative and increasingly international brand house.
Raisio’s new strategy for 2025-2027 is based on three focus areas. Raisio’s breakfast and snack products (Elovena®) as well as heart-healthy products (Benecol®) constitute the sources of the company’s organic growth. Furthermore, the company seeks growth from new business opportunities, forming the company’s third growth area. Hot water extraction facilities (pilot scale). Moderate level of laboratory equipment.
RESDOC theme area: Infectious Diseases and antimicrobial resistance in changing environment
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Resistomap is a pioneer in environmental antimicrobial resistance (AMR) monitoring services. Launched in June 2018 by Windi Muziasari, PhD, and William Nurmi, Resistomap is at the forefront of combining microbial ecology and data science expertise to lead in environmental surveillance of antibiotic resistance. Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Resistomap leverages cutting-edge molecular genetics, artificial intelligence, data analytics, and continuous environmental surveillance to fight AMR. Since 2019, over 23,000 samples have been analysed from 50 countries and over 400 projects have been delivered for universities, international research institutes, government agencies, hospitals, and industries.
A key facility relevant to the project is the molecular microbiology laboratory in Helsinki. The 300-m2 facility is equipped with two sets of Takara Bio-SmartChip qPCR systems for high throughput detection and quantification of AMR genes and pathogens, and Fluidigm-Biomark for high throughput PCR system, Roche-Light-Cycler 480 for a standard qPCR, MinION portable nanopore sequencing device for DNA sequencing, an automated robot for DNA extraction, Qiagen-QIA-Cube, an automated Opentrons-robot pipetting, and Nanodrop One and Quantus to measure DNA quality and quantity.
RESDOC theme area: Biodiversity and nature’s resilience, secure and sustainable food and water systems
Location: Helsinki region, Finland
Valio Ltd is the largest food company in Finland with more than 2 bn € turnover. Valio is owned by dairy farmers through cooperatives, and significant part of its business is dairy BtoC and BtoB products. Valio has a climate programme targeting carbon neutral milk chain by 2035. Other Valio product categories include plant-based dairy and meat alternatives and the company is also active in biogas and wholesale. Valio has state of the art chemical analysis research laboratory, physical analytics especially regarding powder, colloids and rheology, pilot facilities covering our product portfolio as well as active connections to our farmers owners and the data produced on the farms.
RESDOC theme area: Infectious Diseases and antimicrobial resistance
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Vetcare Oy has been meeting the needs of companion & production animals with quality products for owners, veterinarians, and pharmacists since 1992. The company develops and markets veterinary pharmaceuticals and other health-promoting products for animals globally. We are deeply involved in drug, vaccine and feed additive development and aim to promote rational and responsible use of these products in veterinary medicine. Vetcare Innovations Oy is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vetcare Oy, specialized in R&D and regulatory affairs.
RESDOC theme area: Secure and sustainable food and water systems
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Kost Studio is a food development company based in Copenhagen, Denmark, working together with both researchers and entrepreneurs to create solutions that can address the most pressing challenges in the food value chain. Fully equipped test- and development kitchen facilities, as well as office space and meeting facilities at Frederiksberg, Copenhagen.
Kost Studio is a food development company based in Copenhagen, Denmark, working together with both researchers and entrepreneurs to create solutions that can address the most pressing challenges in the food value chain. Fully equipped test- and development kitchen facilities, as well as office space and meeting facilities at Frederiksberg, Copenhagen.
RESDOC theme area: Secure and sustainable food and water systems
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Helsinki is the capital and largest city of Finland, with a population of around 690,000 residents. It forms the centre of the Helsinki metropolitan area, the largest urban region in the country, with around 1,6 million inhabitants, including the neighboring cities of Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen. The metropolitan area is located in the southern Finnish region of Uusimaa, on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, and serves as Finland’s most important economic, cultural and scientific hub.
The City of Helsinki invests strongly in ecological, social, cultural and economic sustainability and is committed to achieving the goals of the UN’s Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. The city actively promotes non-discrimination, equality and opportunities for participation, while advancing climate action and sustainable urban development. In addition, Helsinki has a long tradition of marine environmental monitoring. The city has conducted systematic long-term monitoring of its coastal waters since the 1960s. This monitoring includes regular measurements of water quality, nutrient concentrations, phytoplankton, and ecological status. The extensive time series provides a valuable foundation for research, environmental management, and evidence-based policy-making.
As an organisation, the City of Helsinki has extensive resources, highly skilled staff and significant data assets that support research and development. The city also provides a dynamic urban environment for piloting new solutions and engaging residents in co-creation activities. Urban Environment Division offers facilities and biology laboratory at the Urban environment building. Field research facilities and research vessel.
RESDOC theme area: Biodiversity and nature’s resilience, Infectious Diseases and antimicrobial resistance, secure and sustainable food and water systems
Location: Lahti, Finland
Lahti is the 9th largest city in Finland, with a growing population of approximately 122,000. Located in southern Finland, Lahti is well connected to Helsinki and the international airport, ensuring smooth and convenient access for international visitors and researchers, with travel times of under one hour to both Helsinki and the airport. Lahti’s parks, green areas, and waterways create a pleasant natural environment and offer excellent opportunities for outdoor recreation.
The city has for long been a frontrunner in climate work among European cities. Lahti was awarded the title of European Green Capital 2021 and is one of the 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities selected for the EU Cities Mission. It aims to become the first large Finnish city to achieve carbon neutrality and has set an ambitious goal to be nature positive by 2030.
Lahti is also actively advancing the concept of planetary health, for example through its Nature Step to Health programme. Sustainability is at the core of the city strategy, offering a strong and meaningful context for research.
The city is highly engaged in research and innovation activities both internationally and within Finland. As the newest university city in the country, Lahti has seen rapid growth in student numbers and has established strong partnerships with the University of Helsinki and LUT University. As an organization, the City of Lahti provides a supportive environment for research, with stable resources and highly skilled staff. It collects and generates extensive datasets that can be utilized for research purposes. In addition, the city offers a unique real-world testing environment and excellent opportunities for co-creation and active engagement with residents.
RESDOC theme area: Just socio-ecological transition, Biodiversity and nature’s resilience
Location: Helsinki and regional officies, Finland
Finnish Environment Institute Syke is a government research institute developing knowledge-based solutions for the sustainability transition. With a staff of 700, and a large research project portfolio, including 34 Horizon Europe Projects, Syke works in an inter- and transdisciplinary fashion, seeking to stop biodiversity loss and climate change, promotes a sustainable circular economy and built environment, as well as the good condition of seas and inland waters. We creatively seek and enthusiastically test new, research-based solutions.
Syke’s Nature Solutions Unit develops research-based solutions to mitigate biodiversity loss and climate change and adapt to inevitable changes, developing and applying novel biodiversity monitoring methods, and Syke’s Societal Change Unit is a pioneer in empirical sustainability transformation research, advancing just solutions.
Syke offers high-quality laboratory and quality assurance services, marine research infrastructure services, and data resources with interface services. Syke monitors the state of the environment and provides numerous long-term data, e.g. on surface and groundwater, the Baltic Sea, environmental stress, and the built environment. The oldest monitoring efforts began as early as the 18th century. Syke offers the collected data as widely and openly as possible for the use of individuals and society.
RESDOC theme area: Just socio-ecological transition and Biodiversity and nature’s resilience
Location: Helsinki, Finland
The Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council is a joint authority for Helsinki-Uusimaa with 26 member municipalities. We are one of the 18 regional councils in Finland that are mandated in law, receiving our funding mainly from our member municipalities.
Our main operational tasks at the Council are regional and land-use planning, as well as the promotion of local and regional interests. We articulate common regional needs, long term development goals and conditions for sustainable development. The Council is the responsible authority on the Region´s Smart Specialisation Strategy formation and updates.
RESDOC theme area: Infectious Diseases and antimicrobial resistance
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Webpage:
HUS Diagnostics laboratory provides the largest clinical microbiology service in Finland. We serve regions around Helsinki metropolitan area, South Karelia and Kymenlaakso. We also conduct confirmatory testing for the whole of Finland. We are an accredited laboratory (SFS-EN ISO 15189:2022). Our areas of expertise include virology, bacteriology, mycology, parasitology, infectious disease serology, autoimmunology and immune deficiency diagnostics. Our service production consists of 1.5 million tests per year with more than 600 test products. Our staff includes approximately 200 employees of which 40 professionals hold a MSc or MD degree.
The laboratory holds large and unique residual sample archives (serum, blood, respiratory samples, CSF, tissue) and databases with a variety of modern technologies in place.
RESDOC theme area: Just socio-ecological transition and Biodiversity and nature’s resilience, secure and sustainable food and water systems
Location: Helsinki and regional offices, Finla
Luke is a research organisation operating under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland. Luke’s mission is to advance sustainable use of natural resources to support competitiveness and wellbeing. Luke possesses the necessary facilities (e.g. computers etc.) to support ESRs.
Luke has several research units across Finland, allowing flexible selection of research locations and access to place-specific research infrastructure (RI). Luke’s RI include greenhouses, experimental fields and barns, fisheries and aquaculture research facilities, research forests, various laboratories and a biobank. Luke is actively involved in national and international RI networks. Luke manages large datasets, such as the National Forest Inventory (NFI), which provides comprehensive information on forest resources, forest health, biodiversity and forest carbon stocks at the national level.
RESDOC theme area: secure and sustainable food and water systems
Location: Helsinki region, Finland
VTT is a visionary research and innovation partner for companies and society, and one of Europe’s leading research institutions. We work in close collaboration with industry and facilitate the renewal of industrial value chains and sustainable competitiveness in Finland, Europe and globally. We also have a wide network of collaborators in academia, research institutes, and science-based startups to generate groundbreaking, interdisciplinary science advances translatable to solve industrial, societal and environmental needs.
Doctoral researchers will benefit from our world-class industrial biotechnology, synthetic biology, and food technology infrastructure and expertise, including miniaturized high throughput biofoundry, lab scale experimentation, and pilot scale bioprocess and downstream process development, and supporting analytical and bioinformatic (including AI/ML) platforms.
Doctoral researchers at VTT will have opportunities to engineer the metabolism of a wide variety of microorganisms (bacteria to yeasts and filamentous fungi) and cultivated plant cells; reconstitute native biosynthetic pathways in domesticated microorganisms or build completely new pathways; design microorganisms or cultured plant cells that produce and secrete large amounts of enzymes or other high-value proteins; test engineered organisms in miniaturized conditions in a biofoundry; scale up production to larger bioreactors (up to 1000 L); investigate how microbial or plant cell products are best isolated from the cultures; analyze sample compositions using high-end analytical equipment (MS, NMR etc.); and evaluate samples in a variety of bioassays and use assays including the design and testing of novel foods that replace animal-derived foodstuff. Students can also engage in developing and utilizing AI/ML methodologies to design, build, test, and learn from experiments in the whole spectrum of our research.
Sector: Public (research)
RESDOC theme area: Biodiversity and nature’s resilience
Location: Silava, Latvia
Latvian State Forest Research Institute is a leader of scientific ideas in forestry and related research and development in Latvia. Concerning participation in RESDOC, molecular genetics lab with on-site infrastructure for DNA and RNA analysis, including massive parallel sequencing technologies (Ion Torrent and Oxford Nanopore).
RESDOC theme area: Just socio-ecological transition
Location: Turku, Finland
The University of Turku (UTU) is a multidisciplinary and internationally competitive university dedicated to high-level scientific research. UTU is recognised for the quality of its research and teaching, and for its excellent support services. As one of the leading universities in Finland, UTU offers study and research opportunities in eight faculties (Education, Humanities, Law, Medicine, Science, Social Sciences, Technology, and Turku School of Economics) and four independent units (UTU Centre for Language and Communication Studies, Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO, Turku Bioscience Centre, and Turku PET Centre). Normal level of office facilities, ICT-equipment, library facilities and access.
Finland Futures Research Centre (FFRC) works with a transdisciplinary approach in an international environment. The cornerstones of our activities are on developing academic futures studies, critical interdisciplinary research, high quality education, strategic and business foresight and insightfully produced futures knowledge.
RESDOC theme area: Biodiversity and nature’s resilience,
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
Linnaeus University, based in southern Sweden, hosts 40 000 students and 2 200 staff. The flagship Linnaeus University Centres tackle topics such as ecology, biosciences and big data. The Department of Forestry and Wood Technology focuses on education and research of the entire wood value-chain – from forest ecology to advanced timber products and housing solutions.
ForestEDGE laboratory is supported by The Bridge, a long-term commitment with IKEA and Södra forest company. ForestEDGE laboratory has basic facilities for microbiological work, ONT analyses, PlantEye Multispectral 3D scanner for phenotyping. A fleet of drones with multispectral and hyperspectral sensors.
RESDOC theme area: Biodiversity and nature’s resilience
Location: Umeå, Sweden
The Faculty of Forest Sciences at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) is a leading international centre for research and education in forestry, forest ecology, climate adaptation, biodiversity, and sustainable bioeconomy. Based mainly in Umeå, the faculty is distinguished by its extensive research infrastructure, which includes long-term experimental forests, advanced analytical laboratories, and nationally coordinated field platforms. Key infrastructures include the Svartberget Research Station and the Krycklan Catchment Study, internationally recognized for boreal ecosystem, hydrology, and climate research, as well as the Grimsö Wildlife Research Station for long-term wildlife ecology and conservation studies.
The faculty is also deeply integrated with major national and international infrastructures such as SITES and ICOS, and combines field-based ecosystem research with cutting-edge technologies including genomics, remote sensing, environmental monitoring, and high-throughput data analysis to study forest systems from molecular to landscape scales.
RESDOC theme area: Secure and sustainable food and water systems
Location: Dublin, Ireland
University College Dublin will participate in training and networking events, research supervision and secondments.
RESDOC theme area: Biodiversity and nature’s resilience
Location: Göttingen, Germany
The University of Göttingen is an internationally renowned research university. As a key member of the Göttingen Campus, the University cooperates closely with the other research institutions of Göttingen. Around 4,000 international students from 144 countries, 510 exchange partnership programmes with 90 countries, membership in a multitude of European and international higher education networks, a wide range of funding opportunities for internationally mobile students and researchers, and more than fifty English language Masters and PhD programmes – these are just a few features of UGOE's strong international orientation.
At the Department for Forest Genetics and Forest Tree Breeding, we are interested in population genetics and ecological genetics of forest organisms. The focus of our research is on molecular genetic approaches to study patterns of genetic variation in forest organisms. Main fields of research are: i) Adaptation mechanisms and tree improvement at the molecular level ii) links between genetic diversity, biodiversity at higher levels, and ecosystem processes and services, iii) genetic variation of tropical forest trees.
Research results form a basis for tree improvement, the development of strategies for the preservation of diverse and productive forest ecosystems in times of rapid environmental change (alteration of land use systems; climate change), the assessment of human impact on forest ecosystems, and nature protection including conservation of forest genetic resources. Lab equipment includes two capillary sequencers, a MassArray genotyping system, a high precision phenotyping device, a modern molecular laboratory, flexible and high-performance microscopes, greenhouse and climate chambers, a high-performance computing cluster.
RESDOC theme area: Biodiversity and nature’s resilience
Location: Tuscia, Italy
University of Tuscia Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-Food and Forest Systems (DIBAF). The DIBAF is a research and multidisciplinary education laboratory for the scientific and technological innovation of the following processes: exploitation, conservation and management of biological systems and forestry resources, food processing and security, human health and chemical processes for the environment, with special attention to environmental sustainability.
DIBAF combines and integrates various disciplines and complementary approaches, from basic knowledge of chemistry and biology to those typical of agri-food, animal, industrial and environmental biotechnologies which support sustainable management of biological, agrifood and forest systems.
DIBAF is well equipped with good infrastructure facilities for conducting classes & taking up research in the field of Plant pathology and chemistry (laminar and vertical flow hoods, chemical hood, refrigerator, freezer and incubators for growth and maintenance of fungal isolates, "in vitro" stereo and optical microscope, thermocyclers for PCR, qReal-Time-PCR, ION Torrent, centrifuges, microfuges, autoclaves, incubators, climatic chambers for the growth of crops and for carrying out pathogenicity tests, greenhouses, SEM, TEM, HPLC, GC-MASS, FITR, HPLC/GC-MASS, Maldi-TOF;Seldi TOF, XRF/XRD, NMR, Optical tensimeter, ect...).
RESDOC theme area: Infectious Diseases and antimicrobial resistance, secure and sustainable food and water systems
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
University of Nairobi’s Center for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (CEMA). A Center for Excellence of the University of Nairobi carrying out research and training in data analytics and modelling for health data to support the control and elimination of infectious diseases, and the improvement of public health in Kenya and Africa.
CEMA is a Center of Excellence focused on using data analytics and modelling to provide insights for programmatic and policy decisions aimed at improving health in Kenya and Africa. Established in 2020, CEMA has over 70 staff from multiple disciplines, all working to strengthen health data analytics and modelling to guide health programs and policy. CEMA staff possess expertise in fields including computer science, data science, economics, epidemiology, statistics, geographical information systems, health communication, infectious disease modelling, laboratory sciences, medicine, public health, software engineering, and veterinary medicine.