Future Challenges in the Nordics is a seven-year research programme that stimulates research within humanities and social sciences in the Nordics. The programme focuses on the large societal challenges of the 21st century and how those challenges are understood and handled within the Nordic societies. During the spring, the programme received 449 applications for funding and now the final selection of 11 applications has been made.

The research programme emphasises multidisciplinarity and cooperation across national borders in the Nordics. Researchers from Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark will participate in the 11 selected projects, and around 30 research disciplines will be represented. Tom Moring, the chairman of the programme’s steering group, is very satisfied with the projects that are financed.

– The chosen projects are multidisciplinary and they combine social sciences and humanities in a new way. They also have a clear relevance for society and represent a wide range of research disciplines. The interest in the programme among researchers was great and the applications were of such a high quality that all of the financiers chose to increase their original funding amount. In the last stretch of the application process we also got a new financier in the Kamprad Family Foundation.

The research programme is funded by the Finnish foundations The Society of Swedish Literature in Finland, The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, The Finnish Cultural Foundation, and Stiftelsen Brita Maria Renlunds minne. In Sweden, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond and The Kamprad Family Foundation are funders. The aim of Future Challenges in the Nordics is for scientifically sophisticated research undertaken under the auspices of the programme to also concretely benefit society.

For more information about Future Challenges in the Nordics – People, Culture and Society, please visit futurenordics.org or contact

Christer Kuvaja
Head of Research
Society of Swedish Literature in Finland
+358 40 152 2314
christer.kuvaja@sls.fi

Out of the eleven projects, four are taking place at universities in Finland and seven in Sweden

In the project Ethnic stereotypes over time – a Nordic comparison, researchers from Sweden and Finland are studying how and why stereotypes about national minorities and immigrant groups have changed between 1955 and today. The aim is to increase knowledge about the relations between ethnic groups and by doing so enable predictions about how the relations will evolve in the future. The project is taking place at the Institute for Futures Studies in Sweden with PhD Moa Bursell as the leader. The researchers represent the fields of sociology and Nordic studies. The project was granted 670,000 euros for four years.

The project Tackling Precarious and Informal Work in the Nordic Countries (PrecaNord) is looking into how sustainable the Nordic model is considering the changes to the labour market, with more and more people having uncertain or informal working conditions. Researchers from the fields of sociology, social anthropology, economics and migration studies from Finland, Sweden and Norway are studying the existence and trends of uncertain and informal work in these countries. The project takes place at the University of Helsinki and the project leader is Associate Professor in Sociology, Lena Näre. The project was granted 950,000 euros for four years.

The project The Automated Administration: Governance of ADM in the public sector is concerned with how automated decision making can be implemented without endangering the fundamental rights, good administrative practices and trust in public institutions. Researchers from Sweden and Finland representing socio-legal research, political science, media and communication studies, science and technology studies (STS) and legal dogmatics are participating in the project, which is taking place at Lund University. The project leader is Stefan Larsson, Associate Professor in Technology and Social Change. The project was granted 950,000 euros for four years.

The project Demography and democracy – Healthy ageing in a digital world focuses on how people over the age of 75 have access to digital healthcare services. The aim is to prevent digitalisation leading to differences in health and digital gaps among the older population in the Nordics. The project takes place at Lund University and involves researchers from Sweden, Denmark and Finland working in the fields of communication studies, digital health, sociology of health and illness, social work and gerontology. The project leader is Helena Sandberg, Associate Professor in Media and Communication Studies, Lund University. The project is financed by Familjen Kamprads stiftelse and was granted 990,000 euro for four years.

The project Peripheral Visions: When global agendas meet Nordic energy peripheries studies how renewable energy transformation is imagined, carried out and contested in the northern parts of Sweden, Finland, and Greenland. The project involves researchers from the areas of history of science and technology, environmental history, social anthropology, human ecology, political science, ecology, and social science energy research. The project leader is Erland Mårald, Professor in Science and Ideas at Umeå University, where the project takes place. The project was granted 950,000 euros for three years.

The project Unpacking the contention between openness and security in the Nordic region: Digital public surveillance practices at three state borders is looking into how surveillance based on artificial intelligence and machine learning is used at the border of Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The aim is to point out the tension between openness and safety, where the increased safety risks encroaching on the integrity of the individual. The project takes place at the University of Gothenburg with Elena Raviola, Professor in Design Management, as the leader. Researchers from the areas of design studies, informatics, sociology, legal studies, science and technology studies and organisation studies from Sweden, Denmark and Norway are participating in the project. The project was granted 990,000 euros for four years.

In the project The Future of Nordic Youth in Rural Regions: A Cross-national Qualitative Longitudinal Study in four Nordic Countries researchers from Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway are studying young people’s life experiences, future plans and sense of belonging to the countryside with a disappearing and aging population in all Nordic countries. The research has touchpoints with history, sociology, education, cultural studies and geography. The project is taking place at the University of Jyväskylä and the project leader is Kaisa Vehkalahti, Adjunct Professor of Cultural and Social History. The project was granted 900,000 euros for three years and eight months.

The project Nordic basic schools as past, present and future sites for solving the challenges of making diverse inclusive knowledge-based societies studies how the basic school as a physical location has contributed to social togetherness, inclusion and exclusion from the 1970s until today. The emphasis is especially on how material changes and digitalisation have influenced and changed the social coexistence at school in the Nordic countries. Researchers from Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway are participating in the project and they represent the areas of education, history and applied linguistics. The project, which was granted 900,000 euros for four years, is taking place at Åbo Akademi and is led by Fritjof Sahlström, Professor in Education.

The project Fossil Free Futures: Divestment across the Nordic countries studies the driving forces that are motivating Nordic pension funds to divest in fossil fuels. The aim of the project is to better understand actors of change, their tools and practices in initiatives to divest pension funds. The project is taking place at the University of Stockholm and it was granted 870,000 euros for three years. The project leader is Linda Soneryd, Professor in Sociology, and the other participants are researchers from Sweden, Norway and Denmark in the areas of sociology, science and technology studies, economic sociology and climate change.

The project The Future of Diverse and Disadvantaged Neighborhoods in the Nordic Welfare States — The Voices of Residents conducts surveys among the residents in urban living areas with ethnic diversity to hear their thoughts about their surroundings. The project also wants to create methods to hear people who would not normally participate in studies. The project is taking place at the University of Gothenburg with Peter Esaiasson, Professor in Political Science, as the leader and it was granted 850,000 euros for three years. Researchers representing political science and urban geography from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland are participating in the project.

The project Keeping New Money on Board. The New Nordic Wealth Elites and the Future of the Welfare Mode studies the new wealthy elites, especially IT and finance elites, and their attitudes towards the values that create the foundation of the Nordic welfare state. Will these elites challenge the Nordic model and its staples, such as high taxation and a large public sector? The project is taking place at Tampere University. The project leader is Hanna Kuusela, Docent in Media Culture. The researchers for this project come from Finland and Sweden and they are specialists in sociology, communication studies, cultural studies and business administration. The project was granted 900,000 euros for three years and nine months.

Future Challenges in the Nordics – People, Culture and Society is a seven-year research programme that stimulates research within humanities and social sciences in the Nordics. The programme focuses on the large societal challenges of the 21st century and how those challenges are understood and handled within Nordic societies. The research programme finances eleven research projects with a total amount of 10.5 million euros. The aim is that the research benefits society by producing findings that are easy for citizens and decision-makers to access. The research programme is financed by The Society of Swedish Literature in Finland, The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, The Finnish Cultural Foundation, Stiftelsen Brita Maria Renlunds minne, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond and The Kamprad Family Foundation.

Text and photos: Laura Iisalo

Ten thousand years ago, the cultivation of wheat changed the course of humankind. The transition from hunter-gathering to agriculture was a great success from the perspective of survival, and by now wheat is one of the most popular cereal grains in the world. It tastes great, it is easy to use in baking and cooking, and it is relatively cheap. Unfortunately wheat, especially when refined, is not very nutritious or sustainable.

There are many other grains and legumes such as faba bean, sorghum, and millet, which are rich sources of proteins, minerals, dietary fibre, and antioxidants, but those are often under-utilised because the taste and texture are inferior to commercial wheat products.

To try and solve this dilemma, PhD Yaqin Wang decided to look into making better use of these wheat alternatives in Europe and in African countries including Burkina Faso and Kenya, where most of the wheat flour is imported. She defended her thesis, ‘Optimization of cereal foam structures by using tailored bioprocessing’, in June 2020.

– The aim of the project was to help to increase the usage of locally grown grains by making high protein, or wholegrain bread. In order for people to adapt, the product needs to be quite similar to what they are used to. The problem is that when you replace more than 30% of the wheat flour with faba bean, sorghum or millet flour, the bread becomes very small and hard and not very tasty compared to regular bread, Wang says.

The big baking experiment

To improve the texture and flavour, Wang experimented with dextran. As an all natural alternative to commercial texture enhancers and flavour-masking additives, it doesn’t have to be listed in the food label because dextran is not an ingredient but a product of sourdough fermentation with well-characterised lactic acid bacteria isolated from food.

By adding sucrose, Wang developed a bioprocessing method that created dextran, which functions in a similar way to gluten. In theory the method can be applied to any flour, but it needs to be tailored to optimal conditions.

– It was challenging to work with difficult flours because there was not much information available. For instance, the sorghum flour can have antimicrobial compounds, which means that when you try to ferment it, the bacteria just won’t grow, Wang says.

Future of food

Eventually the hard work paid off. Wang used 30-50% of faba bean, sorghum, or millet flour to replace wheat flour, and dextran producing lactic acid bacteria isolated from an African sourdough pastry.

She managed to bake bread that was close to, or even bigger than a 100% wheat bread. To see how the invention appeals to the end-consumers, Wang and her team traveled to Burkina Faso, and held a sensory test in a local bakery.

– It was successful. I’m happy that they are now trying to use the local cereals in making food. Wheat ranks top on the Africa’s food import list and it has put high pressure on the government and food security. More effort needs to be put into the project in order to get the bread in the market but the study was very good, she says.

Wang is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Food and Nutrition Sciences at the University of Helsinki, and she continues to investigate the future of food, focusing on creating plant-based alternatives for meat.

– Our main purpose is to reduce the reliance on wheat flour, and to replace it with healthier options. Often the work is very challenging but we have a big research group here, and a lot of people involved. It’s a good community, she says.

PhD Yaqin Wang looked into the optimisation of cereal foam structures by using tailored bioprocessing, and received a grant worth 24 000 euros from the central fund towards her thesis research.

The aim of the “World on Stage” funding is to encourage Finnish theatres to have new, contemporary plays from around the world translated into Finnish, and then to perform them. Theatre Info Finland (TINFO) will also receive funding from the foundation to arrange special World on Stage information events for theatres, where they are introduced to recent, as yet untranslated, works by contemporary playwrights.

Less and less high-level contemporary world literature is published in Finnish. Relatively many translations are made of English-language works, but very few from other languages. The same applies in the world of drama. Hardly any recent dramatic works from continental Europe or elsewhere in the world are performed in Finnish theatres.

– Currently, the Finnish theatre world is operating in a kind of vacuum concerning translated plays, which means we don’t breathe the same air as the rest of Europe. Finnish audiences deserve opportunities to enjoy more diverse programming. We hope that the World on Stage funding will lead to presentations of how the challenges of our time are processed dramatically in other cultures, explains actor Timo Torikka, who was involved in developing the new grant.

Theatres may apply for the grant for the first time in August 2022, and annually thereafter. The total funding for play translations and performances between 2022 and 2029 will be EUR 1.2 million.

– It is important for TINFO that the funding is available to the entire field, which means both institutional theatres and independent theatre companies. We are also pleased that the funding will allow for tours, so that performances can reach audiences in various places, says TINFO Director Linnea Stara.

TINFO will gather up a team of experts, who will be tasked with reading contemporary plays from as many language regions as possible, to consider which ones could fit in well in today’s Finland.

– We want to be involved in creating a diverse theatre sector whose eyes are open to the rest of the world during this time of reconstruction.

For further information, please contact:

Finnish Cultural Foundation: Juhana Lassila, Director of Cultural Affairs, tel. +358 9 6128 1230
Theatre Info Finland (TINFO): Linnea Stara, Director, tel. +358 50 301 2723

In 2022, the Cultural Foundation will pay out approximately EUR 50 million in grants, of which EUR 27 million is open for applications in October. Most of the grants will be given out as full-year working grants of EUR 26,000, or EUR 30,000 for postdoctoral research

– There is a lot of uncertainty in the area of funding for academic and artistic disciplines at the moment. The Cultural Foundation has increased its grant sum, while keeping the criteria largely unchanged since last year, explains the foundation’s director in charge of grants, Juhana Lassila, 

Academic grants are directed particularly at doctoral theses and postdoctoral academic work. For doctoral candidates, the Cultural Foundation offers an opportunity to combine the grant 50–50% with an employment period at a university or research institution, such that put together they form a full-time further education package.

In October, the Cultural Foundation will grant around EUR 1 million to research concerning nutrition and health. Applications are accepted from the fields of natural science, pharmacy, medicine and agronomy, as well as from multidisciplinary projects. The funding will be granted to at most five research projects and is intended for teams consisting of several members.

Artists may apply for grants for work or projects, while artistic communities may apply in relation to cultural projects. Within the arts, the Cultural Foundation is happy to accept applications for large-scale, multi-year projects.

– The Cultural Foundation has no specific areas of focus for large-scale projects. We are looking for high-quality projects within or between any artistic disciplines, Lassila says.

Specific grants open for applications within the October round are Eminentia, Art for Everyone and Dig It! archaeology initiative.

The Eminentia grant is intended for reflecting on and sharing one’s scientific or artistic life’s work and o the experience gained from it, to benefit others, either in one’s own field, other fields, in interaction between science and the arts, or more broadly, to promote the social significance of science or art. A prerequisite for the Eminentia grant is that the resulting work be published in writing as a standalone book, online publication or a series of articles. 

Art for Everyone (previously known as Art for Institutions) is aimed at increasing the opportunities of people in need of care or support to experience high-quality art and, in this manner, promoting cultural equality. The art financed by the grant must be directed at people whose access to art is otherwise limited. Potential locales for implementing this kind of project include hospitals, prisons, reception centres, care units for substance abusers, child welfare institutions, sheltered homes, day centres, and care homes for the elderly. The minimum application sum in the October round is EUR 25,000.

The Dig It! archaeology grant is designed to create opportunities for primary and secondary school students to take part in archaeological activities in their local area, thereby promoting their awareness of and interest in scientific research methods, their own local heritage and history in general. Archaeologists, working groups run by archaeologists. and registered cultural heritage organisations – including museums and archaeological societies – are eligible to apply for Dig It! funding. The projects are implemented in cooperation with one or more local schools.  

More information about the October Round.

Teksti: Laura Iisalo
Kuvat: Rami Marjamäki

Supporting cells of the nervous system have been proven to have a crucial role in various neurodegenerative diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS), which currently affects over 10 000 Finns. MS is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, and it leads to a loss of myelin that insulates the nerve cells, formation of inflammatory areas, and nerve damage. There is no cure but the current medical treatment slows down disease progression.

Animal testing is traditionally used in multiple sclerosis research, but animal models do not fully recapitulate the disease pathology of humans. The approach of Academy research fellow Sanna Hagman is new. She uses stem cells derived from MS patients who have a genetic risk factor for the disease. The cells are guided to specialise into different types of nerve cells, such as nerve supporting glial cells, and then exposed to an inflammatory environment mimicking that of the MS disease, to see how the inflammation affects the properties of these cells.

Postdoctoral researcher Tanja Hyvärinen has been involved in the study since September 2020. She looked at the functionality of neuronal cells, and the role of glial cells in the neuronal network, already in her doctoral thesis.

– The goal of the research is to recognise the glial cell-mediated disease mechanisms leading to neurodegeneration in order to advance new treatments for multiple sclerosis, Hyvärinen says.

Interdisciplinary cooperation enables diverse research

Hagman’s research project collaborates with the teams led by Professor Tarja Malm at the University of Eastern Finland, and Professor Laura Airas at the University of Turku, and with Adjunct Professor Susanna Narkilahti and Professor Pasi Kallio, principal investigators in the Academy of Finland funded Centre of Excellence in Body-on Chip Research at the Tampere University.

The latter are currently developing a new type of organ-on-chip platform, which enables simultaneous culturing of different neural cell types. The chip can be used to look at the interaction and role of these cells in the MS disease more diversely.

The team has already managed to culture glial cells together with nerve cells, but the project is very demanding, and requires perseverance. The challenge is what makes it so attractive.

– Stem cell research is quite a new field but it will allow us to study the disease mechanisms and even tailor personalised medicine in the future. It will take time to get there because first scientists need to solve many practical challenges, Hyvärinen says.

If everything goes as planned, the cultures derived from stem cells can be used to create brain-like, humanised laboratory models, which can complement or even replace animal testing.

– The idea is that we can create universal disease models to discover what kind of changes are caused by the genetic risk factors predisposing one to multiple sclerosis. It can aid the discovery and development of new pharmaceuticals, says Hyvärinen.

Postdoctoral researcher Tanja Hyvärinen received a grant worth 30 000 € for her study, which looks into the role of glial cells and their drug responses in MS disease.