Doctor of Social Sciences Paula Rauhala studies the history of edition, translation and reception of Karl Marx’s Capital between the Soviet Union and the West: in divided Germany and Finland. “Thanks to the grant, I can work in libraries and archives in Germany. I’m also studying to become a German translator, so it’s great that I can finally live in Germany for a longer period of time and develop my language skills,” says Rauhala excitedly and tells about her research.

“For many, Marx brings to mind pompous Soviet statues and red flags, where the old Marx poses sullenly next to Lenin and Stalin. In fact, however, he was a European mid-19th-century thinker, not a Soviet one,” says Rauhala. In her project, she breaks down what in the original language editions of Capital – and in the Finnish translations of the work – is filtered through 20th-century ways of thinking.

According to Rauhala, our image of Marx as the “classic” of the Soviet ideology Marxism-Leninism, is largely derived from the massive publishing projects financed by the Soviet Union and the GDR, including the editions of Capital produced in these countries. Essential research questions are: how do the editions of Capital produced in East and West Germany during the Cold War reflect the controversy over to whom Marx belonged as a classic, the social democrats, the radical left or Soviet Marxism? How the Soviet ideology is reflected in the Finnish translation of the work? Should the 110-year-old (and only) translation of the first volume of Capital be updated?

Chaoxiong Ye, Doctor of Philosophy, is studying the cognitive mechanism of the two-phase model of visual working memory and its application. “I am excited to share that my research aims to understand how our brain processes visual information and allocates resources to support our working memory”, Ye explains. To investigate this, Ye and his team proposes a two-phase model of visual working memory resource allocation and will conduct two stages of research using electroencephalography (EEG) recordings and cognitive training paradigms.

“We hope to reveal the cognitive and neural mechanisms that facilitate flexible allocation of visual working memory resources and design cognitive training paradigms that can improve individuals’ VWM capacity” Ye says. The results of the project will provide important insights into the cognitive and neural basis of the VWM resource allocation. “Our cognitive training paradigm could have practical applications in improving human cognitive capacity”, he tells with excitement.

What is the Post Doc Pool?

The Pool has a role in making Finnish research more international. After twenty-seven application rounds over 700 scholars have already received funding through the Pool for at least a one-year research period abroad. One third of the grantees have received a two-year funding.

Since 2022, it has been possible to apply for funding from the Post Doc Pool even for shorter research periods abroad (i.e. outside of Finland) that last at least 6 months. The Pool’s next application round will take place from 15 August until 15 September 2023, when some 1.8 million euro will be given in grants. The results of this round will be published by December 2023.

Säätiöiden post doc -pooli has proven to be an important instrument of research funding which has enabled young scholars with families to finance research periods at top universities abroad. The grants awarded by the Pool are determined flexibly in accordance with the applicant’s needs and they often include their family’s moving expenses and children’s day care or school fees.

The Säätiöiden post doc -pooli was set up in the autumn of 2009. During the current three-year-period 2022-2024 there are thirteen foundations involved, allocating altogether 3.25 million euro annually to the pool. The Pool’s foundations are Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth Foundation, Emil Aaltonen’s Foundation, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, the Foundation for Economic Education, Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation, Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Finnish Medical Foundation, Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland, Finnish Foundation for Technology Promotion, Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation and the Ulla Tuominen’s Foundation.

Post Doc grants awarded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation:

• Shady Awad, biomedicine, 76 000 €
• Niko Cajander, industrial management, 28 400 €
• Ehsan Daneshvar, agronomy, 48 000 €
• Nicholas Downes, cell biology, 60 000 €
• Md Nurul Huda, physics, 75 000 €
• Olesia Ignatenko, biomedicine, 48 000 €
• Jasmin Lukkari, history, 39 000 €
• Ekaterina Nepovinnykh, computational science, 59 000 €
• Marika Pulkkinen, theology, 39 000 €
• Paula Rauhala, philosophy, 41 000 €
• Jenny Säilävaara, gender studies, 55 000 €
• Henna Tahvanainen, acoustics, 44 000 €
• Chaoxiong Ye, neuroscience, 50 0000 €

www.postdocpooli.fi

The Pool has a role in making Finnish research more international. After twenty-five application rounds over 680 scholars have already received funding through the Pool for at least a one-year research period abroad. One third of the grantees have received a two-year funding.

From the year 2022 onwards, it is possible to apply for funding from the Post Doc Pool even for shorter research periods abroad (i.e. outside of Finland) that last at least 6 months. The Pool’s next application round will take place from 15 August until 15 September 2022, when some 1.6 million euro will be given in grants. The results of this round will be published by December 2022.

Säätiöiden post doc -pooli has proven to be an important instrument of research funding which has enabled young scholars with families to finance research periods at top universities abroad. The grants awarded by the Pool are determined flexibly in accordance with the applicant’s needs and they often include their family’s moving expenses and children’s day care or school fees.

The Säätiöiden post doc -pooli was set up in the autumn of 2009. During the current three-year-period 2022-2024 there are thirteen foundations involved, allocating altogether 3.25 million euro annually to the pool. The Pool’s foundations are Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth Foundation, Emil Aaltonen’s Foundation, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, the Foundation for Economic Education, Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation, Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Finnish Medical Foundation, Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland, Finnish Foundation for Technology Promotion, Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation and the Ulla Tuominen’s Foundation.

Further information

www.postdocpooli.fi
info(at)postdocpooli.fi or from coordinator Mikko-Olavi Seppälä, tel. + 358 400 868 006

Text: Laura Iisalo
Photos: Rami Marjamäki

In every city there are underdeveloped, in-between areas that form boundaries or edges within the urban built environment. These areas are called interstitial spaces and they differ in scale. A logistics plot next to an apartment building, a space underneath a bridge, a highway, or an area alongside a ring road is considered interstitial, but even a whole city or a community can be interstitial.

These in-between areas are often ignored, yet they are an integral part of the on-going and rapid transformation of the built environment that is reshaping our cities, says Alia’a Amr, currently a postdoctoral researcher at Tampere University.

– These interstitial, partitioning spaces are defined as empty, underdeveloped, under-utilised. They increase separation and segregation but they have the potential to be contributors to the urban fabric. The potential of interstitial areas in general depends on the way spatial transition is facilitated and processed. How these areas emerge and transform is my area of interest, she says.

We shape our cities, then they shape us

Cities are defined by the built environment but also by people, culture, heritage, and the interactions between them. You don’t have to have a degree in architecture or spatial planning to participate in city development or placemaking.

– The concept of spatial transition is complex and involves inseparable social, cultural, economic, political, environmental, and spatial aspects. We need new combinations of hybrid tools, data, and models to steer the process of spatial transition, especially in the most vulnerable areas such as the interstitial ones, Amr says.

In her master’s thesis Amr discussed the spatial transition of urban peripheries, and in her PhD she looked at the urban transition and interstitiality of ring roads and areas alongside them in Oslo, Greater Helsinki, Greater Amman, and Kuwait City.

Cities are defined by people, culture, heritage, and the interaction in between.

To deepen her knowledge, Amr will be conducting new, postdoctoral research at the School of Natural and Built Environment at the Queen’s University of Belfast in Northern Ireland, funded by the foundations’ Post Doc Pool.

International collaboration benefits all parties

Amr is interested in the city of Belfast because it provides a unique and unexplored context for her research topic. She is especially intrigued by the areas around certain infrastructures such as the peace walls, which were created during and after the 30-year long conflict in Northern Ireland to separate the Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods.

– Besides providing spatial analysis, her research will include an assessment of the social and environmental aspects of these spaces. The outcomes of this project can be benefitted from not only in Belfast, but also in different urban contexts, she says.

While Amr believes that being part of the interdisciplinary and international research community will be a significant step in her academic career, she also thinks that it will provide new opportunities for close collaboration between the two universities in Tampere and Belfast.

– We are a global research community that encourages open-access publishing, and this is an opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience. These collaborations are key enablers of high-quality science and outputs. I’m sure that all parties will benefit, Amr says.

Postdoctoral researcher Alia’a Amr was awarded funding from the Foundations’ Post Doc Pool. She will be analysing interstitiality at the Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland.

Text and photos: Laura Iisalo

The cost of cancer is high for both the patient and society, and the same applies for autoimmunity, a condition where the patient develops antibodies or T cells, which are a type of immune cell, that mistakenly react to the patient’s own tissues or organs. 

Both diseases cause remarkable morbidity and mortality, even with current treatment methods. The two are also strongly connected. Cancer is often caused by a faulty immune system, which fails to attack defective cells thus allowing cancerous cells to grow and divide.

Chemotherapy is frequently used to treat cancerous tumours but Postdoctoral researcher Zivile Giedraityte believes that in the future all diseases, including cancer, will be treated with immunotherapy instead. 

The method, which came of age in the early 2000’s, involves activating the patient’s own immune system to cure a tumour by identifying and destroying cancer cells. By now 25 percent of cancers have been cured this way but strengthening the immune system comes with a risk; it may cause the patient to develop autoimmunity. 

– I believe that all diseases are linked to immune responses. In the future treatment will be highly personalised and I believe that we will be able to find an immune response that is so powerful that it will kill the cancer cells in our bodies. To do that we need to understand the defence mechanisms, and to control the immune reaction. The more we understand, the more control we have of those diseases, Giedraityte says.

Discovery is the joy of science

Giedraityte, who is currently developing new types of immunotherapies for ovarian cancer at the Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, Translational Immunology Research Program, University of Helsinki, wants to eventually become an independent researcher, and better understand the mechanisms that affect the immune system in order to find new ways to cure cancer. 

To take the next step towards her goals she will spend one year at the laboratory run by Professor of Medicine and Health Sciences & Technology at Harvard Medical School, Shiv Pillai, in the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, where everything is studied through the lens of immunology.

– Our immune systems have been designed to see an infinite number of shapes, and they can recognise anything that is foreign. Sometimes they make cells that recognise our own cells, and that is the price we pay for having strong mechanisms that protect us from infections, Pillai explains the mechanism of autoimmunity.

According to him there is no better suited environment for scientific research than Boston, which is one of the most international cities with students and postdoctoral researchers from all over the world, and where science is better funded than in any European country.

– I arrived here 37 years ago and I still feel like there is no other place in the world that gives more scientific stimulation. We have a friendly atmosphere in our lab and we like to bounce ideas off each other. I’m still learning every day, Pillai says.

The scientific community is also highly competitive, and the key to a successful launch of a career as an independent researcher is making a discovery. It is what Pillai did in the 1980’s, when he discovered the existence and importance of surrogate light chains for B cell development, and it is what he encourages his students to do.

– The joy of science is discovery and the beauty in studying biology is that we understand many things but not completely. In order to use the knowledge for therapeutic advantage we need to understand better how things work, and that is what we try to do.

Postdoctoral researcher Zivile Giedraityte was awarded a grant in 2021 from the Foundation’s Post Doc Pool which allows her to spend an academic year at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard.

Altogether 133 post-doctoral scholars from around Finland took part in the spring application round. Thus a grant could be awarded to 22 % of the applicants. The number of applications increased by 13 percent from the previous year. You can find all the Cultural Foundation’s Post Doc pool grantees here. Choose Post doc pooli from “Erillishaut” section.

Säätiöiden post doc -pooli has proven to be an important instrument of research funding which has enabled young scholars with families to finance research periods at top universities abroad. The grants awarded by the Pool are determined flexibly in accordance with the applicant’s needs and they often include their family’s moving expenses and children’s day care or school fees.

The Pool has a role in making Finnish research more international. After twenty-three application rounds over 630 scholars have already received funding through the Pool for at least a one-year research period abroad. One third of the grantees have received a two-year funding.

The Pool’s next application round will take place from 15 August until 15 September 2021, when some 1.7 million euro will be given in grants. The results of this round will be published by December 2021.

Teachers develop their teaching and learning skills also in distressed situations

The Pool’s next application round will take place from 15 August until 15 September 2021, when some 1.7 million euro will be given in grants. The results of this round will be published by December 2021.

The Säätiöiden post doc -pooli was set up in the autumn of 2009. During the fourth three-year-period 2019-2021 there are thirteen foundations involved, allocating altogether 3.2 million euro annually to the pool. The Pool’s foundations are Emil Aaltonen’s Foundation, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, the Foundation for Economic Education, the Paulo Foundation, Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation, Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Finnish Medical Foundation, Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland, Finnish Foundation for Technology Promotion, Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation and the Ulla Tuominen’s Foundation.

Further information:

www.postdocpooli.fi, info(at)postdocpooli.fi or from coordinator Mikko-Olavi Seppälä, tel. + 358 400 868 006

Text: Laura Iisalo
Photos: Laura Iisalo and Weldon Green

A recent graduate from the educational department at the University of Jyväskylä, Crystal Green, headed to the United States with her family soon after her graduation. She is conducting her postdoctoral studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, funded by the Foundations’ Post Doc Pool. Acquiring international experience was a significant, but not an obvious choice.

– I was relieved when I had my PhD done, but I soon realised that it was actually just the beginning; it was as if I had just been born as an academic. Without sufficient support it can be difficult moving forward into a postdoctoral career when a mobility period and international experience are expected in the CV, she says of her experience.

In her postdoctoral research Green looks into how equality and non-discrimination are facilitated in teacher education. She has collected data at two teacher training sites, one in Finland and one in the United States. She will then analyse her findings in order to understand how equality is understood, and what is the role of teacher education in prompting social justice and equality in society.

Green finds it especially important that while marginalisation in a community is often abstracted or reported in quantifiable terms, it actually stems from real-life human experiences.

“Painful experiences can be used as a power to better understand other people and the situation they are in.”

– It was amazing and very emotional to witness pre-service teachers talk about their personal experiences of discrimination. These painful experiences can be used as a power to better understand other people and the situation they are in. Educator Paulo Freire used to say that education is about becoming more fully human, and we bring ourselves and our experiences into education. I also believe that ultimately the goal should be to humanise education, she says.

When her two years in California come to an end, Green hopes to return to Finland to continue her academic career. Her current goal is to become docent eligible by gathering the required evidence to meet the qualifying criteria.

– It is really well understood in Finland what the importance of teacher education is, and what it means to society. I also find academia there very open and forward thinking. It can get very competitive in the United States and I feel like I’m currently running a sprint. In Finland the research pace leaves more time for thinking, which I think is very important, says Green.

A multidisciplinary research community provides new perspectives

Postdoctoral researcher Kreeta Niemi, who graduated from the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Jyväskylä in 2016, is also heading to the United States in October 2021. She chose UCLA because of its multidisciplinary research community – and also because so many pioneers and current top researchers in interaction studies come from California.

– Los Angeles is the mecca for conversation analysis, which is my main research method. Interaction is a very wide phenomenon, which requires a multidisciplinary approach and I’m very excited to collaborate with international scholars and colleagues from varying fields. But I’m not only going there to learn, I hope to give something to the community too, she says.

Niemi is planning to take with her the data that she has collected over three years in research funded by the Academy of Finland, in which she has looked into children’s interaction in modern learning environments. Her goal is to find out what kind of opportunities and constraints those entail.

There are currently 33 schools in Finland that are classified as modern learning environments, and in the future flexible and versatile spaces will be the norm. The trend goes hand in hand with the phenomenon-based learning approach, which aims to study problems stemming from the real world with a holistic approach.

– Studying in an open learning environment is more project-based, self-guided, and technology has a greater role. Those are all good things but require adequate support and guidance. At its best this kind of environment enables new ways to get closer to society and adapt to the evolving needs of the world, Niemi says.

She hopes that the research will give new information that teachers, educational professionals and, for instance, architects can use to develop more efficient learning environments.

– There is a lot of potential involved in supporting self-direction and community building but these spaces need to adapt to multiple uses, and enclosed spaces are also needed. In Finland the teachers are genuinely keen to develop learning environments and practices. A bit of time is just required for everything to come together, Niemi concludes.

The Post Doc Pool’s Spring Call is open from 15 Dec 2020 until 31 Jan 2021. For more information go to postdocpooli.fi/en

PhD Crystal Green received a Post doc pool’s grant in 2020 and 2021 for her research concerning Social Justice and Equity Promotion in Teacher Education.
PhD Kreeta Niemi received a Post do pool’s grant in 2021 for hes sresearch concerning Rethinking Learning and Teaching within Modern Learning Environments.