TURNS Research Enrichment Funding Decisions 2024

TURNS Logo

TURNS Research Enrichment Funding Decisions 

TURNS supports multidisciplinary, innovative and impactful urban sustainability research conducted at Tampere University. In autumn 2024, TURNS piloted a new research enrichment funding to increase the impact of the research results in communities and society. In this first pilot, TURNS encouraged especially enrichment projects that promote the position of vulnerable people and/or environments in cities.

The first TURNS Research Enrichment Funding Call was organized in September 2024. Out of the received 10 funding applications, TURNS funds three proposals in 2024, each with 4 000 euro (the total amount of funding being 12 000 euro). In addition, TURNS earmarks 3 500 euro for collaboration with one proposal in 2025. The funded applications and their main applicants are listed below with short descriptions of each enrichment project.

The applications were evaluated based on e.g. the following criteria: The enrichment project should be related to urban research and must support the strategy of Tampere University and the themes and objectives of TURNS;  The enrichment projects must be related to research already carried out at Tampere University and to the results obtained from that research; Issues to be assessed separately in the proposal: impact and significance of the project; the target group(s) of the project.

All the funded enrichment projects involve concrete outcomes with clear societal impacts outside academia as well as connections with different stakeholders and/or citizens. The projects are all related to research conducted at Tampere University and they enrich the research results in innovative ways. The target groups vary in each project, and the final beneficiaries can be considered being in vulnerable or marginalized position in cities (children, elderly people, cultural precariat, biodiversity).

Based on the experiences from the pilot, there is a clear need for research enrichment funding in the field of urban sustainability at Tampere University. Therefore, a new call round will be opened in spring 2025 after updating the call text based on the feedback received from the field.

Funded projects

Kirsi Pauliina Kallio: BiciZen as a pedagogical tool: Children and young people as actors in sustainable urban mobility

Urban mobility is among the most essential issues for sustainable urban transformation, and cycling is one form of sustainable urban mobility. Together with our colleagues from the ECIU university network, we have developed the BiciZen phone application for cyclists, which supports environmental citizen agency in urban areas based on citizen science. In this research enrichment project, our goal is to introduce BiciZen to primary and secondary schools in Tampere, and to continue the discussion with the City of Tampere and Tampere city region about the future collaboration possibilities regarding BiciZen.

Johanna Kujala: Business that enhances biodiversity

The project aims to finalize a book titled “Luonnon kirjoa vahvistava liiketoiminta”
(Business that enhances biodiversity). This popular science book is based on the findings of
the Business to nature: Stakeholder-driven value creation in ecosystem services (B2N)
research project funded by the Research Council of Finland.

Anu Siren: Quality indicators of age-friendliness in Finland

The project focuses on age-friendliness in cities and municipalities. The aim is to impact the strategies and policymaking in municipalities by involving policymakers in discussions on a digital platform and providing research and best practice -based insights into different methods for evaluating age-friendliness.

Elina Alatalo (TURNS collaboration in 2025): The fillers of vacant spaces: bringing together the key communities that make experiments

The project brings together the key people and communities in Finland experimenting with taking vacant spaces into use in cities and other places. In Hiedanranta, we produce an overview of the situation: who is doing what and where? What challenges and solutions are there? We define next steps for starting peer learning and national networking around the topic.