Strategic research funding granted for research into water security and future of democracy

The Strategic Research Council (SRC) established within the Research Council of Finland has granted 29 million euros to support research into the future of democracy and water security. The ten consortia of projects to be funded focus on long-term research to find solutions to key societal challenges.

Five consortia were granted funding in the SRC programme Democracy for the Future (DEMOC). Research in the programme will focus on current and future challenges of democracy in Finland and internationally. A total of 14 different research fields and 15 organisations are represented in the selected consortia.

Five consortia received funding in the SRC programme Water for Welfare, Security and Peace (WAWE) under this programme will explore water and water resources as a societal issue at both national and global level. Finland has considerable water expertise, which provides a solid foundation for developing new water-related solutions. A total of 13 research fields and 17 organisations are represented in the WaWe consortia.

The SRC also selected programme directors for the two programmes. Meri Kallasvuo, Senior Scientist at Natural Resources Institute Finland, was appointed programme director of the WAWE programme, and Heidi Härkönen, DSS, from the University of Helsinki was appointed programme director of the DEMOC programme.

SRC Chair Anu Kaukovirta said: “The WAWE programme now incorporates very multidisciplinary projects that explore the multidimensional aspects of water-related security, welfare and peace. For the DEMOC programme, the research community had less time to prepare than usual, but we nevertheless now have a very timely programme of excellent projects addressing future trends of democracy. We were also able to select new programme directors from among top talents.”