Jari Hämäläinen is the Vice Rector responsible for research and innovation at LUT University. He holds numerous positions of trust in international networks, for example, on the Boards of Euro-CASE  and the NORDTEK student exchange network. He is a member of the EUA’s working group focusing on developing the double doctoral degree (DDD) programmes at European universities. Hämäläinen also serves as Chairman of the Vice Rectors of Research within Unifi. He graduated with a Ph.D. Degree from the University of Jyväskylä in 1993 and worked for VTT and Valmet for more than a decade before returning to academia.

Miia Ijäs-Idrobo completed her Ph.D. Degree at the University of Tampere in 2014 and currently works as a Senior Adviser for FUURT. During her academic career, she has worked as a history researcher, university lecturer and part-time teacher specialising in the history of eastern Central Europe and, in particular, Poland. Her areas of responsibility at FUURT include science and higher education policy and especially issues topical to members who are early career researchers, grant-funded researchers, or foreign-born researchers.

Tapio Määttä is the Academic Rector for the University of Eastern Finland and serves also as Director of the University’s Doctoral School. In his current work and earlier positions as Professor of Environmental Law and Head of the Law School, Määttä has advanced the career paths of doctors. The University of Eastern Finland has, for example, taken the 10% employment contract system into use for grant-funded researchers.

Pirjo Nikander is the Research Director for the Doctoral School of the University of Tampere and a member of the Steering Committee for the European University Association’s Council for Doctoral Education (EUA-CDE). Along with the wide range of courses and events, the Doctoral School team arranges, for example, Research Method Festivals, and endeavours to promote the employment of doctoral candidates. The Doctoral School participates in the DocEnhance project funded by the EU Horizon2020 programme. The project aims to enhance transferable skills intelligence and integration into existing European university PhD programmes.

Maria Törnroos is a Doctor of Psychology and expert on well-being at work.  During her academic career, she has worked as, for example, a researcher at the University of Helsinki and as Assistant Professor at Hanken School of Economics. She currently works at Aalto University as Finland’s first and, for the time being, only Study Psychologist for doctoral students. As part of her work, she endeavours to advance the well-being of doctoral students on the individual, group, and organisational levels. You can read more about Maria’s ideas and thoughts in her PhD Pathfinder blog.