Winland was a strategic research project coordinated by WDRG exploring future energy and food security in Finland. The project ended in August, and the final seminar was held in April 10th. This multidisciplinary project has created eight policy briefs and a large number of reports, statements and presentations. Scientific output has been strong with contributions to over 40 peer-reviewed articles.
From Failand to Winland –project (2016-2019) investigated future energy and food security of Finland. The project provided research and policy recommendations, co-created with key stakeholders representing different sectors of society.
The project was funded by the Strategic Research Council (SRC) of the Academy of Finland. The consortium consisted of 8 partners (Figure 1). The Water and Development Research Group (WDRG) was leading and coordinating the project. Many WDRG members were involved in Winland: including Marko Keskinen (consortium leader), Suvi Sojamo (coordinator), Matti Kummu (theme leader, food security), Lauri Ahopelto (researcher, water security) and Elina Lehikoinen (researcher, food security).
The research ideology of the project was to combine food-energy-water securities and assess them and their interlinkages and effects against the comprehensive security of Finland. The main processes used in Winland for studying the above-mentioned themes were 1) Decision Making, 2) Law and Policy and 3) Resilience and Learning. The over-arching methods to combine all elements were scenarios and co-creation. (Figure 2).
Winland project has contributed to over 40 peer-reviewed articles, 12 conference proceedings and multiple presentations, and arranged four seminars and five workshops. One key academic output of the project was Winland special issue in MDPI’s Sustainability. The title of the special issue is “Enhancing Security, Sustainability and Resilience in Energy, Food and Water” and the guest editors were Marko Keskinen, Suvi Sojamo and Olli Varis from Winland project. The special issue published nine Open Access articles of which six were authored by Winland researchers. To conclude, Winland has created new knowledge about national comprehensive security to both Finnish and international audience.
Drought in Finland
‘Drought in Finland’ was one of the research areas of Winland and two articles in the Special issue focused on this topic. Drought has not been studied in Finland extensively; however, the drought of 2018 and 2019 reminded us that even Finland is not immune to drought impacts. Drought was also interesting research topic for Winland due to its linkages to food and energy security (e.g. reduced crop yields and hydropower potential).
The main findings of the drought research concluded that drought does have an impact in Finland and climate change will most likely make drought more common in the future.
The project created lots of new knowledge and insight in its research fields. More information and all publications can be found from the project’s publications site.
Suomeksi
Juuri loppunut Winland-hanke on kuluneen kolmen vuoden ajan edistänyt Suomen energia-, ruoka- ja vesiturvallisuutta monitieteisen ja tieteidenvälisen tutkimuksen sekä yhteiskehittämisen avulla. Strategisen tutkimuksen mukaisesti tavoitteenamme on ollut sekä korkealaatuinen uusi tutkimus että yhteiskunnallinen vaikuttavuus. Lue lisää Winlandin blogista: Winland kiittää ja päättää – mitä saimme aikaan ja minkä jäljen jätämme?