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Multi-, inter- and crossdisciplinary sustainability research

JYU.Wisdom brings together researchers from various disciplines and faculties, supporting high-quality, solution-oriented sustainability research. The goal is to become one of the leading international sustainability research communities. Assistant Professor Teea Kortetmäki, appointed as Research Director, leads this work and develops the community’s support structures for researchers in collaboration with Research Coordinator, PhD Laura Tuominen.

Kortetmäki is an Assistant Professor in Sustainability Transitions at the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy. She earned her PhD in environmental philosophy from the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥ in 2017. Her research combines multidisciplinary environmental social sciences and environmental philosophy, and she has addressed applied questions on themes such as just transition, planetary well-being, food system sustainability, and food and environmental ethics. She has received the Good Leadership Award at the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥.

Kortetmäki joined JYU.Wisdom in 2019 as the first three-year Wisdom Fellow postdoctoral researcher. Living in Muurame since 2005, she enjoys the outdoors, working out, reading, and good planetary food in her free time.

Everyone should understand the basics of sustainability

Interdisciplinary courses and teaching materials on sustainability are developed within JYU.Wisdom for degree students, staff training, and the Open University. The aim is for all graduates of the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥ to support sustainability transitions in their respective fields. This work is led and coordinated by Mikael Puurtinen, appointed as Education Director.

Puurtinen, who holds a Research Coordinator position at the Faculty of Mathematics and Science, has his background in evolutionary ecology and earned his PhD in 2004. He has studied, for example, ecological and evolutionary mechanisms related to cooperation, reproductive strategies, social behavior, population genetics, and biodiversity.

For the past five years, Puurtinen has developed and coordinated interdisciplinary sustainability education and contributed to research on planetary well-being.

Societal interaction promotes planetary well-being

JYU.Wisdom also focuses on universities’ third task: societal interaction. The community supports researchers’ participation in societal activities with the aim of making it a natural part of researcher identity. JYU.Wisdom also produces research-based policy recommendations for various societal actors and supports the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥â€™s sustainability goals. Professor Sanna Karkulehto will strengthen activities in this area as the new Societal Impact Director.

Karkulehto is Professor of Literature at the Department of Music, Art and Culture Studies. She has previously served as Deputy Head of Department (education) at the Department of Art and Culture Studies, as well as Lecturer in Film Studies, Senior Lecturer in Literature, and Professor of Literature at the University of Oulu. She has also worked as a visiting researcher and professor at several international universities. Karkulehto has received the Science Communication Award and the Developer of Teaching Award at JYU, as well as a congress award from the city of Jyväskylä.

Since 2019, Karkulehto has been Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed online publication Wisdom Letters, which publishes research-based policy recommendations to support the sustainability transition and planetary well-being.

Welcome to the open JYU.Wisdom community!

JYU.Wisdom has grown steadily since its establishment in 2018. The community’s planetary well-being research has become one of the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥â€™s profiling areas. To further develop the community’s activities, the Board of Directors decided to open the new Research and Societal Impact Director positions for applications within JYU in April 2025. Professor of Ecology Janne Kotiaho, who has led the community since it was founded, continues as Operative Director, while the new leaders are responsible for research, education, and societal interaction.

The multidisciplinary JYU.Wisdom community is open to anyone interested in sustainability. Wisdom events foster encounters, discussions, learning, and peer support that lead to collaborations such as co-authoring, projects, and courses. Activities are shaped by participants’ ideas, reflecting the core principle that JYU.Wisdom is its people. Join the mailing list to become a Wisdomer and stay informed about current events and opportunities.