JYU.Wisdom - School of Resource Wisdom

JYU.Wisdom - School of Resource Wisdom

JYU.Wisdom is an open, scientific community actively promoting planetary well-being in society. Our activities include progressive research, education development, impactful societal interaction, and support for JYU’s sustainability work.

JYU.Wisdom facilitates collaboration for sustainability

JYU.Wisdom is a transdisciplinary community of scholars, students, and specialists, that provides opportunities for intellectual exchange and learning, for interdisciplinary research and education, and for collegial support, inspiration, and new ideas.

JYU.Wisdom has a mission that matters: planetary well-being. JYU.Wisdom advances science-based understanding about the boundary conditions for planetary well-being and recommends actions for reaching it in society. The community's planetary well-being research is a recognized thematic research profiling area of JYU.

JYU.Wisdom is an open community. Everyone is welcome to join the community's activities, which cover a wide range of sustainability themes. Wisdomers share a willingness to:

cross traditional disciplinary boundaries,
support our vision to promote the well-being of human and nonhuman life simultaneously, and
reduce existential risks to the diversity of life unique to Earth.

Planetary well-being considers the well-being of all life. At its heart is the understanding that life on Earth consists of interlinked and interdependent systems, and that unimpaired Earth system and ecosystem processes are essential for meeting the needs of both humans and the rest of nature, now and in the future.

Get involved in JYU.Wisdom

The JYU.Wisdom office is located within the Ģ��ֱ�� main building (C).

Welcome to the community! You may become a Wisdomer simply by joining our mailing list. Through the list you will hear about upcoming events and current affairs.

You can participate in promoting planetary well-being by attending our events and courses, sharing relevant news and opportunities within the community, and thinking of different ways to collaborate with your fellow Wisdomers. This could be, for example, a joint research or writing project, thesis work, or an event or gathering you could host.

The JYU.Wisdom office and meeting rooms are located at the Main building (C), above the Aalto Library and JYU Registry office.

The premises, nicknamed the Home of Wisdom, house the Coordinators' offices, a meeting room (C261), and a couple work stations available to Wisdomers for short-term use. For instructions on how to book the meeting room and/or the work stations, please contact the coordinator.

Some of JYU.Wisdom's events take place at the Home of Wisdom. These include, for example, joint webinar viewings, discussion groups, and after-work events. Welcome!

In 2021-2024 the home base of JYU.Wisdom was located in the old Gardener's House (J), nicknamed the House of Wisdom.

Please use JYU.Wisdom as a secondary affiliation in your works when the topic is relevant to JYU.Wisdom. This enables the coordination to follow the multidisciplinary activities of the community and develop the activities further.

The affiliation you should use is:

School of Resource Wisdom, Ģ��ֱ��, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014 Ģ��ֱ��, Finland
Or, in Finnish: Resurssiviisausyhteisö, Jyväskylän yliopisto, PL 35, 40014 Jyväskylän yliopisto

In dissertations and theses, you may include 'School of Resource Wisdom' in addition to your home department.

Share your publications

When you publish on topics relevant to JYU.Wisdom, please inform the coordinators! They will then be able to share the information on the JYU.Wisdom newsletter and X.

Converis follow-up groups

Those members working at the Ģ��ֱ�� should also add JYU.Wisdom as an internal follow-up group in the Converis-database. If you give your permission when you join the mailing list, this will be done automatically. This does not affect your affiliation information.

For more information about the follow-up groups, see the Intranet Uno.

See upcoming JYU.Wisdom events

JYU.Wisdom organizes diverse events that bring people together for interesting discussions, new collaboration ideas, support, and well-being.

Below you will find upcoming events organized by JYU.Wisdom or members of the community across JYU. Everyone interested is welcome to join JYU.Wisdom’s events, welcome!

Some events are only in Finnish. Please switch the site language via the menu to see them.

One of our main events are the JYU.Wisdom Lunch Colloquiums. The Colloquium is a regular gathering to discuss various cross-disciplinary sustainability issues. There is a researcher or specialist telling about their research or project, after which there is room for discussion, questions, and networking over coffee and cookies – but you’re also welcome to just enjoy the presentations. The event can also take the form of a panel discussion, with visitors from politics or business. The Colloquium themes cover a wide range of multidisciplinary sustainability issues.

If you are organizing an event that is relevant for JYU.Wisdom, or have an idea for an event you would like to host, we want to hear about it!

For upcoming events, please use the content listing tag 'JYU.Wisdom' when publishing the event on the JYU website and it will be shown on the list below.

For event ideas, we can offer a cozy location at the House of Wisdom and support with marketing. Please contact the Operative Coordinator to discuss further.

Student events

Science events

Public lectures, seminars and round tables

19.5.2025 12:15 - 19.5.2025 13:00

C261 (Home of Wisdom)

Wisdom Coffee Conversations: An Introduction to Ecoaesthetics- Theorising from Treatises and Praxis in the Context of India

The Home of Wisdom Coffee Conversations are open events where you can learn and discuss about different topics related to planetary well-being. In May, the presenter is doctoral researcher Anish Mishra from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Two people discussing at the JYU.Wisdom office

Sustainability Transformations Doctoral Seminar

We warmly welcome all doctoral researchers working on sustainability-related topics—across all disciplines—to join this planning session for our upcoming doctoral seminar course! You'll also hear about well-being services for doctoral researchers.

Paediatric Work Physiology

The 2025 Paediatric Work Physiology Conference

Browse all upcoming and past JYU.Wisdom events

Research promoting sustainability transitions

Any scholar conducting research related to environmental crises and sustainability transition is welcomed to JYU.Wisdom. We facilitate cooperation across disciplinary boundaries among scholars interested in promoting planetary well-being. Scholars active within the community work in different faculties of the Ģ��ֱ�� and beyond in numerous projects and positions.

The community brings together human and natural scientists, no matter whether approaching research work from structuralist-critical or from solution-oriented and pragmatist backgrounds. The sustainability assessment of the university is also conducted by JYU.Wisdom based on academic research conducted within the community.

Planetary well-being is a central unifying concept between the various fields of research present in the broad JYU.Wisdom community. The ecosystems-driven transformative concept draws attention to the societal and ecological preconditions of maintaining life-supporting systems of the planet Earth. Planetary well-being includes human and non-human perspectives to well-being and departs from narrow human-centred conceptualizations of sustainability.

Grounding of the concept has been developed within the JYU.Wisdom community since 2018. Results of this work have been published in the anthology Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Planetary Well-Being by more than 80 scholars from various sustainability-related fields of sciences.

Sustainability Transformations (SusTra) is a doctoral education pilot implemented jointly by ten Finnish universities and the Finnish Environment Institute. The doctoral education pilot will train 40 doctoral graduates in 2025–2027, 6 of whom are at the Ģ��ֱ��.

JYU.Wisdom coordinates SusTra activities within JYU. The aim is to make SusTra a permanent doctoral school after the pilot phase funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

JYU.Wisdom has developed an assessment methodology to assess JYU’s carbon and biodiversity footprints. The methods and results are described in detail in the Wisdom Letters -publication. The university's environmental programme was developed based on the baseline set by the report. A follow-up assessment for 2020, including a revised methodology, was conducted in 2021.

JYU Environmental Programme - Roadmap to Planetary Well-being

JYU.Wisdom keeps providing support and assistance so that JYU can monitor its targets of carbon neutrality and no net loss of biodiversity by 2030.

Sustainable and responsible JYU

Wisdom Letters

Wisdom Letters is a publication platform for a new format of research articles that present peer-reviewed policy recommendations. The topics covered may be related to, for example, sustainability transition and planetary well-being. The articles are open access and they support public decision-making and the awareness of citizens in cross-disciplinary sustainability issues.

Cross-disciplinary sustainability education

Education plays a key role in the promotion of sustainability and planetary well-being. JYU.Wisdom coordinates cross-disciplinary sustainability education at the Ģ��ֱ�� and produces new courses for degree students as well as for life-long learning.

The learning options range from self-study online courses (open for all) to a unique, multidisciplinary 25-credit study module. JYU is also a part of the Climate University and Sustainability Studies Network, through which even more courses are available.

This new module introduces students to the needs, barriers and opportunities of sustainability transitions from a multidisciplinary perspective. The multidisciplinary approach makes the module one-of-a-kind. Combining expertise from different disciplines is the key to understanding and managing sustainability transitions.

The 25-credit basic studies module is open for all JYU students.

JYU.Wisdom has produced two sets of online courses that are available in both English and Finnish. They are open for everyone to study, free of charge.

Planetary well-being courses: these four MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) offer a comprehensive understanding of the state of the world and introduce the concept of planetary well-being (PW): what it means, why it is needed, and how to move towards it. You will learn about natural and social systems and their relations to sustainability, cultural perceptions and conceptions of a good life and how they affect the realisation of planetary well-being, and means of promoting the sustainability transition.

Nature Under Threat courses: these two courses give insight into how and why species and ecosystems are increasingly becoming threatened, how threat status is assessed, and what are the causes behind the ongoing biodiversity loss.

Find the Nature Under Threat courses at JYU Open University.

To see more courses in Finnish, switch to the Finnish webpage via the main menu.

Cooperation is at heart of sustainability thinking, and Finnish universities are doing great work on sharing their sustainability education. Climate University and the Sustainability Studies Network offer many opportunities for students to improve their sustainability skills. JYU.Wisdom coordinates the participation of JYU in these networks.

JYU.Wisdom has gathered assignments for sustainability-related, multidisciplinary theses, to help JYU students and those teachers and organizations offering a project find one another. The assignments are primarily for Master's level theses.

The document is accessible for anyone with a JYU account through the link below.

Those with development projects, information needs or other projects that could be a thesis are welcome to add their ideas to the bank directly. Please make sure to also delete your idea once it has been taken. Note: if you have such an idea but are not from JYU, please contact Education Coordinator Mikael Puurtinen.

Students, if you find a topic you would like take or get more information on, please contact the listed contact person directly.

JYU.Wisdom news

Below you will find news about the activities of JYU.Wisdom and members of the community across JYU.

For news in Finnish, please switch the site language via the menu.

JYU.Wisdom is looking for 1-2 communication interns

JYU.Wisdom is looking for interns to plan and develop the community's communications over the summer. Apply by 5.5.2025

Dissertation: The debate on sustainable food policy is full of different interpretations and definitions (Tikka)

Ville Tikka, analyses how sustainability is interpreted in the context of mass catering and how food aid is framed from a sustainability perspective in public debate.

The biodiversity footprint of Finland’s transport system will be assessed

Last year, JYU.Wisdom launched a research project in collaboration with the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom to investigate the biodiversity impacts of the entire Finnish transport system during 2025.

Browse more JYU.Wisdom news in English

JYU.Wisdom management and contact people

Please contact us with your ideas, questions, and comments either personally or at wisdom@jyu.fi.

Helmi Jyrkkänen

Coordinator

JYU.Wisdom Operative Coordinator

Laura Tuominen

Expert

JYU.Wisdom Research Coordinator

Mikael Puurtinen

Research Coordinator

JYU.Wisdom Education Director

Janne Kotiaho

Professor

JYU.Wisdom Director

Panu Halme

Senior Lecturer

JYU.Wisdom Executive Secretary

Elina Leskinen

Communications Specialist

To support the operative management, JYU.Wisdom has a Board of Directors with representatives from all faculties. The members are:

Professor Janne Kotiaho, Chair
Senior lecturer Panu Halme
Professor Sanna Karkulehto
Assistant professor Teea Kortetmäki
Associate professor Tiina Onkila
Specialist Ulla Helimo
Senior lecturer Katri Savolainen
Assistant professor Niko Mäkitalo
Associate professor Hanna-Mari Ikonen
Research coordinator Mikael Puurtinen

Ultimately, JYU.Wisdom is governed by the Deans of all six faculties at JYU. Members of the Board of Wisdom Governors are:

Mikko Mönkkönen, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Science, Chair
Sarianna Sipilä, Dean of the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences
Mika Lähteenmäki, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science
Hanna-Leena Pesonen, Dean of Jyväskylä School of Business and Economics
Anna-Maija Poikkeus, Dean of the Faculty of Education and Psychology
Pasi Tyrväinen, Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology

Wisdom Fellows are post-doc researchers working with cross-disciplinary sustainability themes. The Wisdom Fellows are:

Johanna Yletyinen, Faculty of Mathematics and Science (alumna)
Gonzalo Cortés-Capano, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (alumnus)
Marileena Mäkelä, Jyväskylä School of Business and Economics (alumna)
Teea Kortetmäki, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (alumna)
Kaisa Raatikainen, Faculty of Mathematics and Science (alumna)
Nerea Abrego, Faculty of Mathematics and Science (alumna)

Research groups associated with JYU.Wisdom

Below are a few examples of research groups associated with JYU.Wisdom. Please click the Browse more -link to see all of them.

Browse more research groups

Projects associated with JYU.Wisdom

Below are a few examples of research, education and development projects associated with JYU.Wisdom. Please click the Browse more -link to see all of them.

Anti-fragile Decision-making: tHink beYonD Robustness And resilience (HYDRA)

An academy research fellow project

Applying Sustainability Transition Research in Social Work tackling Major Societal Challenge of Social Inclusion - ASTRA

ASTRA paves the way for a radically new approach to tackle the major societal challenges faced in the practice of social work.

BOOST for biodiversity offsets

In BOOST we facilitate the mainstreaming and enabling of just transition towards adoption of biodiversity offsets in Finland and globally.

COHAB – Environmental Landscape Ethics: A Theory of Cohabitability

COHAB will establish environmental landscape ethics and theory of cohabitability by creating interdisciplinarily constructed, ecology-informed theoretical argumentation, methods, and conceptual tools.

Cultivating Change Through Global and Sustainable Education (GloseNet)

GloseNet: Cultivating Change Through Global and Sustainable Education

ECF4CLIM

EU Horizon 2020 Green Deal -project ECF4CLIM promotes and explores individual and collective sustainability competences.

Browse more projects

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JYU.Wisdom - School of Resource Wisdom

JYU.Wisdom facilitates collaboration for sustainability

Get involved in JYU.Wisdom

See upcoming JYU.Wisdom events

Wisdom Coffee Conversations: An Introduction to Ecoaesthetics- Theorising from Treatises and Praxis in the Context of India