Cutting-edge research and infrastructure is one of the four School of Business key strategic initiatives

The School of Business’ new strategic plan for the years 2021-2024 includes four new key strategic initiatives. They have been set to ensure that the School meets the ambitious goals set out in the new strategy. The key strategic initiatives are fully in line with the Aalto University living strategy for the same period but emphasize those priorities that are particularly relevant for the School of Business.

Associate Dean of research and international cooperation Virpi Tuunainen leads the actions within the strategic initiative cutting-edge research and infrastructure. She explains why this initiative was chosen as one of the four strategic initiatives:

‘Research is something our researchers already excel at in many areas, as demonstrated by several international rankings. With this initiative we aim to provide our researchers with tools and facilities to succeed even better.’

One concrete activity is the research infrastructure Aalto Data Hub - a unit that centrally manages business, economics, health economics, and technology related data and databases that researchers can use in their academic research.

‘Taking advantage of the varied expertise on Aalto campus, the aim is to create synergies in acquiring, managing, organizing, cleaning, and securely storing relevant research data in our fields of focus. The data hub will also allow researchers to utilize unique Finnish data sources, combine new and old datasets and even find new innovative links in multidisciplinary research’, Virpi Tuunainen says.

In the School of Business strategic plan, the strategic initiative cutting-edge research and infrastructure is described in the following way:

We encourage research that pursues grand challenges through cooperation within academia and beyond. Our access to national and international business and societal data will become a strategic infrastructure hub.

***

The four new strategic initiatives of the School of Business are:

• Educational renewal with life-wide learning
• Cutting-edge research and infrastructure
• Community wellbeing
• Sustainability