The INVEST flagship programme is now a Joint Research Centre

INVEST strengthens its position as a competence centre of the welfare state. INVEST’s operations will now be more permanent and the changes allow INVEST to better focus on its long-term goals.

By a decision by the University Board at the University of Turku, INVEST will form its own department-like unit under the Faculty of Social Sciences. The flagship will form a Joint Research Centre with the Research Centre for Child Psychiatry from the Faculty of Medicine and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.

The expansion of the INVEST ecosystem has created changes to the organisational structure of the University of Turku and new initiatives for organising new partnerships in research and societal impact. The new structure was made official in June 2021, when the University Board approved the proposal on the new joint operational unit.

The flagship is closely linked to the society and collaborates with more than 900 schools and 100 municipalities. Some 200 researchers are INVEST affiliated. The operations of the INVEST Joint Research Centre are funded by the Academy of Finland Flagship Programme, the University of Turku and various other external research funders.