Why INVEST?

“The goals here are set high”

More than 200 researchers are already linked with INVEST and some 40 projects are ongoing. The flagship carries out extensive research and recent publications have examined areas such as mental health problems related to bullying, the link between female-biased sex ratios and reproduction, the impact of the state of emergency on studying, and the effectiveness of app-based mindfulness training.

The interventions developed through the project impact more than 500,000 children. Currently, INVEST collaborates with various research organisations, companies and public administrative and civil society actors. In addition to these, INVEST collaborates with over 900 Finnish schools and over 100 municipalities.

For the researcher, INVEST provides an opportunity for independent work as part of a top-quality network.

– The goals here are set high, so if you want to carry out research in this field at the highest possible level, it’s hard to take it much further than this, says Professor Jani Erola, Director of the INVEST Research Flagship Center. – We also have very good resources to support research. We are often asked, for example, about funding limits for travel and research, but there are no fixed amounts for these. So right now we are simply looking for really good ideas – and really good researchers who can implement them.

INVEST Researher positions include time reserved for working on one’s own research plan, alongside the project research itself. We want to combine the benefits of high-quality project cooperation with the opportunity to carry out one’s own research plan over a relatively long period of time, Erola explains.

Read our researcher’s stories about why they chose Finland and INVEST.