university of Turku

University of Turku — Institutional Profile

The University of Turku (UTU) is one of Finland's leading multidisciplinary research universities, spanning natural sciences, life sciences, medicine, engineering, social sciences, humanities, and economics. With extensive participation in European research initiatives, UTU provides an excellent environment for interdisciplinary research on biodiversity, sustainability, environmental change, and human well-being, supported by recognised Centres of Excellence and internationally competitive research infrastructures.

Department of Biology

The Department of Biology is a major hub for research and education in ecology, evolution, biodiversity science, environmental biology, genetics, physiology, and conservation. Its research combines fundamental and applied approaches to pressing challenges, including biodiversity loss, climate change, ecosystem degradation, invasive species, pollution, and sustainable resource management. Expertise spans terrestrial, freshwater, coastal, and marine ecosystems, integrating field studies, laboratory experimentation, modelling, molecular approaches, and environmental monitoring. Researchers collaborate closely with governmental agencies, NGOs, industry, and international partners, and the department has extensive experience coordinating European projects and contributing to international biodiversity monitoring and conservation networks.

For Horizon Europe projects, the department offers strong expertise in: biodiversity conservation and restoration; freshwater, coastal and marine ecology; wetland ecology and management; ecotoxicology and environmental risk assessment; ecosystem monitoring and indicators; climate-change impacts on biodiversity; wildlife ecology and management; environmental modelling; nature-based solutions; remote sensing, GIS applications; long-term ecological monitoring; and citizen science and stakeholder engagement.

Turku Bioscience Centre

A major strength of UTU is the Turku Bioscience Centre, jointly operated with Åbo Akademi University since 1992, hosting more than 200 researchers. Its core facilities include mass spectrometry, metabolomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, single-cell omics, cell imaging and cytometry, genome editing, and multi-omics data analysis — powerful resources for integrating ecological, environmental, biomedical, and molecular approaches within large collaborative projects.

Metabolomics and Exposomics Expertise

The Turku Metabolomics Centre, embedded within the Turku Bioscience Centre and the national Biocenter Finland Metabolomics Technology Platform, is one of the leading metabolomics infrastructures in Northern Europe. It offers large-scale untargeted metabolomics and lipidomics, targeted metabolite analyses, environmental and human exposomics, biomarker discovery, high-resolution and imaging mass spectrometry, stable isotope tracing, NMR-based metabolite profiling, and metabolomics bioinformatics.

These capabilities enable investigation of the mechanistic links between environmental exposures and biological responses. For environmental and biodiversity research, metabolomics supports identification of biomarkers of contaminant exposure, stress responses, physiological disruption, adaptive mechanisms, and ecosystem health, allowing molecular and physiological endpoints to be integrated into ecological risk assessment frameworks.

Biocenter Finland Network

Through its partnership in Biocenter Finland, a national infrastructure network coordinating advanced life-science technologies across Finnish universities, researchers at UTU access internationally competitive platforms in metabolomics, proteomics, genomics, imaging, bioinformatics, structural biology, and single-cell technologies.

Horizon Europe Collaboration Potential

UTU offers a highly collaborative environment combining ecological expertise with cutting-edge molecular and analytical infrastructures. It is particularly well positioned to contribute to projects addressing: biodiversity conservation and restoration; Nature Restoration Regulation implementation; freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystem resilience; pollution and environmental contaminants, including PFAS; One Health approaches; environmental risk assessment; ecosystem services and socio-ecological systems; climate-change adaptation; nature-based solutions; environmental monitoring technologies; multi-omics approaches to environmental research; and science-policy interfaces and stakeholder engagement.

The combination of strong ecological research, advanced environmental monitoring, and internationally recognised metabolomics and omics infrastructures makes UTU an attractive partner for interdisciplinary Horizon Europe consortia seeking to connect environmental change, biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, contaminant exposure, and societal impacts.