Luke - Luonnonvarakeskus - Natural Resources Institute

The Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) is a public, non-profit research and expert organisation that works to advance the bioeconomy and the sustainable use of natural resources. Luke’s research is conducted in four research programmes: Boreal Green Bioeconomy, Innovative Food System, Blue Bioeconomy, and Natural Resources Economy in the Society. In addition, Luke has many authority and expert services. The research programmes aim to create new bio-based products and business opportunities, increase productivity by digitalization, support regional vitality by circular economy, create well-being from immaterial values, and support the profitability of healthy food production. Luke is the second largest research institute in Finland and one of the biggest clusters of bioeconomy expertise in Europe. Luke employs more than 1,300 person-years, and the turnover for the year 2016 was approximately EUR 120 million. The institute operates in 30 different locations across the country. Luke has vast experience in national and international research collaboration and project management. Currently there are 27 ongoing EU FP7/H2020 projects, 14 Interreg projects and 8 EU Life projects. .

Activities

Luke Department of Production Systems will be mostly involved in WP3 for harvesting and producing relevant knowledge.

People

  • Susanna Rokka (f) senior scientist at Luke (PhD in food chemistry, BA in African studies) has worked since 1994 in the field of food research, sustainability, and food and nutrition security. She was a WP leader in PROIntensAfrica, is a WP leader in SUSFOOD2 and contributes to FoodAfrica programme.
  • Vesa Joutsjoki (m) started in Luke (before 2015 known as MTT Agrifood Research Finland) in 1997 with studies on dairy processing, specifically on enzyme mechanisms in cheese ripening. Previously, he worked in bioindustry with the obligation to develop and test novel enzyme preparations. His areas of expertise cover fermented foods (milk and vegetables), microbial quality of feed and foodstuffs, diagnostics of complex microbiota and sustainable recycling and upgrading technologies for the biomass resource available in agri-food production. Since 2010, he has conducted capacity building research in Sub-Saharan Africa with the aim to improve food safety and security, specifically by mitigating the mycotoxin risks in the feed and food chains.
  • Jarkko Niemi (m) research professor at Luke (PhD agric. econ.) is an agricultural economist conducting research to assess the value of production methods, technologies, policies and risk management in agriculture. He has over 450 publications. He leads socio-economic research in PROHEALTH project (FP7), and has contributed to PROIntensAfrica (H2020) and FoodAfrica programme.