On 21^st January 2025, the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) and the UHEL-INAR organized onsite meeting to share and discuss existing collaboration with Ukrainian Universities / research organizations.

INAR has large-scale activities, which are relevant to collaboration with Ukraine. Among these are: (i) Atmosphere and Climate Competence Center (ACCC; https://www.acccflagship.fi), (ii) Climate University  (CU; https://climateuniversity.fi) free online courses for universities and everyone who wants to make the sustainability transition in the society real; and (iii) the Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX; https://www.atm.helsinki.fi/peex) programme as a research network, Arctic – boreal regions, China, Eastern Europe countries.

Within the PEEX frameworks, there are two ongoing educational Erasmus+ projects –  “Multilevel Local, Nation- and Regionwide Education and Training in Climate Services, Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation” (ClimEd, 2020-2026; extended; http://climed.network)  and “Climate University for Virtual Exchanges” (CLUVEX, 2023-2026; https://www.atm.helsinki.fi/cluvex). There are plans to submit proposal “PEEX – Finnish-Ukrainian Earth System Research Network“ (PEEX-FUESReN) for the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland, for the Team Finland Knowledge programme.

There are also research oriented projects, where Ukrainian and Finnish Partners are also together involved. The Horizon Europe “Cloud-aERosol inTeractions & their impActs IN The earth sYstem” (CERTAINTY, 2024-2028; https://certainty-aci.eu), and “PEEX Modelling Platform research and development through CSC HPC research projects” (PEEX-MP-at-CSC, 2024-2026; https://www.atm.helsinki.fi/peex/index.php/portfolio-items/mp-at-csc) projects. There are already submitted two proposals “COST Action – PEEX – Europe – Near Europe Neighbourhood countries Earth System Research Network” (PEEX-EU-NEN-ReN; 2025-2029) and “Research and development for seamless modelling of meteorology – atmospheric composition on multi-scales for the PEEX domain for weather, air quality and climate applications” (Enviro-PEEX(Next) on ECMWF; 2025-2027) & waiting for a suitable Call for proposal on “Developing Air quality Research and Services in Ukraine” (DARSU).

Currently the PEEX is collaborating actively with many Ukrainian Partners (majority signed the PEEX Memorandum-of-Understanding) from different cities of Ukraine. Among these are the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture (Kyiv), O.M. Beketov National University of Urban Economy (Kharkiv), Lviv Polytechnic National University (Lviv), Bila Tserkva National Agrarian University (Bila Tserkva), Odessa National Medical University (Odessa), Odessa State Environmental University (Odessa), Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Kyiv), Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute (Kyiv), Mechikov Odessa National University (Odessa), Odessa National Polytechnic University (Odessa), Chernivtsi National University (Chernivtsi), Kyiv Academic University (Kyiv), Institute of Mathematical Machines and Systems Problems (Kyiv), National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ukrainian Joint Meteorological and Hydrological Society, and Ministries of Education and Science of Ukraine and of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine.

Text by: Hanna K. Lappalainen, Alexander Mahura, UHEL-INAR