According to the discipline-specific results for 2024 of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), ecology is the most successful discipline at the University of Helsinki.
Research in the field of ecology conducted at the University of Helsinki has improved in ranking from 20 to 12 in the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects in 2024 published by Shanghai Ranking. The University of Helsinki is the best university in the field of ecology in both Finland and the Nordic countries, and the fifth best in Europe. The classifications of disciplines used in the rankings are based on the groupings used by international scholarly journals.
At the University of Helsinki, research in the discipline of ecology is extensively conducted from a range of perspectives. Ecological research is carried out particularly at the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, which has several professorships in the field. Research in the field is also carried out, for example, at the Finnish Museum of Natural History Luomus, the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry and the Faculty of Science, as well as the Helsinki Institute of Life Science HiLIFE and the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science HELSUS - all in all in 13 different units of the University. Ecological research has therefore also been a key topic in several profile-building projects funded by the Research Council of Finland at the University of Helsinki.
What factors have boosted the University's ecological research to such heights?
According to Craig Primmer, Vice-Dean for research at the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, one clear factor is the marked increase in the number of scholarly publications in the field: from 2016 to 2019, the number of publications per year was approximately 298, while from 2020 to 2023 the number of ecology-themed publications had risen to roughly 421 per year.
According to Professor Anna-Liisa Laine, the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences has a long tradition of ecological research, which has provided a solid foundation for developing new research.
"In Finland, long-term data has been collected, which has proven invaluable when studying changes in nature as a result of human activity. We also have strong education in the field. In terms of research, we have been at the forefront of integrating new methods, such as genetic tools and remote sensing, into ecological research. These methods enable us to address ecological research questions in entirely new ways," explains Laine.
In addition, the Faculty's researchers have received several grants from the European Research Council (ERC) in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology, as well as Centres of Excellence and Academy Professorships funded by the Research Council of Finland.
"We have successfully recruited high-level international researchers for professorships," summarises Laine.
