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For a few years now, the School of Business faculty and staff have been able to apply for low-threshold funding for their EDI projects. The School of Business wants to support networks, seminar series, creative projects, mentoring programmes, public events and cooperation with schools and organisations that support equality, diversity, and inclusiveness.

The School of Business EDI funding can be applied for once a year, with a maximum of 5000 euros per project. The latest application deadline was May 2024 and funded projects must start no later than May 2025. 

This time, the initiatives (4) from the Departments of Economics, Finance, Management Studies and Information and Service Management received funding.

The project, led by Assistant Professor of Economics Ciprian Domnisoru, is called 'Academic panel on labour market outcomes of LGBTQIA+ employees'. In this project, researchers from the department in collaboration with the Aalto University student organisation GAYY will organise academic and social events on LGBTQIA+ issues at the School of Business.

Associate Professor of Finance Juha Joenväärä and his team received funding for the 'Capital Raising of Diverse-owned Asset Managers' project. The researchers will produce an overview of current academic research focusing on equality, diversity, and inclusion for practitioners.

Professor Johanna Moisander and the team at the Department of Management Studies received funding for the project 'Achieving Inclusive Excellence: bridging theory and practice in EDI'. The researchers will organise two workshops to bridge the gap between equality, diversity and inclusion policies and their practical application in our university community.

Professor Matti Rossi from the Department of Information and Service Management received funding to achieve the 'DEI aware ISM faculty and staff' objective. They will use the funding to organise two workshops on diversity and inclusion in their department.

The Evaluation Committee, which made the decisions on the funding awarded, consisted of the Associate Dean of Research and International Cooperation, Professor Virpi Tuunainen, Senior University Lecturer Alexei Gloukhovtsev and Professor of Practice, Head of Development Perttu Kähäri. 

‘I would like to thank all those who applied for funding for their good initiatives. As the projects progress, it will be interesting to hear about the experiences and lessons learned,’ says Virpi Tuunainen.