RELOCAL Kick-off meeting in Joensuu

As the Lead Partner of the project consortium, the Karelian Institute at the University of Eastern Finland hosted the kickoff meeting on the 25th and 26th of October 2016 in the city of Joensuu in the region of North Karelia. Approximately 30 participants from all 13 partners and our project officer from the Research Executive Agency attended the meeting in the lakeside mansion of Vainoniemi. The discussions particularly focused on management aspects and planning the actions for the first six months of the research. Acting as scientific and project co-ordinators, Dr Petri Kahila and Professor James W. Scott were happy to see the commitment and collaborative atmosphere promising a productive and enjoyable 4 years ahead.

Some RELOCAL researchers stayed in Joensuu after the end of the project meeting in order to participate in a session organised by the Lead Partner as part of the Annual Meeting of Finnish Geographers. The title of the session was “Cohesion and Spatial Justice in Europe: What Role for Places, Localities and Communities” and the lively discussion on the RELOCAL topic was enriched by the contributions from academics outside the Consortium.