I was so excited to start my one-month research visit to LUKE’s (Natural Resources Institute of Finland) office in Helsinki in March 2026. I was the second research fellow from the VIMAS project who could spend some time at this organisation within a year.
LUKE: An organization for a sustainable future
In the present form, LUKE has been operating since 2015, helping society with research and knowledge to reach a sustainable future and well-being with renewable natural resources. The VILU group in LUKE is working on themes regarding recreation and nature values under LUKE’s „Multifunctional natural resources use” programme. The VILU group has 24 scientific experts in 6 of the 22 different LUKE locations across Finland. The head office is in Helsinki in the Viikki district, where, as in many other locations in the country, the site is shared with a university campus (University of Helsinki) and other related state organizations (SYKE). This creates the potential for broad cooperation.
Insights into LUKE's projects and organizational culture
One month is a relatively short time to gain a deeper understanding of such a big organisation. Still, this period was a good opportunity to gain meaningful insights into the organisation’s atmosphere and the ongoing projects of the VILU group in relation to my main focus area, nature-based tourism. I was in very good hands. Special thanks to my second supervisor, Liisa Tyrväinen (Research Professor, LUKE), for enabeling me to participate in valuable personal discussions, brainstorming session, and for putting me in contact researchers with similar topics and projects.
Jaana Kotro (Group Manager and Research Scientist, LUKE) was responsible for my orientation and for introducing me at the group meeting, where I could present my topic and discuss its aspects with VILU’s experts. During our discussions with Kelsey Johansen (Research Scientist, LUKE) I could get detailed information about the international VERNE project in which LUKE is representing its Virtual Nature Lab concept. It was exciting to share my first research results and previous research interview experiences for designing a local workshop for nature-based tourism companies.
Methodological inputs and questionnaire development
In addition to LUKE’s organizational knowledge, one of the main purposes of my visit was to develop the concept and a questionnaire for a survey-based quantitative study of knowledge management processes in nature-based tourism firms. With the expertise of my supervisors and research fellows at both the UEF (University of Eastern Finland) and LUKE, I was able to design the aims and the main structure of the questionnaire. At first, we needed to clarify the goals and fine-tune the related research questions. During my one-month stay there, I gained valuable insights from previous, similar questionnaire-based surveys and completed the main blocks of my survey.
Our work doesn’t end here, as we continue our collaboration on survey-based research. This past month has had a profound impact on me, and it meant a lot to feel like an equal member of the team from the very first moment.
