The fresh partnership agreement is based on a long experience of fruitful cooperation.

ProAgria is a national development organisation that serves agricultural and rural entrepreneurs. It cooperates with different actors in the food chain. ProAgria Oulu has about 3,500 farms and rural businesses as customers in Northern Finland.

Lapland University of Applied Sciences’ Future Bioeconomy expertise group, on the other hand, has a long tradition of teaching and research and development activities in agriculture and forestry, and cooperation with ProAgria also has a long history.

The contract partners will focus on developing the skills related to the operation, development and management of farms and rural businesses in the north during the three-year contract period. Cooperation will be carried out, for example, to improve the management skills of farms and to strengthen the ecological, social and economic sustainability of rural areas. At the same time, new research information and evidence-based management practices are sought.

The common themes were found from the strategies of the houses. ProAgria Oulu’s director Vesa Nuolioja emphasises the win-win thinking behind the partnership.

– We jointly saw that there is a need to intensify cooperation, and the partnership agreement brings rigidity and systematicity to it.

The cooperation will materialise in both education and RDI activities. For AMK students in the field, this means, among other things, internship and thesis opportunities, guest lectures and project assignments, and joint training events for rural entrepreneurs. The themes for project cooperation have been defined, among other things, research and development related to special crops, food, water protection and livestock.

– Cooperation with ProAgria is extremely valuable, especially for our agrologist education, the rector of the University of Applied Sciences Riitta Rissanen sees.

The cooperation is coordinated by Vesa Nuolioja and Anne-Mari Väisänen, who works as a competence manager at the University of Applied Sciences. The contact persons will draw up an action plan as an annexe to the partnership agreement, which describes the themes and measures of cooperation in more detail.

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On a visit to Lapland UAS’s bioproduct laboratory under the guidance of lecturer Veikko Maijala, Heini Iinatti and Vesa Nuolioja got to taste the ice cream made there. Photo: Salla Pyhäjärvi.

The partnership agreement signing ceremony was held at Lapland University of Applied Sciences in Rovaniemi on 22 November 2023.