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Tampere University endowed with a professorship in child poverty studies

Published on 24.9.2021
Tampere University
Photograph: Jonne Renvall/Tampere University
Itla Children’s Foundation has donated a professorship in the field of poverty in families with children to Tampere University. The professorship is part of Itla’s three-year research and development programme concentrating on child poverty that aims to find solutions to eradicate child poverty in Finland.

The professorship will be located in the Faculty of Social Sciences (SOC) at Tampere University.

The aim of the professorship is to improve the coping and capacities of vulnerable families with children by promoting phenomenon-based and multidisciplinary teaching and research on child poverty and increasing the social impact of the field. At SOC, the professor will work at Tampere Centre for Childhood, Youth and Family Research (PERLA), and the post will be filled as soon as possible.

“It is a great pleasure to launch a partnership with PERLA to prevent child poverty. Key factors in selecting a home for the professorship were the commitment of the management of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Tampere University to support the post in the longer term, understanding the importance of multidisciplinary research, and willingness to cooperate with Itla and other key actors,” says Tiina Ristikari, Development Director at Itla.

“The endowed professorship offers the Faculty of Social Sciences an opportunity to both strengthen phenomenon-based research on poverty in families with children and promote knowledge-based solutions to an acute problem in Finnish society. The tenure track position is open to applicants from all disciplines, without any discipline or subject specifications, meaning we welcome applicants from all relevant disciplines. Located at PERLA, the professorship will be an asset for the entire University and support the implementation of its strategy,” Dean Juho Saari summarises.

The professorship will be endowed to Tampere University for three and a half years from the beginning of 2022 with an option for an additional year and a half.
Tampere University’s professorship is the third Itla has endowed. The previous ones were in the field of intervention and implementation research and they were donated to the Universities of Turku and Oulu.

Enquiries:
Development Director Tiina Ristikari, tiina.ristikari [at] itla.fi, tel. +358 50 917 7396
CEO, Professor Petri Virtanen, petri.virtanen [at] itla.fi, tel. +358 50 318 7068
Dean, Professor Juho Saari, juho.saari [at] tuni.fi, tel. +358 40 828 1027