Three New Research Programmes Launch in January 2026

Starting January 2026, Humak’s project activities will be structured under three new research programmes. Principal researchers have now been selected to launch the research programme work.

This reform is part of a comprehensive strengthening of Humak’s applied research activities. The goal is to increase societal impact and leave a footprint larger than our size on society.

The development of the research programmes has been the result of work by a pilot research group during 2025. The work has utilized peer learning with other universities of applied sciences, mapped future funding instruments, and clustered Humak’s own project profile using a phenomenon-based approach.

The research programmes are based on experimental, multidisciplinary, participatory, and innovative research approaches. Research provides a framework for activities – producing meaningful and impactful knowledge that can be utilized in education, development work, and decision-making support. Partnerships with the public and third sectors as well as businesses are at the core of operations.

In all programmes, activities take place from the local community level to national and EU-level policy work, combining practical experiments with broader societal impact. The phenomenon-based and cross-cutting approach serves as a strength – interesting new developments happen precisely at the intersections of different fields, where expertise from various domains meets and generates new solutions.

The Research Programmes:

This research programme responds to challenges posed by systemic polycrises during a time when societies exist in a liminal space – a threshold where old operating models no longer work but new ones have not yet fully formed. The programme develops society’s crisis resilience, community resilience, and recovery capacity from a multidisciplinary and participatory perspective. The programme seeks solutions to strengthen particularly the mutual trust and future confidence within communities.

The programme’s approach emphasizes prosilience – proactive, courageous, creative, and active preparation for change, where practical activities build emotional resilience and the capacity to face, for example, climate emotions.

The research programme recognizes culture and arts as central to society’s resilience and mental preparedness – not merely as added value but as primary infrastructure that creates a foundation for democracy, community, and mental readiness. Both cultural institutions and other communities function as democratic spaces that become especially activated during crises and strengthen society’s connective tissue in everyday life.

This research programme develops the social sustainability, renewal capacity, and inclusion of communities in rapidly changing operating environments. At the heart of the research are diverse communities – from work communities to organizations, from volunteer activities to digital communities, from youth agency to elderly empowerment, promoting equality in society.

This research programme’s scientific approach combines participatory action research (PAR), critical pedagogy, and transformative evaluation methods with empirical community research. We produce both methodological and theoretical contributions to research on community renewal, participation, and social sustainability.

The programme’s specific expertise covers youth work, equality promotion, and human rights and fundamental rights-based approaches to community development. The programme recognizes the power of culture and arts in communities’ capacity for change and also works with vulnerable groups – including young people at risk of marginalization, the unemployed, the lonely, and those facing mental health challenges.

This research programme develops experiential quality in the fields of culture, tourism, arts, events, and education. Experience producers are seen as active societal actors who enable participation, community, and new experiences for diverse audiences. The goal is to strengthen the programme’s international profile, build regional attractiveness and retention capacity nationally, increase wellbeing, and promote accessibility and inclusivity in the experience industry.

The research programme combines Humak’s multidisciplinary expertise: adventure, games, and nature education meet culture and arts, working together as generators of new solutions. Activities move at the intersections of arts, creative entrepreneurship, and society. The programme also investigates how technology, digitalization, and new experience environments bring new opportunities to the field and create sustainable innovations.

Collaboration and Impact

The research programmes support each other, and research is conducted in collaboration with international and domestic partners, combining local impact with global expertise. The programmes systematically build European and global research networks and participate in international research consortium applications. Research collaboration is developed with both research universities and applied research institutions. A strength is the collaboration between civil society, various national and international organizations, and research, which enables both scientifically high-quality and societally impactful research.