LAB Focus Blogs
The blogs of LAB's four focus areas bring forth each focus area’s RDI and education activities.
Publication series
The LAB publication series publishes reports, monographs and compilations based on the RDI and higher education teaching activities at LAB.
All publications in the series are available online via Theseus.
About publishing in LAB
You can read more about LAB’s publishing activities from the LAB Guide to publishing and open science. The guide also offers information about open science, how to evaluate scholarly publications, and how to promote your research.
For any additional information or questions, please contact julkaisut
lab [dot] fi (julkaisut[at]lab[dot]fi)
Latest articles
LAB Open
Building Connections Across Campuses: Reflections on the English Team Day
Facilitating meaningful interaction among colleagues can support both collaboration and a sense of community. This article reflects on the English Team Day to examine how such team-building interventions foster relationships, support team cohesion, and enable discussion about team strengths and future aspirations. As part of the Language Center, the English Team brings together English language and communication educators whose work supports students' language, communication, and professional development. Source
When the Chain Breaks – Lessons from Finnish Logistics SMEs on Real Supply Chain Resilience
Supply chain disruptions have become a defining challenge for logistics companies across Europe, and Finnish small and medium-sized enterprises are feeling the pressure. Fin-land's geographic position creates a particular kind of vulnerability, as the country depends heavily on international sea freight and long overland corridors. This article looks at the main disruptions affecting Finnish logistics SMEs, why smaller firms can be particularly vulnerable, and what they can do to strengthen their resilience. Source
Bridging the AI Skills Gap in Healthcare and ICT Education: A Curricular Gap Analysis Across European VET and HEI Institutions
The use of artificial intelligence in healthcare is advancing at a rapid pace, yet educational curricula have not kept up. As part of the Erasmus+-funded DETECT 2.0 project, a survey was conducted across four European vocational education and training and higher education institutions to analyse the current state of artificial intelligence (AI), innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainability competencies taught to healthcare and information and communication technology students. In line with the project’s objective to improve the quality of life of people with early-stage dementia through technology, the survey examined whether curricula included content on AI-based assistive technologies for dementia care. Over 82% of programmes lacked meaningful AI integration, 71% had no dementia-specific content, and 65% of educators expressed low confidence in their graduates' preparedness to use AI-driven tools effectively and responsibly. These descriptive results underscore the urgent need for interdisciplinary curricula that bridge healthcare domain knowledge and technical AI competencies and provide the evidence base for DETECT 2.0’s training interventions. Source
LAB Focus
Why Circular Bioeconomy Matters for Sustainable Cities?
Walk through any European city and you will see bins filled with biowaste awaiting collection. Food scraps, coffee grounds and garden waste are often treated as waste despite containing valuable nutrients, organic matter and energy. As cities seek more sustainable resource management, recovering value from biowaste has become a priority. The CITISYSTEM project explores how […] The post Why Circular Bioeconomy Matters for Sustainable Cities? appeared first on LAB Focus.
Building stronger connections between Finnish entrepreneurship societies
Entrepreneurship societies (ESes) are student-led organisations connecting students to professional networks and activating early-stage ideas. However, due to the rising challenges in the Finnish labour market, ESes need to look beyond local levels. Recent discussions have highlighted the importance of stronger cooperation between organisations to share knowledge, coordinate activities and strengthen their impact on the […] The post Building stronger connections between Finnish entrepreneurship societies appeared first on LAB Focus.
Building local trust helps international students to be employed
Heikki Korpela (2026), a researcher at the VATT Institute for Economic Research, noted that recent media coverage of the unemployment situation may convey an overly negative picture of the employment outcomes of higher education graduates. When employment is examined from the perspective of earnings, 85.4% of graduates from universities of applied sciences earned more than […] The post Building local trust helps international students to be employed appeared first on LAB Focus.