University of Helsinki
Few days ago a delegation from the Posgrado en Ciencias Forestales visited VITRI and the Dept. of Forest Sciences part of the ongoing cooperation between our Department and the Colegio de Postgraduados (México); these activities are also part of a larger framework of cooperation between the University of Helsinki and several academic institutions in Mexico.
Some of activities carried out during the visit included an information session with forestry services providers (Simosol, TAPIO, TRESTIMA, Arbonaut, Metsäkeskus), meetings at the Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (including a representative from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), a formal visit to the Mexican Ambassador in Finland H.E. Norma Pensado, a visit to a local paper mill (Kirkniemi Mill, Sappi Group) finally a visit to the Forestry Field Station in Hyytiälä and one of the logging sites managed by StoraEnso. The visitors also participated in some meetings with other staff from our Department and took part in one of our courses as guest lecturer.
The draft MoU between our institutions is already under consideration on both sides and there are ongoing discussions about common research topics and funding applications. We expect that in the near future students and staff from both institutions could benefit from newly implemented forms of cooperation and academic exchange.