2026
Finnish Food Authority's Research Webinar, 15 September 2026 2:00—3:00 PM
The Finnish Food Authority’s new postdoctoral researchers will introduce themselves in upcoming research webinars. On September 15th, we will hear the next introduction of a postdoctoral project:
Senior Researcher Leonard Owuraku Opare: Risk of Vector‑Transmitted Animal Diseases and Plant Pests in a Changing Climate
Which disease vectors and plant pests could a warming Finland soon have to contend with, and how confident can we be in those predictions? This project aims to answer both questions by quantifying the likelihood that range-shifting insects reach Finland and the suitability of its climate for them to establish, today and across coming decades.
The work runs along two tracks. On the animal-disease side, it couples a Culicoides biting midge dispersal model to the Finnish Meteorological Institute's SILAM atmospheric transport system, taking bluetongue virus as a test case to map how wind carries vectors across distances. On the plant-pest side, it applies climatic suitability models such as CLIMEX and MoPSi to species of regulatory concern with the help of Bayesian modelling. The methods and results feed directly into the Finnish Food Authority's contingency planning and are produced hand in hand with the risk managers who rely on them.
Welcome!
Finnish Food Authority's Research Webinar, 2 June 2026 3:00—4:00 PM
The Finnish Food Authority’s new postdoctoral researchers will introduce themselves in upcoming research webinars. On June 2, we will hear the first introduction of a postdoctoral project:
Senior Researcher Kimmo Kivivirta: Veterinary Virology and Next-Generation Sequencing Technologies
Sequencing technologies play a crucial role in animal disease diagnostics, and the Finnish Food Authority already uses Sanger- and Illumina-based sequencing instruments for diagnostics and surveillance. The aim of this project is to introduce the Oxford Nanopore MinION sequencer, and to develop methods for it tailored to the needs of veterinary virology. In addition, the project aims to apply new bioinformatics tools for the processing and analysis of new sequencing data to meet the future needs of the department.