Laboratory Engineer Jukka Hirvonen from Syke is testing the Trimble GPS -beacon for real-time data transfer synchronization connected to larger continuous measurement platform.
© Photo: Tuomas Hirvonen, Syke
The Joensuu-based mechatronics research laboratory of the Finnish Environment Institute Syke has been granted funding by the Finnish Research Infrastructure Committee of the Academy of Finland for a three-year project to develop the laboratory's environmental measurement systems. The goal is to improve the reliability of the results of measurements using portable environmental instruments or autonomous measuring equipment, especially in conditions prevailing in the field, and in so doing, to better support the needs of environmental researchers, officials, private enterprises, and stakeholders.
Reliable environmental measurement technology solves information needs of sustainability transformation
It is now more important than ever to make environmental measurements in the field. One of the advantages that autonomous measurement systems which operate in terrain independently or remote controlled, or portable devices is that they can monitor the environment in real time and react quickly to problem situations. However, the use of the devices does not yet have widespread approval in official monitoring and observation because unresolved problems often emerge in the quality of the information that they produce.
“With the funding from the Academy of Finland, our project aims at fixing these shortcomings, approving autonomous measuring systems, and promoting their use in high-quality environmental measurements of different kinds”, says Development Manager Teemu Näykki of the Finnish Environment Institute.
“Only decisions made using reliable measurements can take the sustainability transformation in the right direction”, Näykki adds.
Syke supports regionally significant green transformation research in Joensuu
The Finnish Environment Institute Laboratory is a national reference laboratory and a contract laboratory of VTT MIKES, working on research into the reliability of new environmental measurement technologies. New innovations and experiments of different kinds are an important part of sustainability transformation and green transition.
Funding from the Academy of Finland that supports the development or construction of the local research infrastructures focused on the goals of the green and digital transitions. From a total sum of EUR 25 million, the Academy of Finland granted funding for the projects of 19 different actors around Finland.
Of this, funding for the mechatronics research laboratory of the metrology group of the Joensuu branch of Syke got EUR 352,000 for the years 2023-2025. In the project, Syke collaborates with and offers services to local actors in North Karelia, while enabling cooperation and services also to other national and international stakeholders.
The Finnish Environment Institute is also involved in another project that successfully applied for funding, together with the University of Oulu, the Geological Survey of Finland, and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. The project lead by the University of Oulu is developing monitoring and measurement systems for snow, ice, and ground frost to produce information on how fluctuations in winter weather conditions, accelerated by climate change, affect nature and the built environment in Northern Finland.
Academy of Finland media release
Further information
Development Manager Teemu Näykki, Finnish Environment Institute, tel. +358 295 251 471, firstname.lastname@syke.fi