The University of Turku and the Turku School of Economics are merging. This University of Turku will be a significant multidisciplinary research cluster. The main focus areas of the University are internationally competitive research and education, extensive business competence and effective commercialisation of innovations. The University of Turku offers an excellent research environment where multidisciplinary collaboration is enabled, among others, by eight Academy of Finland Centres of Excellence, the Turku Centre for Biotechnology, the Turku PET Centre and the Åbo Akademi University. The merging universities have together founded two new multidisciplinary research collegia to promote research careers of young scholars:
Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS) is to promote cutting-edge university research in the humanities and social sciences. This includes studies in the arts and literature, business studies, cultural studies, economics, education, human geography, history, law, linguistics, languages, philosophy, political science, psychology, logopedics, social policy, social work, sociology and research methodology, and their equivalents.
Turku Collegium for Science and Medicine is a multidisciplinary, interactive research platform for young dynamic scientists in Science and Medicine. The Collegia received altogether 158 applications and fifteen researcher were nominated for Collegium and Postdoc rereachers in January 2009.
The Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS) appointed five Collegium researchers and five postdoc Researchers and theTurku Collegium for Science and Medicine (TCSM) five Collegium Researcher for the first term of office beginning on 1 March 2009. The positions are funded for 3 years at a time.