The Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies’ very own Staff Scientist is tasked with developing the faculty’s data-intensive research infrastructures and methodological expertise.
Tomi Oinas started as a Staff Scientist at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies of the University of Eastern Finland this April. Oinas, who has a long history of working as a researcher at the University of Jyväskylä, finds his new role interesting.
“My new role is well in line with what my research profile has been for a long time. In social sciences, it is a rare treat to be able to work as a full-time methodologist.”
Oinas has spent the early part of the year familiarising with his new role, and he’s already been able to contribute to the planning of new infrastructure projects together with the faculty’s researchers.
“There’s a lot of excitement and buzz around infrastructure projects, and we’ll see which ones proceed to implementation. Our project ideas deal with important issues that have long-term future implications in many fields of social sciences. It is rewarding to be involved in this work.”
In social sciences, it is a rare treat to be able to work as a full-time methodologist.
Tomi Oinas
Staff Scientist
A methodology expert contributes to several research projects
At the University of Eastern Finland, Oinas’s duties include supporting researchers in applying for FIRI and other infrastructure project funding. He also assists researchers and research groups in projects that require the use of advanced statistical methods. Teaching research methodology to doctoral students also constitutes part of the job.
“I see any challenges that come up in the course of my work as something positive. Whenever a methodologist comes across new kind of questions in research, they enrich one’s work and add something new to one’s methodological toolbox.”
In recent years, Oinas has been especially focused on longitudinal data and methods for analysing them, including multi-level modelling. Register-based data, too, have been part of his research for a long time.
“I have worked as a methodology expert in various research projects ranging from early childhood education to research addressing older people. In these projects, I have mainly been responsible for data analysis and choice of research methods.”
Working life research, older people’s use of technology, and issues related to early childhood education
Currently, Oinas is involved as a methodologist in a Tampere University project utilising extensive register-based data. He has also worked as a researcher in several working life research projects led by Professor Jouko Nätti, where register-based data have been key.
At the University of Jyväskylä, Oinas’s most recent position was in the Centre of Excellence in Research on Ageing and Care led by Professor Teppo Kröger, in a project utilising comparative longitudinal data to study older people as users of technology. The project also examines, e.g., the use elderly care technology, and working conditions in elderly care.
“In these projects, I’ve gotten familiar with issues and problems associated with ageing, which is also a key focus in research at the University of Eastern Finland.”
In Professor Kimmo Jokinen’s early childhood education projects, on the other hand, Oinas has become especially familiar with structural equation models.
Oinas finds the multidisciplinary nature of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies of the University of Eastern Finland fruitful. As a scholar of social policy, he looks forward to collaborating with, for example, scholars of business, law, and geography.
In our fields of research, methods are an integral part of the infrastructure.
Tommi Laukkanen
Vice Dean, Professor
Staff Scientist recruitments represent a new way of thinking
The significance for research of various research infrastructures, and especially data-intensive infrastructures, has grown in many fields. Tommi Laukkanen, Vice Dean for Research, points out that the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies wants to be involved in this development, and the new Staff Scientist role supports these ambitions.
At the university, the role of a Staff Scientist involves a novel combination of various research roles: Staff Scientists are tasked with supporting and developing the university’s strong research infrastructures and research methodology.
“In our faculty, the Staff Scientist will also be responsible for the research infrastructure. The development of expertise in quantitative methods is a major component of this job, since in our fields of research, methods are an integral part of the infrastructure,” Laukkanen says.
The Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies currently has at its disposal, e.g., various data sets pertaining to the social welfare and health care sector, business data, and in the field of geography, also various pieces of equipment that contribute to the infrastructure.
“We are also actively involved in the development of a multisensory laboratory to be established at the university. There, it will be possible to study the effects of various sensory stimuli on people’s behaviour, for example.”
Laukkanen hopes that with the recruitment of the new Staff Scientists at the university, infrastructures will be used and acquired in a more coordinated manner in the future, both on faculty and university level.
“I also hope that our applications for infrastructure funding will get better and better in the future, resulting in more external infrastructure funding, including from the EU.”
When it comes to using data-intensive research infrastructures, the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies wants to be a forerunner.
“We want to invest in new things and in change. This represents a new kind of thinking in our disciplines.”
