Centre for Sustainable Ocean Science

06/10/2026

SOS Annual Meeting Day 1💭

Thank you to everyone that has participated so far!

Today the Annual Meeting started with opening remarks from Patrik Henelius (ÅAU Vice Rector) and welcoming words from Anna Törnroos-Remes (SOS Director & Professor in Marine Ecology, ÅAU)

Keynote speaker of the day was Kirsi-Marja Lonkila from the Finnish Ministry of the Environment. In her talk, she discussed policy processes, gave some insights to IPBES and highlighted the importance of science-policy dialogues.

Tomorrow, the Annual Meeting continues with a keynote presentation from Satu Teerikangas, presentations from SOS Booster projects and a workshop on Archipelago Planning 🌊

Hope to see you there!

02/10/2026

28/09/2026

‼️ Today - 28.9. - is the last day to register for the SOS Annual Meeting ‼️

Meet our keynote speaker Satu Teerikangas:

🔹️ Dr. Sc. (Eng) Satu Teerikangas is Professor of Management and Organization at Turku School of Economics as well as Honorary Professor at University College London.

🔹️ Satu bears a cosmopolitan background cutting across three continents. Before her academic career, Satu worked with Shell in the Netherlands and the UK in management consulting and HR roles. She defended her PhD at Aalto University in 2006 and, after serving as Assistant Professor, was tenured to Associate Professor in Management at the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, University College London.

🔹️ In 2021–2027, Satu co-leads the Strategic Research Council funded research project BIODIFUL Biodiversity Respectful Leadership

🔹️ At the SOS Annual Meeting, Satu will give a keynote talk on "Leadership for Biodiversity – A Call and Tall Order for Everyone"

🗓️ When? - 7.10.2026 at 09:15-10:00

📍 Where? - Åbo Akademi University, Astra (Porthaninkatu 3, Turku)

👉 Program and registration: https://sites.abo.fi/centre-for-sustainable-ocean-science/annual-meeting-2026/

24/09/2026

Meet Kirsi-Marja Lonkila – keynote speaker for the SOS Annual Meeting 2026! 💬

🔹️ Lonkila is a Senior Specialist in the Biodiversity and Nature Value Finance Unit at the Finnish Ministry of the Environment. She serves as Finland’s National Focal Point for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and acts as the Ministry’s coordinating officer for the Finnish Nature Panel (Luontopaneeli).

🔹️ Her work focuses on biodiversity policy, science-policy cooperation, and the integration of nature values into decision-making and finance. She is also involved in research and development (R&D) activities and R&D policy development.

What will be discussed in the keynote?

➡️ How can interdisciplinary marine research best support the work of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and the Finnish Ministry of the Environment?

➡️ What are the key findings from recent IPBES assessments?

➡️ What are the current policy needs from the point of view of the Ministry of the Environment?

➡️ What opportunities are there for researchers to contribute to science-policy processes, strengthen evidence-based decision-making, and enhance the societal impact of marine research?

🗓️ When? - 6.10.2026 at 14:15-15:00

📍 Where? - Åbo Akademi University, Astra (Porthaninkatu 3, Turku)

‼️ NB: Last day for registration -> Monday 28 September‼️

👉Program and registration: https://sites.abo.fi/centre-for-sustainable-ocean-science/annual-meeting-2026/

Åbo Akademi
Stiftelsen för Åbo Akademi

21/09/2026

Last chance to register!

⏰Idag är sista dagen att anmäla sig till symposiet Thinking with the Sea – Interactions and New Perspectives Inspired by the Blue Humanities! Har du redan anmält dig? Om inte, gör det idag!

🎟️I anmälningsavgiften (90 €) ingår såväl tillgång till alla sessioner som kaffe och lunch båda dagarna. Middagskuvert säljs skilt för 60 €.

Kandidat- och magisterstuderande kan delta kostnadsfritt utan skild anmälan (lunch och middag ingår inte)

🗓️ När? - 30.9–1.10.2026
📍 Var? - Forum Marinum, Åbo, Finland
👉Program & anmälning via symposiets webbplats: https://www.abo.fi/sjohistoriska-institutet/thinking-with-the-sea/

⏰Today is the last day to register for the the symposium Thinking with the Sea – Interactions and New Perspectives Inspired by the Blue Humanities! Have you already registered? If not, please do it today!

🎟️The registration fee (90 €) includes access to all sessions in the program as well as coffee and lunch on both days. Dinner tickets are sold separately for 60 €.

Bachelor’s and master’s students may participate free of charge without separate registration (lunch and dinner not included).

🗓️ When? - 30.9.–1.10.2026
📍Where? - Forum Marinum, Turku, Finland
👉Program & registration is available on the symposium website: https://www.abo.fi/en/institute-of-maritime-history/thinking-with-the-sea/

Centre for Sustainable Ocean Science

10/09/2026

Meet Sabine Höhler, our keynote speaker for the second day of the Symposium Thinking with the Sea – Interactions and New Perspectives Inspired by the Blue Humanities!

Sabine Höhler is a Professor of Science and Technology Studies (STS) at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm where she also serves as the Head of Department of Philosophy and History. She combines an education in physics and in history of science and technology.

Her research addresses the intersections of technoscience and environmental history concerning the earth and space sciences in the 19th and 20th centuries in a planetary historical perspective, with a focus on ocean monitoring, mapping, and modelling practices. Since 2024 she leads the Centre of Excellence for Anthropocene History at KTH to develop a new historical approach to integrating human and Earth history.

The keynote “Exploring the Ocean Anthropocene: Human-Earth Histories in Depth” will discuss how the Anthropocene as a concept for identifying and understanding human agency as a geological force has fostered interdisciplinary approaches to study the entanglements of human and Earth history. In these integrated efforts, the ocean is mostly perceived as a function, an enabling factor, or a casualty: a regulator, a source, a sink. The presentation aims to develop the ocean’s elemental position in Anthropocene research and explores how Anthropocene history can address social, cultural, technological and environmental oceanic changes and their implications for ocean governance.

🗓️ When? - 1 October, 09:30-10:30

📍 Where? - Forum Marinum, Turku

👉 Program & registration is available on the symposium website: https://www.abo.fi/en/institute-of-maritime-history/thinking-with-the-sea/

Centre for Sustainable Ocean Science

09/09/2026

Let us present the workshop for the second day of the SOS Annual Meeting!

On Wednesday 7 October at 12:30-14:00 a workshop on “Archipelago Planning” will be led by:
🔹️Henrik Ringbom - Professor of Maritime Law and the Law of the Sea, ÅAU
🔹️Sonja Salovius-Laurén - University Researcher in Environmental and Marine Biology, ÅAU
🔹️Nina Tynkkynen - Professor of Environmental Governance and Policy, ÅAU

This workshop focuses on the role that planning and governance on land have in protecting and remedying the sea.

➡️ How is the wellbeing of the marine ecosystem taken into account in land-use planning on the shores and catchment area of the Archipelago Sea?
➡️ How could land and sea planning be integrated?

These questions are examined against the broader backdrop of the Ocean Act and by looking at the case of regenerative city planning in Turku.

The workshop also features short presentations by guest speakers from the Regional Council of Southwest Finland:
🔹️Essi Kärpijoki - Coordinator of Finland’s Maritime Spatial Plan co-operation
🔹️Laura Pietilä - Project Planner

📍 Åbo Akademi University, Astra (Porthaninkatu 3, Turku)

👉Program and registration: https://sites.abo.fi/centre-for.../annual-meeting-2026/

Åbo Akademi

Stiftelsen för Åbo Akademi

08/09/2026

Meet Søren Frank, Professor of Danish and Nordic Literature at the University of Copenhagen, our keynote speaker during the first day of the Symposium Thinking with the Sea – Interactions and New Perspectives Inspired by the Blue Humanities!

The keynote will explore how literature can help us rethink human existence under the unstable conditions of the Anthropocene. Drawing on Blue Humanities and environmental thought, Frank argue that climate change should not be understood merely as an environmental ”crisis” to be solved, but as a geological and oceanic condition that humanity must learn to live within.

Through readings of Danish authors Johannes V. Jensen, Holger Drachmann, and contemporary oceanic theory by thinkers such as Steve Mentz, Elizabeth DeLoughrey, and Jeremy Davies, the lecture examines how literary texts register deep time, sea-level rise, catastrophic change, and adaptation to unruly environments. Rather than offering technological solutions, hope of an Edenic return, or ecological optimism, blue literary history provides what Ottmar Ette calls ÜberLebenswissen: experiential and existential knowledge about how to endure, navigate, and imagine life in increasingly wet, unstable, and unpredictable worlds.

🗓️ When? - 30 September, 09:45-10:45

📍 Where? - Forum Marinum, Turku, Finland

👉 Program & registration is available on the symposium website: https://www.abo.fi/en/institute-of-maritime-history/thinking-with-the-sea/

Centre for Sustainable Ocean Science

07/09/2026

Have you familiarized yourself with the workshops for the SOS Annual Meeting 6-7.10.2026?

The first workshop “Biodiversity Markets for Watershed Resilience” will be led by:
🔹️Magnus Gustafsson - Head of Research, Laboratory of Industrial Management, ÅAU
🔹️Magnus Hellström - Professor, Laboratory of Industrial Management, ÅAU
🔹️Heidi Herlevi - Project Researcher, Environmental and Marine Biology, ÅAU

Climate change is increasing both flood and drought risks, while degraded catchments and drainage have reduced the landscape’s ability to regulate water and nutrient flows from land to sea. Restoring watershed resilience is essential for enhancing water retention, reducing nutrient losses, and improving water quality, biodiversity and ecosystem health. Achieving this at scale requires robust methods to quantify and value the multiple benefits of restoration, including climate adaptation, environmental improvements and enhanced land productivity.

This workshop will introduce a new research initiative and pilot case that aims to combine nature-based catchment restoration with novel financial instruments, creating pathways to link environmental outcomes with economic value through biodiversity markets.

Participants will identify key knowledge gaps, uncertainties and implementation barriers that currently limit large-scale action. Discussions will focus on evidence needs, monitoring approaches, benefit valuation, and financing mechanisms capable of mobilizing both public and private investment. The results will help shape scalable solutions for resilient catchment restoration across the Archipelago Sea and beyond.

📍 Åbo Akademi University, Astra (Porthaninkatu 3, Turku)

👉 Program and registration: https://sites.abo.fi/centre-for-sustainable-ocean-science/annual-meeting-2026/

Åbo Akademi
Stiftelsen för Åbo Akademi