The Centre of Excellence in Peatlands, Climate Change and Restoration studies the ongoing change in northern peatlands: how climate change impacts their biodiversity and climate response, and how upcoming large-scale restoration in Finland and elsewhere in Europe will affect them. We will also provide support for informed decisions on restoration if the impacts on biodiversity and climate conflict. The research combines long time series, paleoecology, remote sensing, experimental ecological research, modeling, and disaggregative decision support methods in a novel and original way. The research will be carried out as a joint project of researchers operating at the Universities of Eastern Finland, Helsinki, and Aalto and the Finnish Meteorological Institute, and in close cooperation with leading international researchers and stakeholders. The CoE will educate new experts to solve problems that require multidisciplinary understanding, such as those related to the future of peatlands.

2026

2028