The Department of Regional Studies hosts several well-known and prominent research groups in their own fields and beyond. The evaluation of the quality of academic research in the University of Tampere, carried out by international evaluation panels, concluded that the research conducted at DRS is at a high international level. The evaluation panel ascertained that "the multidisciplinary research mission is carried out by internationally and nationally oriented research groups ... The department has been highly successful in obtaining funding from academic and other external sources ... In the department basic professional and policy-oriented scholarship are in good balance. Most of the senior staff both engages in basic research and actively participates in public debates on timely policy issues which adds the visibility to department."
The common denominator of the various research groups and their projects is the ambition to understand and analyze social dynamics of spatial and environmental change. Alongside the specific research themes of the individual research groups there are five cross-cutting themes that are common to all the groups at the Department of Regional Studies.
The Departments of Regional Studies hosts a special research group called Research Unit for Urban and Regional Development Studies (Sente). Drawing from the decades long accumulation of experience and research capacity of the main department, extensive international and national networks, and internally designed ways of carrying out both strictly academic and policy oriented research it has been able to guarantee a central position both in the Finnish and international scenes.
See more about the research projects carried out at the Department of Regional Studies
