The exceptional donation from the estate of Martti Miettinen, a farmer from Lapinlahti, supports doctoral researchers at the Kuopio campus.
The University of Eastern Finland has appointed Samuli Summala from the Department of Technical Physics and Hassan Raza from the School of Pharmacy as doctoral researchers of the Martti Miettinen Fund starting next year. The appointments were made for the first time.
During this year, the University of Eastern Finland received an exceptional bequest, worth more than 3 million euros, from Martti Miettinen, a farmer and veteran from Lapinlahti. The donation is the largest single bequest ever received by the university and attracted widespread national attention.
The bequeathed assets have been used to establish the Martti Miettinen Fund, the proceeds of which will be used, in accordance with the terms of the will, to support current and future scientific research and teaching at the Kuopio campus of the University of Eastern Finland.
“We are grateful for this significant donation and have decided to use it to support the careers of selected young doctoral researchers. In this way, the bequest will also contribute to the development of doctoral education in Finland,” says Vice Rector Jussi Pihlajamäki.
Each of the appointed doctoral researchers will be granted a wage subsidy for three years, which is paid jointly by the Martti Miettinen Fund and the faculty. The fund will grant a wage subsidy to four doctoral researchers at a time, a total of 210,000 euros every three years. The next two doctoral researchers will be appointed for 2027.
