Introducing the OIL SPILL Project Office at the University of Turku (1/4)

This week starts the introductory series of OIL SPILL Project Partners. During the spring of 2020, we will move around the Baltic Sea Region and visit each Partner for a week. The first stop is in Turku, Finland.

University of Turku (UTU) is the Lead Partner of the OIL SPILL project. The location on the southwest coast of Finland has had a significant influence on the development of both the city and the University. Turku region has become the most significant production cluster of the Finnish maritime industry, and Sea and maritime studies forms one of the major research areas of the University. Here, the focus is firmly on the Baltic Sea.

OIL SPILL fits the University profile perfectly. But how did the project idea originate? 

Project Director Lauri Ojala explains that the thought occurred during a previous Interreg BSR project, HAZARD. Issues related to oil spill response surfaced now and then, especially while working with the Southwest Finland Emergency Services. It became clear that there is a need to enhance the oil spill response capability not only in Finland but in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) more broadly.

However, this is only one part of the story. Lauri continues that soon after filing the project proposal, the EU’s Interreg BSR programme got in touch. Another proposal of the same name had been presented by the Ministry of Environment of Estonia. Uniting these two projects was, indeed, an apt opportunity.

The two projects were crafted together, and 1+1 became three. Lauri explains that the exceptional strength and potential the project has lie in the partnerships. All Partners are high-level professionals in their domain. Their target and motive for action is the same – oil spill response – but they work at different levels with different methods. OIL SPILL aims to enhance the collaboration of the voluntary sector, rescue services, and ministry-level, and harmonize their procedures across the BSR.

Oil spill response is not part of the day-to-day routines at the University of Turku, but UTU has high-level competence in project management and administration. Also, the know-how of the operational environment and networks in the BSR are of top-quality. The same applies to Lauri, who has already led six Interreg-funded projects. The Baltic Sea, again, has become an essential element in his career – It is always present in my work, he concludes.