3-years grant at Graduate School in Forest Sciences

After receiving seed scholarship for two months and preparing our study and research plan the students applied to their Graduate Schools in CBU partner universities. I applied to the Graduate School in Forest Sciences in University of Eastern Finland.

The University of Eastern Finland has announced 2 available positions for 3 years funding, one position was available at East Finland Graduate School in Computer Science and Engineering and 1 position at Graduate School in Forest Sciences. The grant was targeted to CBU graduates who are planning to make a PhD within a CBU Doctoral programme in the University of Eastern Finland in cooperation with CBU partner universities.

Nevertheless the call was open for students of all countries, so the tough competition was expected. The application deadline was 10^th of December 2010. The main requirement for each applicant was free application form including CV, PhD Research plan, PhD Study plan, statements from supervisors in CBU partner universities.

The funding situation is an entire part of the research process, and the opportunity to have sustainable funding for three years was surely attractive for many applicants, however at the same time cross-border element in the research was expected from each applicant. So, I tried my best to make a tailored research plan which will be in accordance with CBU requirements. As I am originally from Russia, I tried to reflect most actual information in the research plan related to Finnish-Russian Cross-Border cooperation in forestry sector.

It is well known fact that Finnish-Russian relationships in forest sector have started close cooperation since mid 60s of last century. During Soviet period Finland was one of the major importers of roundwood. The last decades in Russian forest sector has been facing many challenges, especially after collapse of Soviet Union. The most abrupt changes have happened in forest policy in recent Russia after adoption of Forest Code in 1997 and 2006; it consequently had impact on management system in Russian forests. The proposed topic by me was related to improvement of transparency of wood procurement from Russia to Finland.