Laura Turpeinen started at CLIC on 5 June as Communications coordinator, Bioeconomy.
“My name is Laura Turpeinen and am a communications and business development specialist in the life sciences. My background is in molecular and cell biology, with an MSc in biotechnology from the University of Edinburgh. I am most passionate about emerging biomolecular tools and applications and have worked over six years in promoting biotech innovations. This includes sales and marketing in the fields of synthetic biology, laboratory automation, and genetic diagnostics – ranging from start-ups to large multinational companies. My favorite topic is translating research into sustainable environmental solutions. With this in mind, I recently focused on the circular economy industry at Kierrätysteollisuus ry and further delve into bioeconomy initiatives at CLIC Innovation to support the green transition.
Both my work and past time reflect a love of nature. I enjoy taking full advantage of the Finnish outdoors, including mushroom picking, biking, kayaking, and walking our spaniel Henry. I am a huge fan of stories and storytelling, and read plenty of sci-fi novels, watch old films, and write poetry in coffee shops. A future book about a sustainable biobased world is also in the making. “
Hannele Holttinen will start at CLIC on 7 August as RDI lead, Energy Systems.
“My background is wind energy research at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, where I made my Master Thesis for TKK Otaniemi. After some years of wind energy research, an opportunity emerged to make a PhD with Nordic Energy funding on wind power impacts on Nordic electricity system and markets. The topic was very timely in 2005 after my dissertation, and I started to form an international group under IEA Wind – Task 25 Design and Operation of Power Systems with Large Amounts of Wind Energy started in 2006 and I am still the Operating Agent (coordinator) of that group of experts today. Wind integration has evolved from looking at 10-20% shares of wind in 2006, to finding new methodologies to assess future power and energy systems dominated by wind and solar energy that is the focus today.
I had several roles at VTT during my almost 30-year career there, from Team Leader to Research Coordinator to Principal Scientist and Lead for Smart Energy Industrial Growth Programme; as well as from national Tekes/BF project manager to Nordic and EU project WP leader, to SHOK programme FlexE WP Lead. I was active in networks like the IEA Wind energy collaboration, Nordic energy research and EU Technology Platform, EERA and ETIP Wind. VTT also provided flexibility to visiting research work abroad: during my PhD in other Nordic countries; working one winter in IEA, Paris, and one winter research mobility at IREC Barcelona and LNEG Lisbon.
Moving abroad for 2 years in 2019, I started working at the family-owned consultancy Recognis Oy. Coordination activities in international networks remained my first priority, and on top of IEA Wind Task 25, the new Global Power System Transformation Consortium G-PST, formed by 6 system operators in 2019, had interesting work to offer. I had more time to make evaluations of research proposal and research programme evaluations in Europe and the US. On top of shorter consultancy assignments, I was a subcontractor at research project in Finland (Land Use Zero). I am a docent since 2014 at Aalto University and continued to teach the wind energy course there.
After two years in Thailand and two and a half in the UK, I am now returning to Finland. At CLIC, I shall be responsible for developing the RDI related to Energy Systems. This includes new coordination efforts in networks like EU Clean Energy Transition Partnership and Northern European Alliance for Sustainable Energy, as well as helping to coordinate the upcoming EU projects and preparing new proposals. Green hydrogen and its derivatives are the important new part of energy systems and sector integration, providing also flexibility needed for reaching high shares of variable generation. My passion throughout my career has been renewable energy, and working for the energy transition towards sustainable energy systems. I am looking forward to use my expertise to find the pain points at stakeholders that need solutions, as well as synergies of collaboration. I am really happy to become a part of the energy team at CLIC Innovation – it will be an exciting place to work for the next part of my career.”
