EN / Faculty of Art and Design / Research

Research

Research profile
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Our research priorities

Our research is focused on pluralistic and multicultural art and design in northern regions. We also develop various creative art and design solutions to meet the requirements of services in the north.

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Dialogue between art and science

Our research is enriched by interaction between art and science, which come together in design and media development and when creating new methods for community-based art education, for example. Many of our doctoral dissertations also include an artistic section, such as an exhibition or a product development project, in addition to a scientific study.

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Research topics

Our research concentrates on ecologically, economically, culturally and socially sustainable design; environmental, winter and community art; and media and visual arts.

Our research covers

  • artistic research
  • service design, industrial and social design, interaction design
  • audiovisual media culture and media art
  • textile design and textile art
  • functional and ecological environments of clothes
  • artistic way of thinking and art education
  • research on the production and interpretation of visual identities, information and images
  • research on northern arts and culture and Finnish modern art in the collection of the Wihuri foundation
  • art-based research, community-based art education and applied arts in northern environments

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Research and development

Through our research and development we create new applications and innovations for the services of business life, culture, education, tourism, leisure and wellbeing.

Our faculty as a project partner

Become our project partner

Our faculty is a reliable and active project partner. Our particular strengths are in Arctic design and art, and cooperation with businesses. We conduct wide-ranging research that aligns with our strategy and combines art and science. We also focus on producing various creative solutions to meet the needs of northern communities.

Aims of our project activity

Our aim is to strengthen the research and publishing activities in the field of art and design, and art education. At the same time we help research groups to compete for funding in the strategic areas of our faculty.

Our interdisciplinary research and development projects generate knowledge, materials and tools that can be applied when designing new products and services and when developing responsible business, culture, education, tourism and increasingly digital society.

Our project activities

We work in close collaboration with Multidimensional Tourism Institute, Arctic Centre and Lapland University of Applied Sciences.

Take a look at our other project activities >

Research Groups

Groups

 

Three research groups are organised in the Faculty of Art and Design: 1) User Experience Research, 2) Service Design with Communities for Inclusive Solutions (Co-Stars), 3) Northern Art, Community and Environment Research (NACER). Members of these groups collaborate in research and publishing. Each group includes supervisors, doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers, artists-researchers and/or designer-researchers. Seminars to discuss research issues are arranged on a regular basis. In the art faculty, there are also research projects, professors and supervisors of doctoral candidates that do not belong to these named research groups.


User Experience Research

 

The User Experience research group at University of Lapland (LUX), at the Faculty of Art and Design, conducts state-of-the-art research combining experience design, rapid prototyping and user centric design methods. The research group works on various topics on ubiquitous, mobile and wearable computing such as tangible interfaces, aesthetics, new form factors and materials, ambient displays, and fashionable wearables. The group has active international collaborations, and publishes at high quality research forums such as CHI, TEI and ISWC.

Homepage of the group


Service Design with Communities for Inclusive Solutions (Co-Stars)

 

The main aim of this interdisciplinary research group is to address locally and globally significant societal, geographical and technological challenges through service design, arts-based research and participatory approaches. Its particular emphasis is in value co-creation with many different kinds of communities, organisations, institutions or companies with specific needs. It aims at creating dialogue and addressing challenges related to access to services and questions of inclusion and equality, which may also include some sensitive and conflicted issues. The group develops new tools, methods, models and practical solutions for delivering and co-creating services with remote or otherwise marginal communities, and producing new solutions for human-centred healthcare and more competitive tourism or logistics services. The aims are also in the optimisation of the current services through technological AI-oriented service design.

Homepage of the group


Northern Art, Community and Environment Research 

 

Northern Art, Community and Environment Research (NACER)  conducts research in the academic discipline of art education, including research on visual art education in schools, educational institutions and universities as well as in the broad field of visual art, including traditional Indigenous and other-than-Indigenous arts and contemporary collaborative art forms. NACER emphasises cultural and social cooperation and sustainable tourism, reflecting the profile of the University of Lapland. NACER fosters global responsibility and sustainability through research-based activities in the Northern and Arctic context. Its participatory research reflects the changing sociocultural circumstances of an age of ecological crises and urbanisation and investigates future directions for sensitive, socially effective initiatives that use visual arts, art pedagogy and arts-based methods to benefit local communities and address global concerns.

Homepage of the group


Instructions for doctoral studies

Read the following instructions on how to apply for doctoral studies and the general advice on the Graduate School web pages.

In our postgraduate study guide you can find information on the procedures pertaining to the process of completing your doctoral dissertation and Doctor of Arts degree. Click Postgraduate study guide 2025-2027.pdf. 

Prelimary examination of the doctoral thesis - a guide to an instructor and doctoral candidate

Grading scale of dissertations

We have updated our grading scale of dissertations. The new scale has taken effect on 1 January 2017.

View the new grading scale >

Apply for doctoral studies

Contact the professor of your academic field

We recommend that you contact the professor of your academic field already when planning to apply for doctoral studies. Discussion with the relevant professor on your research topic, research plan and studies will give you a better understanding of the doctoral path.

If you do not know who the professor you should contact at these early stages is, you can search for professors in our research portal. You can also get in touch with the administrative manager or head of study affairs in the relevant faculty or the coordinator of the Graduate School to find out potential supervisors. We need a preliminary research plan to be able to connect you with a professor; please provide this information already when contacting us. It can be a good idea to read the professor's most prominent research publications before discussion.

Contact head of study affairs in the Faculty of Art and Design >

Contact head of study affairs in the Faculty of Education >

Contact administrative manager in the Faculty of Law >

Contact administrative manager in the Faculty of Social Sciences >

Contact coordinator of the Doctoral School

Write your research plan

To apply for the right to pursue doctoral studies, you need a research plan. The research plan must include a schedule and information on funding. We have developed a research plan template based on the Academy of Finland's research plan structure. If you wish, you can also use a different template, but please make sure that your research plan contains all the information provided in a potential job advertisement for a salaried PhD position.

In your application, much value is placed on the quality of your research plan. Therefore, it is wise to discuss your plan – and refine it based on feedback – beforehand with a potential supervisor. It is also rather clear that it is advisable to read the supervisor's scholarly work as well.

Research plans are requested primarily in English, as international experts can participate in the evaluation of applications. You may also submit a research plan in Finnish or Swedish.

Research plan template >

Make your personal study plan

Your application should be appended with a personal study plan. When making your plan, comply with the requirements of the doctoral programme under consideration. In each programme, you can take courses from the Graduate School's offer and from other programmes.

If you have already agreed on supervising, complete the supervising agreement.

Apply online

Application periods in year 2025:

  • 4–25 February 2025 by 15:00 (local Finnish time)
  • 30 September – 21 October 2025 by 15:00 (local Finnish time).

The dates and times are local Finnish time. If your application is successful, your study right begins either on 1 January or 1 August, depending on whether you applied in autumn or spring. It is possible to grant the study right at other times, but we require strong grounds – such as significant research funding requiring a doctoral study right – for making such an exception. Your study right application is addressed to the faculty relevant to your research.

To the online application system

Structure of a doctoral degree

The doctoral degree contains 240 study credits (ECTS). This considerable amount of work is divided into sections: the doctoral dissertation constitutes 180 credits, and studies constitute altogether 60 credits.



Read more about the structure of a doctoral degree >


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Structure of a doctoral degree in the thematic doctoral programme. In the discipline-specific doctoral programme, the structure can differ from this because of discipline-specific requirements.