Research and Development

The task of the School of Music, Dance and Media is to arrange higher education to serve the needs of worklife in the fields of music, dance and communication.

The school also engages in research and development that serves the needs of both education, business life and cultural life in Northern Finland, in cooperation with worklife and other institutes of higher education, schools and other actors in the field.

Research and development activity at the School of Music, Dance and Media covers the following sectors:

initiatives and projects funded (or partly funded) by outside sources
important national events and festivals, which play a pedagogical and developmental role for the whole field of education in Finland
Bachelor’s theses written by students, which are considered a part of research and development work in so far as they fulfill the criteria set by Statistics Finland
scientific or artistic post-graduate education or research work conducted by the staff and work of the staff as performing artists, as well as compositions, choreographies and other works of art created by the staff

One of the objectives of the R&D activity at the school is to develop the content production and media field and secure future development of the field. Several projects were implemented at the school in connection with the Oulu Growth Agreement 2006 programme, promoting for example the production, sales, marketing and distribution of new mobile-oriented content services, promoting know-how in mobile marketing communication and searching for means of generating high-quality development and production activity related to television formats in Northern Finland.

At present the innovation strategy Oulu Inspires 2007-2013 is implemented for example in the ongoing extensive digital media research and development project Neo Arena. In the latest work package of the project pilot productions utilizing multi-channel techniques are implemented in collaboration with businesses.

The School of Music, Dance and Media attempts to make the connection between instruction and R&D activity more efficient in many different ways. Within the framework of various projects we reinforce the link between students and worklife and its development, we collaborate with businesses, our students write Bachelor’s theses related to the projects, we update our teachers’ worklife connections, reinforce a business-oriented outlook in studies and promote made-to-order productions and the finding of practical training positions and jobs.

Education projects funded by the Erasmus, Nordplus and Nordreg programmes are directly connected to the study modules which are implemented as a part of these projects.

The School of Music, Dance and Media is responsible for organizing two regular national events which play a pedagogical and developmental role for the educational field in Finland. The national Leevi Madetoja Piano Competition is arranged every three years, next in January 2009. The national Arctic Steps Dance Festival takes place every year in spring. Students of dance and music participate in the implementation of these national events as a part of their studies.