The Working Group includes specialists in different fields of social sciences broadly defined, e.g. economics, business, history, political science, regional development, law, human geography. Members of the delegation represented the East Office of Finnish Industries, Finnish Forest Industries Federation, Finnish-Russian Chamber of Commerce, Academy of Finland, Universities of Eastern Finland, Helsinki, Turku, Tampere, etc.

O.N. Bakhmet opened the meeting by welcoming the guests and briefly familiarized them with the Centre’s activities. P.V. Petrov told the delegation about ongoing international projects implemented at KarRC RAS and other international activities underway at the Centre. The focus in his presentation was on ENI cross-border cooperation programmes (Karelia, Kolarctic, and South-East Finland – Russia), Interreg Baltic Sea Region programme, as well as the Green Belt of Fennoscandia initiative.
After all the introductions, the leader of the delegation Sinikka Parviainen gave an overview of the activities of the Working Group and asked her colleagues to ask their questions for KarRC RAS representatives. The guests were interested in the reorganizations KarRC RAS has undergone in the past two years, current standing of social sciences in the general research and education context in Karelia, as well as the formats of international projects and the partners involved. Participants of the meeting on both sides emphasized the large scope of Russian-Finnish cooperation in various fields of science and education, and expressed willingness to augment such cooperation in social sciences.