My name is Qiuzhen Chen, I am looking forward to joining a consortium of Topic 1 as a partner.
I am currently working as a University Researcher at the Department of Economics and Management, University of Helsinki. I am applying for being a consortium’s partner as I believe that my skills and experience will bring added value to the project work. In addition to teaching Intermediate Microeconomics and supervising master’s theses and co-supervising visiting PhD students, my current main work is to research and/or coordinate (as project manager) the two EU H2020 research projects during 2020-2024: EU H2020 project ‘Making agricultural trade sustainable (MATS)’, funded by EC, 2021-2024, and EU H2020 project ‘Improving nutrition in Africa by strengthening the diversity, sustainability, resilience & connectivity of food systems (HFA)’, funded by EC, 2020-2024.
My research interests are in agricultural economics with a focus on agri-food chain governance, sustainable agricultural trade and investment, responsible investment in the agri-food sector (ESG investment), multifunctionality of agriculture, and agricultural externalities. Specifically, in agricultural food chain governance, the focus is on proposing innovative governance arrangements through pilot actions to create more equitable and sustainable agri-food chains and to strengthen the linkages and empowerment of food chain actors, especially small and medium-sized farms with those food processors and retailers that matter in connecting these farms to consumers. In terms of sustainable agricultural trade, the focus is on a review, mapping, and characterization of the broad links between agricultural trade, agricultural and rural investments, environmental sustainability and human well-being. With regards to responsible investment in the agri-food sector, the focus is on how responsible investment commitments impact the implementation and actions of responsible institutional investors in the agri-food sector.
I have experiences in working in multidisciplinary groups or research environments. As the project manager of the MATS project (launched in 2021), the coordination and management of the project is very complex, as the consortium consists of 14 partners (11 from 8 European countries and 3 from 3 African countries) with a wide spectrum of expertise and competences, and a wide geographical spread in Europe and Africa. In addition to coordinating workflow and scheduling of work and activities to ensure and monitor the progress of the project in line with the work plan in the Grant Agreement, continuous and technical reporting to EC, as well as the planning and organization of the consortium meetings, another important task is to facilitate effective communication with all the partners and potential targeted groups of the project.

The Department of Economics and Management, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki, Finland is the only institute in Finland in its research field to cover the entire food chain from farm to fork, including the environmental impact and social links and interdependencies. Our science base includes economics, as well as business and management sciences and our field of application is agriculture, the food industry, the household economy and the environmental sector. The natural cooperation between the department’s subjects creates added value to the study of the agrifood economy, since all the stages and actors of the food chain are integrated in our areas of competence.
Cooperation with the faculty’s other departments and the university’s faculties as well as with external research institutes is a clear objective. The aim of the cooperation is to improve the significance of our research. The research strategy of the Department of Economics and Management supports and promotes the key values of the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry in the sustainable use of natural resources.