Kirsi Eloranta spent the Fall of 2006 as a CRGP visiting scholar from Helsinki University of Technology where she works as a researcher and project manager in the Project Business Research Group at the BIT Research Center. The center is an independent research institute within the university.

Thanks to what Kirsi describes as a "truly inspiring research experience" with CRGP, she completed her licentiate thesis, a work that prepares students for a PhD in the European system. The title: "Project supplier relationship management in networked project business." When Kirsi arrived at Stanford, she had already collected her data and covered the literature. During her stay she focused on analyzing the data and doing her writing with feedback and support from CRGP.

In addition to taking courses, Kirsi participated in the regular research meetings of CRGP's NGO and Governance Project. She described these meetings as a huge opportunity to learn how the research is conducted and then reflect this knowledge to her Global Project Strategies research in Finland. She also gained insights on where to direct her own research in the areas of stakeholder networks and management in global projects.

Since early 2005 Kirsi has been involved in the Global Project Strategies (GPS) project, which is run jointly by the Helsinki University of Technology, VTT (the technical research center of Finland), and the Helsinki School of Economics. Financed by TEKES and Finnish companies, GPS focuses on the management of large, complex and culturally diverse projects that consist of multiple organizations. GPS is an affiliate member of CRGP.

At Stanford Kirsi managed to find time to pursue her main hobby, music, and sang in concerts with the Stanford Symphonic Chorus. Now that she's back in Helsinki, she continues to sing in a women's choir and to take classical singing lessons. She also plays violin and piano.

One of her favorite relaxations is a visit to the family summer house where she reads, goes to the sauna, swims in the lake and walks about the forest, picking blueberries and mushrooms.

As Kirsi looks back on her time at CRGP, she writes, "In addition to an inspiring and truly international research atmosphere, what I miss most are the people, many who became good friends. I'm glad to be able to continue a fruitful research collaboration with them."

Posted by rjorr at September 5, 2007 12:01 AM