Maria Malho

Maria is a political scientist specialising in foresight, scenarios and futures thinking to create both high-quality research as well as actionable visions and strategies for making desirable futures easier to reach. She has extensive experience in leading and facilitating projects and research processes on a wide array of topics ranging from renewable energy and sustainable health policies to the future of the welfare state.

At Demos Helsinki, Maria has worked with global companies, national governments, and forerunner cities as well as in large-scale research projects funded by the European Commission’s Horizon programme and the Strategic Research Council of the Finnish Academy. Maria’s projects include CO3 on contemporary social contracts for strengthening democracies, BlueAdapt on creating visions and pathways for offshore wind energy, and SUDDEN to improve the sustainability of the pharmaceutical sector.

Maria is affiliated with the Futures Research Center at the University of Turku and has been teaching Futures Studies at Aalto University and currently at Helsinki Summer University. Maria joined Demos Helsinki in 2018, and has previous work experience from the Embassy of Finland in London, supply chain management, and the banking sector. She holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Helsinki with specialisation in International Relations and Security Studies.

Outside work, Maria enjoys spending time with her kids at children’s culture events, and reading novels whenever possible.

Maria’s academic publications affiliated with Demos Helsinki:

– Pouru-Mikkola, L., Minkkinen, M., Malho, M., & Neuvonen, A. (2023). Exploring knowledge creation, capabilities, and relations in a distributed policy foresight system: Case Finland. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 186, 122190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2022.122190

– Jenkins, J., Malho, M. & Hyytiäinen, K. Regionally extended shared socioeconomic pathways for the offshore wind industry in Finland. Energ. Ecol. Environ. 7, 533–545 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40974-022-00252-7

– Jenkins, J., Hyytiäinen, K., & Malho, M. (2023). Operationalising Weak Signals and Wild Cards for the Finnish Offshore Wind Industry. Journal of futures studies. https://doi.org/10.6531/JFS.202312_28(2).0003

– Lätti, R., Malho, M., Rowley, C., & Frilander, O. (2022). Skenaarioiden rakentaminen tulevaisuustaulukkomenetelmällä. In Aalto, H-K., Heikkilä, K., Keski-Pukkila, P., Mäki, M., & Pöllänen, M. (toim.), Tulevaisuudentutkimus tutuksi – Perusteita ja menetelmiä (pp. 313–336). Tulevaisuuden tutkimuskeskus, Turun yliopisto. https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-249-563-1