Lauri Tierala left the European University Institute’s School of Transnational Governance, where he served as Programme Director of EDMO, to take up a new position as State Secretary in the recently formed government of Finland. State Secretaries are the most senior civil servants in Finland, assisting ministers in matters relating to political steering, policy and implementing the government’s programme.
The European University Institute wishes Lauri Tierala all the best in his new role.
Lauri Tierala said: “Working at the European University Institute has been a great experience. The School of Transnational Governance is a vibrant start-up within a prestigious institution. I hope to be back one day! Tackling disinformation is crucial to European democracy. It was fantastic to work on the EDMO project and I hope to be able to support its mission also in the future.”
At the EUI School of Transnational Governance, Tierala coordinated the efforts against online disinformation of the EU-funded European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) project. He also managed the relations between EDMO and the European Media and Information Fund (EMIF), which the institute manages together with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.
EDMO brings together fact-checkers, scholars, media, online platforms and media literacy practitioners to tackle disinformation, while EMIF provides competitive grants to researchers, fact-checkers, not-for-profits and other public interest-oriented organisations working on disinformation research and strengthening media literacy and fact-checking.
Professor Miguel Maduro, Chair of the EDMO Executive Board, said: “At EDMO we are sad to see Lauri Tierala depart, a great human being and an extremely able programme director, but happy to know that Finland’s government will benefit from the great competence we all recognise in him.”
Organisational changes in EDMO after Lauri Tierala’s departure will be announced at a later stage.