Research permits

The City of Helsinki has many publicly available data sets that can be used for research. These include the following:

• Greater Helsinki Open Statistical Databases(Link leads to external service)
• Helsinki Region Infoshare(Link leads to external service)
• Open geographic data (Link leads to external service)
• Opendata.fi(Link leads to external service) 

You may also wish to conduct additional research so you can collect new data, perhaps by conducting interviews or observing your research targets. Keep in mind that arranging for interviews or observation periods often requires a great deal of time and effort from both you and your interviewees.

If you decide to conduct additional research, please contact the appropriate City of Helsinki unit of operation (day care centre, service unit, for example) that is relevant to your study. This will ensure that you have a contact person right from the start at the place where the interviewing or observing is carried out.

If you are not sure which City of Helsinki unit or division houses the target of your research, or if your work focuses on two or more divisions, please contact Helsinki City Executive Office’s research permit unit at kanslia.tutkimusluvat@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program) and they will steer you in the right direction.

As a rule, if your research uses City of Helsinki data sets or includes interviews, you will need to apply for a research permit. Please check the links below for detailed research permit instructions from each of the City of Helsinki’s administrative divisions. In some cases, it is also possible to make research arrangements with a commission agreement or some other kind of procurement or cooperation agreement. If a research permit is required, please reserve 4-6 weeks for permit processing. We do our best to process the permit applications as quickly as possible, but statutory matters tend to take time and backlogs have been known to happen. If your permit application is incomplete or missing attachments, it will delay the processing.

Please submit your application duly signed and with complete appendices/attachments/annexes to Helsinki City’s Registrar’s Office, email: helsinki.kirjaamo@hel.fi(Link opens default mail program). More information on protected email on the Registrar’s Office’s website. If your study/survey processes or handles special categories of personal data, or if derogations are made from the rights of the data subject, a data protection impact assessment will have to be made for it.