The Institute will work together with the other Finnish academic units that conduct research in the field in order to promote Finnish research on popular culture. Important Finnish partners are the Finnish Association for the Study of Popular Culture and the Renvall Institute for Area and Cultural Studies (University of Helsinki). It is also essential to support a local network for co-operation including, in particular, companies and organizations in the fields of cultural policy, media production, music industry and digital technology.

The Institute has active international connections and has got letters of support from 22 institutions around the world, including such collegial centres as the Institute of Popular Music at the University of Liverpool, the Centre for Popular Culture at the University of Amsterdam, and the Center for Popular Culture Studies at the Bowling Green State University.