The Finnish Research Impact Foundation (FRIF) has awarded a total of 1,3 million euros in its spring 2025 call to support collaboration between research and business. Funding was granted to six projects representing a wide range of sectors — with partners including Bittium, DNA, Nokia Bell Labs and Valio.
The projects address timely and societally significant themes such as the future of wireless networks, the use of easy language in customer communications, and the effects of sleep on the cardiovascular system.
Boosting impact through research
The funding was awarded under FRIF’s Tandem Industry Academia (TIA) Postdoc programme, which aims to strengthen the societal impact of high-quality science and research, while also building closer bridges between academia and the Finnish business sector.
The spring call closed on April 13, 2025, attracting 61 high-quality applications. Of these, the foundation’s board decided to fund six projects.
“It is great to see that research collaboration inspires more and more researchers across fields and attracts the interest of Finnish companies. Once again, the applications were of high quality and innovative, and there were clearly more fundable proposals than the foundation’s resources allow. This not only reflects the quality of our funding, but also shows that Finland could achieve even broader impact through collaboration between research and business,” says Petro Poutanen, CEO of FRIF.
Collaboration across five universities and six companies
The funded research groups are based at the University of Helsinki, University of Oulu, Tampere University, University of Turku and Aalto University. Partner companies include Bittium, DNA Plc, Hidex Ltd, Liquidsun, Nokia Bell Labs and Valio, which contribute both research and development expertise as well as perspectives on the key issues in their fields.
Descriptions of all six projects can be found here →
