vaikuttavuussaatio

The Finnish Research Impact Foundation’s TIA Professor funding programme is being renewed and will continue from autumn 2026 under the name TIA Fellow.

TIA Fellow is designed for experienced, professor-level researchers who wish to carry out their own research project in collaboration with a company. The funding offers an opportunity to increase the impact of research, build new partnerships, and gain first-hand insight into industry-relevant research challenges.

The renewed model provides greater flexibility in the use of funding. The Fellow’s 12-month working period can be divided over a maximum of three years according to the needs of the research project.

The funding is intended for professors and associate professors at universities, as well as research professors and leading researchers at research institutes.

The TIA Fellow 2026 call opens on 1 September 2026.

Would you like to learn more? Join our information session on 1 September at 9:30 AM.

Further information

• Application Guidelines
• Call Announcement
• Registration for the Information Session

The project led by Pantelis Lioumis at Aalto University developed a working platform that connects real-time EEG measurement with brain stimulation. Carried out in collaboration with Bittium Biosignals and funded by the Finnish Research Impact Foundation, the project explored whether a patient’s own brain activity could be used to trigger brain stimulation for effective rehabilitation.

Project title: Brain–Computer Interface for Automated EEG-guided Brain Stimulation
Principal investigator of the project: Pantelis Lioumis, Aalto University
Project partners: Aalto University and Bittium Biosignals
FRIF funding awarded: €210,703

When a person wants to move their hand, the brain sends a signal through the nervous system. In a healthy body, the message reaches the muscles and movement follows. After a spinal cord or brain injury, the connection may be damaged or interrupted.

At Aalto University, researchers are studying how the connection between the brain and the body could be strengthened again. The Brain–Computer Interface for Automated EEG-guided Brain Stimulation project explored whether rehabilitation could be guided by the patient’s own brain activity.

“We want to facilitate rehabilitation strategies by using the patient’s own brain state to trigger brain stimulation. We believe this can make rehabilitation more efficient,” says Pantelis Lioumis, Adjunct Professor and Director of the TMS Laboratory at Aalto University and principal investigator of the project.

Rehabilitation guided by the brain itself

The project combines EEG measurement and transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS. EEG measures the electrical activity of the brain from the scalp. TMS uses magnetic pulses to stimulate specific areas of the brain.

The key idea is timing. Brain stimulation is not delivered randomly. Instead, the system measures what is happening in the brain and uses that information to decide when stimulation should be delivered.

This matters because the brain is more receptive at some moments than others. When a person imagines a movement, the neurons related to that movement become more active. If stimulation is delivered at the same time, the effect may be stronger.

Lioumis connects the idea to a well-known principle in neuroscience: neurons that fire together, wire together.

“We are in another era of brain stimulation. We do not just stimulate randomly. We use the brain state and try to stimulate at the correct time and at the correct spot,” Lioumis says.

The aim is that the patient would not only receive treatment, but actively take part in rehabilitation. Their own brain activity could help the system recognize when stimulation should be delivered.

“The rehabilitation will be facilitated. It can happen faster,” Lioumis explains.

Doctoral researcher Matilda Makkonen has worked closely on the project’s measurements and on the methods for processing EEG data in real time. In this kind of work, the system must recognize meaningful brain signals while filtering out noise.

“My role has been to conduct the measurements with healthy participants, design the experiments and work on the software development related to them,” Makkonen says.

The project has now produced a functioning platform. The next step is to use it in scientific experiments and compare different conditions to understand how well the approach works.

“We have the platform. The whole thing is working, and now we are doing the research to understand how well it works,” Lioumis says.

Bittium’s technology made real-time stimulation possible

The company partner in the project was Bittium Biosignals, part of Bittium Group. Bittium Biosignals develops medical and health technology devices, including EEG systems, ECG measurement devices and home sleep apnea testing solutions.

Bittium’s role was linked to its NeurOne EEG system, which is designed for research use. The system enables measured EEG data to be sent out immediately, making it possible to analyze brain activity in real time.

“Bittium has very good hardware and software for analyzing what is happening in the brain in real time. Not many EEG companies in the world do that,” Lioumis says.

The collaboration began naturally. Aalto University and Bittium had already worked together in different ways for almost ten years, and Aalto researchers had used Bittium’s equipment in their research. When Lioumis saw the Finnish Research Impact Foundation’s funding call, Bittium was the obvious partner.

According to Simo-Pekka Simonaho, Product Manager for Neuro products at Bittium Biosignals, Aalto University wanted to be at the leading edge of brain-state-dependent stimulation, where decisions about stimulation are made based on measured brain activity.

“At Aalto University, the researchers wanted to be at the leading edge of this kind of research. And they really are,” Simonaho says.

Collaboration turned a feature into a research tool

In practice, the collaboration meant close dialogue between Aalto University and Bittium. The researchers explained what they wanted to do, and Bittium helped them understand how the equipment could best support their aims.

“Our devices allow many different settings to be adjusted. The researchers told us what they wanted to achieve, and I explained the different ways it could be done. That is how we built it together,” Simonaho says.

Bittium also opened up technical details that would not normally be explained to customers in the same depth. This helped the researchers understand how the system could be used in this specific research setting.

According to Lioumis, Bittium’s support helped the researchers avoid unnecessary detours.

“They helped us facilitate our thoughts. We did not need to reinvent the cycle,” he says.

The collaboration also produced open-access software scripts that can be used for reading and analyzing real-time EEG data. For Bittium, this gives the company something practical to share with other customers who want to explore similar applications.

“We can now tell customers: this is one way to start testing it,” Simonaho says.

For Bittium, the project also offered visibility in the international research community. The NeurOne EEG system has been presented in connection with Aalto University’s research at conferences, where researchers have shown what they are doing and what kind of equipment they are using.

“The best kind of visibility for us is that researchers use our system in state-of-the-art work,” Simonaho says.

The project gave both sides something valuable. The researchers gained a platform for new experiments. Bittium gained feedback, visibility and a concrete example of how its EEG technology can be used in advanced brain stimulation research.

“It is a win-win,” Lioumis says.

A step toward more individualized rehabilitation

The broader potential of the project lies in more individualized and automated rehabilitation. Instead of delivering the same stimulation in the same way to every patient, future systems could adapt to the person’s own brain activity.

The platform developed in the project can also be applied to other research questions, including cognitive tasks and different forms of mental imagery. For Lioumis, this means the project is not an endpoint but a starting point.

“This kind of funding and this kind of project is a start. You start, and then it opens up,” he says.

The work continues after the funded project. The researchers are planning further studies to compare traditional rehabilitation approaches with the new brain-state-guided approach.

Lioumis also sees a wider role for companies in bringing complex research closer to practical use.

“Research is often quite complex, but companies have the tools to make it simpler for practical use,” he says.

The project is a good example of why collaboration between researchers and companies matters. The Aalto University researchers had an idea for stimulation guided by the patient’s own brain activity, and Bittium brought in the technology needed to test it in practice.

The work is still at the research stage. But the project has taken an important step toward therapeutic devices that do not only stimulate the brain, but respond to the patient’s own brain activity.

The Board of the Finnish Research Impact Foundation (FRIF) has welcomed four new members at the beginning of 2026. They bring with them diverse experience from research, industry, and the development of research-based innovations.

In the interviews, the new Board members share their perspectives on research impact and the opportunities in research–industry collaboration.

Manja Ahola, Head of Device Processes for Medical Devices and Combination Products at Bayer, highlights the importance of collaboration between research and companies, particularly in the fields of health and pharmaceutical research.

Read the interview →

Ismo Kauppinen, CEO and founder of Gasera Oy brings to the Board extensive experience in research-based entrepreneurship and the commercialisation of technology.

Read the interview →

Jouko Lampinen, Dean of the School of Science at Aalto University, emphasises the importance of long-term basic research in building sustainable research impact.

Read the interview →

Anu Kaukovirta, Vice President of the Production Systems unit at the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), brings to the Board expertise in research on sustainable production systems and the use of natural resources.

Read the interview →

In European research and innovation policy, a balance is currently being sought between investing in cutting-edge technologies and promoting human-centered development. Developing socially sustainable solutions requires a stronger role for the social sciences and humanities already in the early stages of RDI processes, not only after technological solutions have been completed.

There is a clear need to strengthen the position of the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in European research and innovation programmes. This was discussed in December 2025 at the Human Values and Grand Challenges conference organized during Denmark’s EU Presidency. The event, arranged by Danish universities and the European Commission, brought together researchers, representatives of universities and research organizations, funders, and decision-makers from across Europe.

A key concern raised at the conference was that research funding is increasingly directed toward investments in cutting-edge technologies, seen as necessary for strengthening global competitiveness and addressing major societal challenges. The social sciences and humanities risk receiving decreasing attention in funding priorities.

To ensure that research and development take a socially and ecologically sustainable direction, SSH should be involved from the outset in defining and solving societally significant problems.

The President of the European Research Council, Maria Leptin, reminded the audience that few societal challenges are fundamentally technical in nature. For example, the development of artificial intelligence has raised fundamental questions about responsibility, justice, and privacy. Mitigating climate change and biodiversity loss, in turn, requires understanding human behavior and the functioning of political systems. Fields such as ethics, sociology, law, and history provide essential insights into these issues.

Denmark’s Minister for Higher Education and Science, Christina Egelund, emphasized the importance of understanding what kind of society we want technologies to build and serve. Social sciences and humanities play a central role in creating this understanding. Taking a human-centered approach as the starting point for development gives Europe a competitive advantage: it safeguards European values such as freedom, democracy, and social justice, and strengthens societal stability and resilience.

Too often, the SSH are included in research and development projects only at a late stage, to provide ethical and societal perspectives on interpreting research results. Leptin stressed that SSH should help define challenges and envision desired solutions already at the beginning of the RDI process.

The role of social sciences and humanities is recognized nationally

Developing socially and ecologically sustainable solutions requires a multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral approach. This creates better conditions for research and innovation to support European values, advance social equality, and strengthen ecological sustainability.

The concern raised at EU level about increasingly technology-driven research funding has been acknowledged also in the Strategic Choices for National RDI Policy and Activities framework in Finland, the implementation of which began in early 2026.

The plan of the Research and Innovation Council highlights the new and unexpected combinations enabled by interdisciplinarity and explicitly recognizes the central role of the humanities, social sciences, and creative fields in the sustainability transition, in the development and deployment of technologies and innovations, and in strengthening resilience and societal security.

The Finnish Research Impact Foundation supports this policy direction in concrete ways. In 2025, we launched the TIA Connect programme, in which SSH researchers and companies jointly define research problems and approaches to addressing them. The research topics have included societal resilience, social equality, consumer behavior, privacy protection, and the circular economy.

Research funders play a key role in strengthening the position of SSH in research and innovation activities. This requires structures that support joint problem definition and the co-creation of solutions.

Dr. Manja Ahola has built a career of over 25 years in pharmaceutical research and development. A biochemist working at Bayer, she brings strong industry insight and deep expertise in health and pharmaceutical development, as well as research-based collaboration, to the Board of the Finnish Research Impact Foundation (FRIF).

Could you briefly introduce yourself and tell us about your career path?

“I’m a biochemist and completed my doctoral degree at the University of Turku in the field of drug delivery and biomaterials. I have worked at Bayer for over 25 years, mainly in research and development. Women’s health has been at the core of my career, and I have been involved in developing long-acting reversible contraceptives that are now in production and used globally.

In recent years, my role has increasingly focused on leadership and supporting production, but research-driven thinking and development remain strongly present in my work. I have been motivated by the fact that the impact of my work is tangible and, at its best, visible in women’s wellbeing worldwide.”

What inspired you to join the Board of FRIF?

“The mission of FRIF resonates strongly with me. Bringing academia and industry closer together is extremely important, and the Foundation plays a valuable role in this. In my own work, I have seen how much added value is created when researchers and companies better understand each other’s needs and ways of working.

I also find it important that researchers gain insight into how development work is carried out in companies, while companies gain direct access to cutting-edge research. This interaction benefits both sides and lays the groundwork for impactful innovations.”

How do you see the role of FRIF in the Finnish research and innovation system?

“I see the Foundation’s role as highly significant. FRIF enables research-driven collaboration between academia and industry in a way that lowers the threshold for engaging in bolder and more uncertain initiatives. Not all research ideas would be possible to pursue if companies had to finance them alone.

From a company’s perspective, it is valuable that research topics can be defined together with academic partners in a way that is meaningful for both parties. In addition, when a researcher works part of their time within a company, the collaboration becomes genuinely close and impactful. The researcher gains insight into industry practices while bringing research-based thinking into the company.”

Where do you see FRIF creating the greatest added value in the coming years?

“Health and pharmaceutical development are clear areas where Finland has strong expertise and potential. Themes related to the green transition and climate change are also highly important. In addition, I would like to highlight the role of the social sciences and humanities.

Companies continuously face challenges related to organisational wellbeing, collaboration and adaptability. Research, including the humanities, has much to offer in addressing these issues, and it is encouraging that the Foundation recognises this.

One topic that is personally important to me is research in women’s health. Globally, it still receives too little investment, even though its impact on the wellbeing of women, families and society at large is significant.”

Looking ahead, what do you hope to achieve during your term on the Board?

“I hope that during my term we will see new, genuinely impactful collaborative projects that have long-term significance for Finnish society. The effects may not always be visible immediately, but their value builds over time.

I also look forward to learning and to engaging in in-depth discussions with experts from different fields. It is inspiring to bring my background in health and pharmaceutical development into the Foundation’s work and to contribute to strengthening research-based collaboration.”