Academy of Finland grants Biocenter Finland 2.7 M€ for building and upgrading research infrastructures
Academy of Finland’s FIRI Calls are the major funding source for nationally important instrument investments to research infrastructures of all scientific and scholarly disciplines. Academy of Finland’s FIRI Committee published on 21 January 2020 its funding decisions on the FIRI2019 Call.
Biocenter Finland’s proposal of 2,7 M€ was fully funded. Together with the host universities’ share (30%), the total amount available for the BF Technology Platforms is 3,9 M€. This resource is targeted to the following BF Technology Platforms, operating in three of the six BF host universities (in brackets):
- BioImaging Platform: Focused ion-beam SEM for high-resolution 3D-modelling (UH)
- Genome-wide Methods Platform: PacBio Sequel II for single-molecule sequencing (UH)
- FinGMice Platform: Pipeline for mouse phenotyping (UO, UH, UTU)
- Proteomics Platform: Orbitrap Tribrid MS for spatial proteomics (UH)
- Single-cell Omics Platform: Nanostring GeoMXTM DSP (UH, UTU)
The BF technology services supporting frontier science are available to the entire Finnish research community in the Life Sciences and Biomedical Sciences, based on an open-access principle.
BF applies FIRI funding for the most needed technologies according to a strategic long-term investment plan. The choice of the funding target is based on consultation of the scientific community, and informed by assessment of the quality and needs of the Platforms carried out by BF’s international Scientific Advisor Board. The BF Technology Platforms coordinate their services nationally to enable specialization of the Platform’s Nodes and to support the host universities’ research profiling.
BF has been successful in FIRI funding calls for several years. The previously attracted resources strengthened genomics and viral vector production (FIRI2018), proteomics, metabolomics, and single-cell omics (FIRI2016) and light microscopy (FIRI2015). The next FIRI call will open in 2021.