Biomedicum Helsinki Foundation Grants

APPLICATION PERIOD 2025: 2.5-30.5.2025

The Biomedicum Helsinki Foundation supports high-quality research in clinical medicine and university level research in health sciences. In order to be eligable, applicants need to be affiliated with the University of Helsinki or Helsinki University Hospital.

The Foundation has supported especially young scientists at a total level of about 200 000 €/year. The grants are awarded at the Biomedicum Helsinki Day event in the fall. Grants may also be awarded from the following specific funds within the Foundation: Borreliosis Fund, Timo Lehtonen Urology fund, Brain Cancer Fund, Marketta Helenius Fund for Health Sciences, Cardiovascular Fund, Neurological and Cerebrovascular Disorder Fund or from the Cancer and Cell Based Cancer Research Fund.

NEW FOR THE YEAR 2025: The Borreliosis Fund at Biomedicum Helsinki Foundation supports research of Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases and their symptoms. For the call of 2025 The Foundation has decided to extend the scope of the Borreliosis Fund to include medical research of other zoonoses as well.

Zoonoses are diseases that are transmitted between humans and animals and organisms. Climate-related changes are estimated to affect the prevalence of several zoonoses in Finland. Climate change will affect the distribution of disease-carrying animals, periods of activity, population size, and the efficiency of species and site-to-site transmission of pathogens through warming and increased precipitation, among other things. There is a possibility of new zoonoses spreading to Finland as well.

Vector-borne diseases are bacterial, viral and parasitic diseases. They are transmitted to humans through a vector organism, for example when an infected mosquito bites or a tick bites. In Finland, the most important vector-borne diseases are Lyme borreliosis and tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), which are transmitted by ticks. The mosquito-borne diseases of public health importance in Finland are pogostan and tularaemia.

The Fund supports medical research on zoonoses, including research on the zoonotic nature of infections, species transmission and the genetic changes required, but does not support research on food hygiene.

In order to apply from a specific fund, please choose the fund of your choice on the second page in the grant system when making your application.

APPLYING

The application period for 2025 will be 2.5-30.5.2025.

Applications are made in our grant system, where registrations can be made at any time.

The Foundation provides three types of grants:

1. Startup grants are intended to make it easier to take on a research project without having to commit to a career in research. The grantee can be e.g. an experienced clinician or a medical/dentistry/biology/data science student following up on a research project executed as part of their studies. The grant is 4 000 € and is not awarded more than once.

Required attachments in PDF format

Research plan (obligatory; max 2 pages, including references)
Curriculum vitae (obligatory; max 1 page)
List of publications (if available; max 10 publications)

2.Young Investigator grants are to support graduate students to work towards their doctoral degree. The grant is not for costs of the dissertation; the grant application will not be considered if the date of the dissertation is determined. The grant is either 6 000 € or 4 000 € based on the applications ranking. You can receive the Young Investigator grant twice.

Required attachments in PDF format

Research plan (obligatory; max 2 pages including references)
Curriculum vitae (obligatory; max 1 page)
List of publications (if available; max 10 publications)

3. Clinical Investigator Post-doctoral grants for post-doctoral training abroad. Eligible applicants have a doctoral degree and have specialized or are specializing in medicine. The grant is to cover primarily research expenses (salary & other costs) and is not to exceed 50 000 €.

Required attachments in PDF format:

Research plan (max 5 pages, including references)
Budget providing motivation for grant (salary, research costs, travel/meetings and possible other costs). Additional costs are mostly expected to be covered by salary.
Curriculum vitae (max 2 pages)
Acceptance letter from host, optimally containing motivation and the period the visit is planned for and possible host contribution to overall costs
List of publications starting with 10 most significant publications for this application during last five years

EVALUATION CRITERIA

Significance of the proposal with regard to medical and health sciences
The feasibility of the proposal in terms of the quality of the research environment, resources, and current status of project
Previous research merits of the applicant considering the career stage
Timeliness of the proposed work in regard to the grant period.
Relevance to key research fields and strengths of the University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital
Conflicts of interest of reviewers are determined according to the Academy of Finland

CONDITIONS

Young investigator grants are awarded as personal grants to support doctoral studies and be awarded at most twice to one recipient. The grants are to be used during the following year from the award, and the foundation requests a report within one year of the payment. The period the grant is used is determined in the application and involves costs for insurance if it extends over four months. The grant is payed in one batch.
Start-up grants are awarded to make it easier to take on a research project without having to commit to a career in research, and are not awarded more than once. The grants are to be used during the following year from the award. The period the grant is used is determined in the application and involves costs for insurance if it extends over four months. The grant is payed in one batch.
Clinical Investigator Post-doctoral grants are awarded to support post-doctoral training according to the application with possible adjustments by the Board. They are meant to support training primarily in the year following the award, and the grants are to be used within two years following year of award. The grant budget should take into account Mela insurance if the grantee is eiligible for the Finnish social security system. The grant is payed in one or two batches.
In accepting the grant the awardee commits to acknowleding the Biomedicum Helsinki Foundation grant as a funding source in publications relating to the research of the proposal and to providing a report within one month after the grant period.
The Foundation withholds the right to publish the name, affiliation, title, abstract, layman summay and size of grant of the funded applications.

More information:
saatio@biomedicum.fi