The Academy of Finland has awarded funding to Finnish universities from a special call for research addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and the mitigation of its effects. The special funding is earmarked for projects that are in progress and thereby able to rapidly redirect their research to produce information and solutions to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on society.
The University of Eastern Finland secured a total of 987,226 euros from the special call, with the overall funding available amounting to 8.45 million euros.
Academy Research Fellow Katja Kanninen secured 198,959 euros for a project studying the mechanisms of impact of the coronavirus in the human brain (project title: The olfactory mucosa: a key brain entry point of SARS-CoV-2).
Research Director Miia Kivipelto secured 200,00 euros for a project exploring how the virus spreads in the older population and how that spread could be prevented (project title: The World WideFINGERS (WW-FINGERS) Dementia Prevention Toolbox).
Professor Tiina Laatikainen secured 194,451 euros for a project that studies the treatment of patients with chronic diseases during the pandemic (project title: Improving the information base and optimizing service solutions to support social welfare and health care reform (IMPRO)).
Academy Professor Seppo Ylä-Herttuala secured 195,017 euros for the development of a vaccine against the coronavirus (project title: Development of intranasal vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 virus and evaluation of immune response in vivo).
Associate Professor Antti Haapala secured 198,799 euros for a project studying the behaviour of the coronavirus on various surfaces in the indoors and outdoors environment (project title: SARS-CoV-2 resilience and transmittance from solid material surfaces of built environment).
The University of Eastern Finland will join the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic with multidisciplinary research approaches and collaboration. The sub-projects will focus on health effects and care in SARS-CoV-2 infection, lifespan of SARS-CoV-2, its spread, stability and detection, and societal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Research is carried out both in national and international collaboration together with world-leading experts. Research will provide solutions on how to prevent SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks and how to diminish both health and societal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on a national and global scale.
For further information, please contact:
Academy Research Fellow Katja Kanninen, A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences https://uefconnect.uef.fi/henkilo/katja.kanninen/
Research Director Miia Kivipelto, Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition https://uefconnect.uef.fi/henkilo/miia.kivipelto/
Professor Tiina Laatikainen, Institute of Public Health, https://uefconnect.uef.fi/henkilo/tiina.laatikainen/
Academy Professor Seppo Ylä-Herttuala, A. I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences https://uefconnect.uef.fi/henkilo/seppo.yla-herttuala/
Associate Professor Antti Haapala, School of Forest Sciences, https://uefconnect.uef.fi/henkilo/antti.haapala/
