Services for Researchers

Applications for a principal investigator position are submitted through the Research Portal:

1. Go to https://tuhat.helsinki.fi
2. Select “Personal” from the menu.
3. Click “Edit profile” under the image.
4. Select “Principal investigator” from the sidebar.
5. Check the box “I would like to submit a Principal Investigator Application”.
6. Select “Faculty of Medicine”.
7. Type or paste the application text.
8. Click “Save” at the bottom of the page, which submits the application to the Faculty.
9. Send your CV and a list of publications as a single pdf file to mila.hyytinen@helsinki.fi

Applications for principal investigator positions are assessed by the dean of research or, at his or her request, the Research Council.

Further information
Senior advisor Mila Hyytinen, mila.hyytinen@helsinki.fi

The most significant national funding providers include the Research Council of Finland, several private foundations and Business Finland. 

Key foundations include

• The Allergy Research Foundation (in Finnish)
• Finska Läkaresällskapet (in Swedish)
• The Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation
• The Väre Foundation for Pediatric Cancer Research (in Finnish)
• Foundation for Pediatric Research (in Finnish)
• The Paulo Foundation
• The Sigrid Jusélius Foundation
• The Finnish Dental Society Apollonia
• The Finnish Cultural Foundation
• The Finnish Medical Foundation
• The Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research
• The Cancer Foundation

Some 30% of the Faculty’s external funding comes from international funding providers, the largest of which is the EU. An increasing number of Faculty researchers are part of international research projects funded through EU framework programmes. In addition, research projects funded by the European Commission's Directorate General for Health and Food Safety are currently operating at the Faculty. The Faculty has also received funding from the National Institute of Health in the US.

Key international foundations that fund researchers at the Meilahti Campus include NordForsk, which provides funding for Nordic research cooperation, the Association for International Cancer Research AICR and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation JDRF. Finally, pharmaceutical companies also provide international funding under international research agreements.

• European Research Council
• Horizon Europe
• The ResearchProfessional - (funding) database

The Faculty of Medicine engages in some research activities with the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) or other health service providers. In such research, the practices and guidelines of the partner organisation must be taken into account, and any necessary research agreements must be concluded with the cooperation partner. As HUS and the University of Helsinki are two separate legal persons, each is responsible for its own obligations.

The University of Helsinki is not a healthcare unit nor does it have patients. Patients are the responsibility of HUS, which is also the controller of the HUS patient data file. A research dataset constitutes its own research data file/dataset, and its controller must be determined separately; in other words, it is not the same as a patient data file (e.g., the HUS patient data file).

If you are conducting research on patients, you must request a statutory opinion from the relevant ethics committee of the hospital district and must obtain a research permit from the organisation in question.

The University of Helsinki does not provide patient care or conduct clinical drug trials. Consequently, the University has no insurance cover for pharmaceutical injuries. All intervention studies on patients are performed in a hospital district (e.g., HUS), and its legal counsels can also provide legal support related to such research, if necessary. In the case of commissioned research carried out at HUS (sponsored/commissioned by, for example, a pharmaceutical company), a research agreement must be concluded with Clinical Research Institute HUCH. Clinical Research Institute HUCH coordinates all commissioned HUS research as well as certain other research funding.  Some research involves the collection of data or measurement results from healthy volunteers for whom separate insurance cover is provided.

Further information: HUS guidelines for researchers (in Finnish)

HUS and the University of Helsinki cooperate closely, but as they are separate legal entities, they are only responsible for their own agreements and obligations. In other words, the University of Helsinki has no patients or patient data files. In order for patient data to be processed at the University, the required permits must be obtained, and the data can only be processed within the rights granted by the permits.

Personal data are defined as all data that can be directly or indirectly linked to a person. In other words, personal data can encompass more than just names, personal identity codes and phone numbers. Samples as such do not constitute personal data, but analyses based on samples are considered personal data if they can be linked to a person. Consequently, the processing of samples for research purposes almost always means that research datasets are, by nature, sensitive personal data. Read more about data protection and research in Flamma (requires identification with university account). 

All datasets containing sensitive data must be processed in accordance with certain statutory principles and obligations. The secure use of datasets is one of the requirements for receiving a favourable opinion on a research project from an ethics committee.  Compliance with legislation also secures the researcher’s position if, for any reason, data fall into the wrong hands. In accordance with data protection legislation, research subjects may prohibit the use of their data and receive information on how their data are used.

Where possible, the Faculty of Medicine provides researchers with a secure environment for the storage of data.

The University of Helsinki is strongly committed to the principles of open science and research and operates on the principle that research data are ‘as open as possible, as closed as necessary’. The University’s own guidelines, according to which research publications and research data produced at the University are, as a rule, made openly available, apply to all members of the University community. In addition, the University is committed to following various Finnish and international principles of open science. Read more about open science.

When making research publications and research data openly available, it is important that they do not contain any unnecessary personal data. For further information about providing open access to data that contain identifiers (requires identification with university account).

When making data openly available, particular attention must be paid to what information has been provided to the research subjects and what permits or consents you hold regarding the data. The transfer of data outside the EU is also subject to legislative restrictions. Particular care is required when transferring data that cannot be anonymised (e.g., genetic data or samples, especially those containing DNA). For example, if the relevant journal or cooperation partner requires you to upload your data to a specific database, this is not necessarily permitted by law, which is why you should discuss the matter with the journal or cooperation partner before taking any action. Often, the publication of metadata is sufficient. With regard to samples, it is recommended that data be transferred to a biobank if the research subjects have consented to this. If no such consent has been obtained, data can be transferred to a biobank by a specific public notification procedure or by retroactively gaining the research subjects’ consent. Further information can be obtained from biobanks. Secondarily, a material transfer agreement (MTA) must be concluded with the party receiving the samples.  

Before commencing a health science research project at the University of Helsinki Faculty of Medicine, the following permits and documents must be in order:

1. Research plan. Draw up a research plan. Read more in the instructions for planning a research project on Flamma (requires identification with university account). When planning a research project, the roles of all organisations involved should be identified, and you should establish whether the research can be implemented as planned (e.g., under which conditions you gain access to the data requested). Plan the research project carefully and, if necessary, contact the University’s support services while doing so. This will ensure that the research progresses smoothly. 
2. Data management plan. Plan the management of data. The Faculty of Medicine requires that a data management plan be drawn up for all research projects. When planning the management of data, you must describe how the general principles of data protection legislation are implemented, assess the risks, if any, posed to the data and the research subjects and, if necessary, perform a data protection impact assessment. 
3. Data protection statement. A data protection statement must be prepared for each University research project that targets individuals, and the statement must be sent to tietosuoja@helsinki.fi. You can find a template on Flamma (requires identification with university account). You can use the data protection statement to provide information to research subjects, and the statement also serves as the research documentation required by law. As a rule, the legal basis for processing personal data in University research is public interest. If you are planning commercial cooperation or the transfer of data outside the EEA, please read the instructions available on Flamma (requires identification with university account) and, if necessary, contact the legal counsels at Research Services.
4. Consent to participate and information sheet. If research subjects participate in the research project voluntarily (cf. registry studies), you must draw up information sheets and consent forms for the research subjects. Please note that the subjects’ consent to participate in medical research does not constitute consent for the processing of their personal data, but rather the legal basis for such processing remains public interest. Please also consider with whom the data should be shared (e.g., cooperation partners) and whether the data will be used at a later date.
5. Opinion by an ethics committee. Apply in advance for a favourable opinion from the relevant ethics committee (ethics committees).
6. Research and/or data permits. Obtain the necessary research and/or data permits. You must apply for a research permit from the organisation whose patient data or other data (e.g., samples) you intend to process in your research. The University of Helsinki does not have/use a research permit procedure, but this is a practice often used at hospital organisations. If you intend to use registry data in your research, you must gain permission for using the data in accordance with the Act on Secondary Use of Health and Social Data from Findata or an individual controller, as provided by law  (see Findata). Permission to use biobank samples must, in turn, be gained from the biobank whose samples you wish to process. 
7. Agreements. Negotiate on the necessary agreements and transfers of rights. Research agreements are drawn up with assistance from the legal counsels at the University’s Research Services. Further information (requires identification with university account).  
8. Make sure that the University or the relevant research group has the necessary insurance cover.