First HiLIFE Proof of Concept grants awarded

Helsinki Institute of Life Science awarded the first Proof of Concept Grants (HiPoC) in October. The total of € 212,000 was divided between six projects to accelerate utilization and commercialization of research findings and development of novel technologies.

"HiPoC grants are for projects relating to invention disclosures, patentability and commercialization questions. To our great pleasure we already received applications covering all three categories, and different domains of life science were also covered," says Pia Runeberg-Roos from HiLIFE.

HiPoC Grants can be applied by University of Helsinki life science researchers with a doctorate who consider or are already involved in an invention disclosure to Helsinki Innovation Services, or listed as inventors on a pending patent application owned by University of Helsinki.

"The HiPoC funding enables the research to be conducted for which I could not get funding from any other source. With this funding, we can solve important questions to plan the next steps of the project and to increase the value of the intellectual property of University of Helsinki," says Mikko Airavaara, one of the HiPoC Grant recipients. 

The first HiPoC Grants were awarded to following researchers and projects:

Mikko Airavaara, 39.280 euro

Vincenzo Cerullo, 50.000 euro
PeptiENV Personalized anti-cancer vaccine platform for clinically relevant therapeutic enveloped viruses

Andrii Domanskyi, 23.000 euro
Identifying Dicer-activating compounds for protection of dopaminergic neurons in Parkinson’s disease

Sami Heikkinen, 25.000 euro
The synthetic development and antibacterial screening of fluorinated-at-the-core next-generation oxazolidinone antibiotics

Fred Michon, 25.000 euro
Biomimetic tear film to enhance corneal regeneration

Heikki Rauvala, 50.000 euro
Chondroitin sulfate binding proteins as a novel approach in treatment of spinal cord injury

Each HiPoC grant can be up to 50 000 euros for a period not extending over a year. The call is ongoing and applications are submitted online. The next deadline for submission is on November 1.

For further information please visit the HiLIFE webpage, or contact Pia Runeberg-Roos at hilife-poc@helsinki.fi.