The University of Helsinki joins the Wellcome Leap Health Breakthrough Network

The new membership has started through signing a Master Academic Research Funding Agreement. The Wellcome Leap programs aim to create innovative scientific and technological breakthroughs in human health.

The University of Helsinki researchers can now apply for Wellcome Leap funded programs that aim to deliver breakthroughs in human health. The University has become a new member of the Wellcome Leap Health Breakthrough Network, which has over 22 participants representing over 150 000 researchers across six continents.

Wellcome Leap was founded by the Wellcome Trust in 2020 and is a US nonprofit organisation with an initial budget of 300 million dollars. Wellcome Leap funds programs that aim to create innovative scientific and technological breakthroughs in human health over the next 5-10 years.

Wellcome Leap programs are based on multi-disciplinary expertise and research, combining life sciences and engineering through bringing together top-notch international academic and research institutes, companies and nonprofit organisations, with the aim of solving global health challenges, such as cancer and infectious diseases. 

“We are excited about the opportunities that the Wellcome Leap Health Breakthrough Network offers to University of Helsinki researchers now,” says Juha Huiskonen, Director of the Institute of Biotechnology at HiLIFE.

“This is truly a bold funding instrument allowing research teams and companies to form international research programs, to tackle global health challenges and innovation gaps,” he adds.

Results at record speed

It can take years to finalise research funding agreements, which hampers cooperation between partners and the speed at which new innovations are born. The Wellcome Leap Health Breakthrough Network intends to deliver results at record speed. The network has come up with a first-of-its-kind Master Academic Research Funding Agreement.

This contract covers IP, ownership, and publication and is signed by all parties wanting to join the Wellcome Leap Health Breakthrough Network. Once signed, the partners are eligible for receiving funding for the Wellcome Leap programs and thereafter only need to negotiate the project plan and costs. This takes a matter of days instead of months or even years, allowing the funded partners to get directly to work on the development plans. 

 

Interested in applying? More information:

Amanda Paananen, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Team, University of Helsinki
amanda.paananen@helsinki.fi

 

Read more about the first Wellcome Leap funded project at the University of Helsinki.
The Wellcome Leap Health Breakthrough Network partners

Agency for Science, Technology and Research; California Institute of Technology; Carnegie Mellon University; Francis Crick Institute; Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; National University of Singapore; University of Auckland; University of California, Los Angeles; University of California San Diego; University of Cape Town; University of Dundee; University of Helsinki; University of Pittsburgh; University of São Paulo; University of Southern California; Uppsala University; Vanderbilt University; Virginia Tech; Wellcome Sanger Institute; Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering; and Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University