24.04.2012

FiDiPro projects promote renewal through high quality expertise

Tekes will fund seven international research projects within FiDiPro – the Finland Distinguished Professor Programme. The new FiDiPro researchers will work in the universities of Vaasa, Oulu and Tampere, the Tampere University of Technology and the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

The tasks of the FiDiPro projects include developing methods to avoid complications caused by laser eye surgery. The projects will also provide new expertise in the areas of health coaching, service innovations, organisation of industrial services, durability of concrete structures, intelligent identification and sensor platforms, and computer vision.

The portion of the project costs to be financed by Tekes is €6.1 million. The utilisation of the results and new expertise created in the projects to benefit business life is a central aspect of the FiDiPro projects.

Expertise also from Asian countries

"The topics of the projects are spread across the focus areas of Tekes strategy. We are pleased that this time the FiDiPro projects will provide Finland with new expertise also from Asian countries, namely China and Singapore," says Kari Komulainen, Director, International Network, Tekes.

"In the future, Tekes will shift to one FiDiPro application period per year. FiDiPro projects will always have a separate application period, and the projects usually represent research networked with business life," says Tekes expert Hanna Rantala.

So far, Tekes has funded 58 FiDiPro projects, through which 47 FiDiPro professors and 13 FiDiPro fellows have arrived or are arriving in Finland.

FiDiPro, the Finland Distinguished Professor Programme, is a joint funding programme of the Academy of Finland and Tekes, which provides Finnish universities and research institutes with the opportunity to recruit foreign or expatriate top researchers to work in Finland for a fixed period of time.

Further information:

Hanna Rantala, Senior Adviser
Tekes
Tel. +358 (0)10 605 5797
hanna.rantala(at)tekes.fi

Kari Komulainen, Director, International Network
Tekes
Tel. +358 (0)10 605 5842
kari.komulainen(at)tekes.fi

www.fidipro.fi
www.tekes.fi

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Descriptions of the new FiDiPro projects

FiDiPro Professor Roger W. Beuerman, Senior Scientific Director
Singapore Eye Research Institute, Singapore

Research project: Personalized Medicine: Biomarkers of Disease
Biomarkers of Disease FiDiPro-project targets to find reliable biomarkers for the health care in selected area to be used in the clinical praxis for the early detection of diseases or their risks as well as for follow-up, for targeting diagnostics to be used by most suitable technologies at a well controlled level in each case, for the individual tailoring of the most cost-effective treatment modalities and follow-up strategies for the individual patients. Reliable and sensitive biomarkers will furthermore enhance the research and development of new treatment options by making the non-clinical and clinical phases of the developmental process more quick, reliable and individual. This type of targeted diagnostic and therapeutic strategy is a key element in the personalized medicine. The expertise in the strategic competence area will also create a competitive edge for the participating companies and foundation for new entrepreneurship.
Finnish host organization and contact person: University of Tampere, Professor Hannu Uusitalo

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FiDiPro Professors Holly Jimison and Michael Pavel, Oregon Health and Science University, USA

Research project: Personalized Health Coaching
Chronic conditions cause over 70% of health care costs. Most chronic conditions could be avoided by healthy lifestyles i.e. through behavioural changes. Health coaching is an efficient way to promote behavioural changes. With escalating health care costs, it is important to focus on technologies which use minimal and less expensive personnel. Personal technologies when combined with innovative and appealing services, and when designed to consumers, support citizen in behavioural changes towards healthier lifestyles. The goal of this project is to combine the expertise from US and Finnish partners in developing multi-tiered health coaching solutions scalable to health coaching of clients ranging from healthy individuals with or without elevated risk factors (e.g. obesity) to chronically ill patients.
Finnish host organization and contact person: Tampere University of Technology, Professor Ilkka Korhonen

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FiDiPro Professor Angappa Gunasekaran, The Charlton College of Business, University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth, USA

Research project:  Organization and Supply Chain Management of Industrial Services
The project “Organization and Supply Chain Management of Industrial Services” studies the services of manufacturing companies in machine building business from organization and supply chain management point of view. The aim is to support the facilitation of industrial service innovations, e.g. new business models, earnings logics, operational and organizational forms that the new technology enables. Continuous remote presence on installations can enable new opportunities beyond diagnostics.
Finnish host organization and contact person: University of Vaasa, Profesor Petri Helo

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FiDiPro Professor Luis Rubalcaba, Departmet of Applied Economy, University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain

Research project: Service and social innovations - policy needs and potential impacts
SOPPI is a FiDiPro project carried out by VTT, SC-Research (University of Vaasa) and Visiting Professor Luis Rubalcaba from University of Alcalá, Madrid. It examines the nature and ways of developing service, social and system innovations. Three main goals are included: 1) improve understanding of the nature and relationships of service, social and system innovations, 2) develop methods and tools for the examination and management of these innovations and for the evaluation of their impacts, and 3) build up Finnish policy competences in harnessing the benefits of these innovations. The project carries out theoretical analysis and accumulates new empirical evidence. It includes modeling the social and system innovations, case studies and utilization of statistical sources, and policy analysis. Case studies will cover both Finland and a number of other countries.
The results will be applicable at different levels in service policy and in individual companies and public organizations, which will get many types of benchmarking data for example. The project increases synergies between the EU-based knowledge on service innovation and the Finnish research on the same topics, and aims to result in relevant policy implications. Together the parties and the FiDiPro professor will significantly strengthen Finnish service researchers’ networks and linkages with the European service research community. The project also aims to foster the collaboration between the Finnish service research groups and promote the lead role of Finland in some areas of service innovation research.
Finnish host organization and contact person:  VTT Technical Research Centre, Professor Marja Toivonen

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FiDiPro Fellow Rui Miguel Ferreira, University of Minho, Portugal

Research project: Concrete Service Life Assessment: modelling frost attack degradation in the presence of chlorides
A new research field is appearing focused on the combined effect of degradation mechanism on the durability of reinforced concrete structures. While currently most of the research is directed at combined carbonation and chloride penetration, recently little attention has been given to emulate combined degradation conditions, especially those existing in Nordic countries (frost-chlorides), with regards to the harsh environmental conditions. Research has shown there to be a synergetic effect, but inadequate steps have been taken to characterize and comprehend the mechanisms involved, and to develop a procedure to make it possible to transfer this knowledge to the industry and into practice.
This project is in line with research strategies to minimize natural resource consumption (basic constituents for concrete) and construction waste, and extend service life of construction products, reducing the CO2 footprint of the construction sector and thereby contributing to the sustainability of the construction industry. This project will interest organizations and companies involved directly and indirectly in the Finnish concrete construction industry.
Finnish host organization and contact person: VTT Technical Research Centre, Technology Manager Aino Helle

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FiDiPro Professor Manos M. Tentzeris, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

Research project:  Models and Methods for Advanced Intelligent Wireless Platforms Utilizing RFID Technologies
Wireless identification and sensing systems are emerging in everyday use and the demand for ubiquitous automatic cognition and wireless sensing is growing rapidly. For example, passive sensors are critical and highly desirable in remote sensing platforms, where long term environment controlling and monitoring take place. Some important features for the design of these sensors are that the sensor is wireless, battery-less, compact and easy to integrate with other wireless passive sensors since multi-physical sensing is required for complete environmental monitoring. In addition, the growth of biosensors and health-related monitoring devices has accentuated the need for miniaturized, high-efficiency conformal materials that can operate over a wide range of frequencies, while they can be integrated in wearable and lightweight configurations. Moreover, identification and monitoring of objects are needed in various supply chains and everyday logistics. Requirements in life cycle management (LCM) of different products have increased rapidly. For example, in the field of consumer electronics it is important to be able to monitor and manage the life cycle of products all the way from manufacturing to recycling. This project aims at creating novel intelligent wireless identification and sensing platforms utilizing RFID technologies by developing novel antenna structures, studying advanced materials for antennas and sensors and developing novel sensing techniques, exploring and developing wireless energy scavenging techniques and developing novel microchips and sensor components.
Finnish host organization and contact person: Tampere University of Technology, Professor Lauri Sydänheimo

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FiDiPro Professor Xilin Chen, Institute of Computing Technology (ICT), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China

Research project: Perceptual interfaces for intelligent human-computer interaction
The objective of this project is to investigate novel computer vision based perceptual methods and technology needed for building advanced systems for human-computer interaction (HCI), and to demonstrate their applicability in application scenarios dealing with multimodal HCI. The technologies include awareness of user’s identification, status and intention. We will combine visual, depth and speech modalities to improve user experience. The proposed project will combine the complementary expertise of the leading computer vision research groups in Finland and China. The proposed project is expected to provide novel scientific results and technologies, which create basis for innovative applications in industry.
Finnish host organization and contact person:  University of Oulu, Professor Matti Pietikäinen
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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