Supported research infrastructures

The research infrastructures supported with RRF funding were selected in funding calls for national research infrastructures in 2021 and local research infrastructures in 2022. Below are links to press releases as well as a complete list of supported projects.

Aalto Ice Tank

The Aalto Ice and Wave Tank is a 40m x 40m water basin equipped to produce sea ice and waves in model scale. Due to global warming, the interest in the arctic is high. The tank is used to study ships and structures, including offshore wind turbines, under loads due to ice and waves. The tank is also used to study ice mechanics, icing, and wave-structure-ice interaction. The infrastructure is unique. Typically, ice tanks are long and narrow while wave tanks are wide. The Aalto Ice and Wave Tank is the only wide basin in the world that allows tests with both ice and waves. The basin is multifunctional, and can be used for open water tests also. In addition to Aalto and our collaborators, the basin is used by students and industrial partners.

  • Principal investigator: Professor Jukka Tuhkuri
  • Aalto University
  • Project website

Autonomous measurement platforms for environmental data

Today, there is an increasing need to perform environmental measurements in the field, either using autonomous measurement systems or portable devices. Their advantage is e.g. the possibility of real-time monitoring of the environment and rapid response to problem situations. However, the use of devices for official monitoring is not yet widely accepted, as there are often unresolved problems with the quality of the data they produce. To address these shortcomings and promote the uptake of product innovations, a metrology research infrastructure is proposed to promote the acceptance and quality of new autonomous measurement systems for various environmental measurements. The project will develop and centralize the Finnish Environment Institute SYKE's mechatronics research infrastructure in Joensuu to better support the current and future needs of environmental researchers, authorities, companies and other stakeholders in the application of autonomous measurement platforms.

  • Principal investigator: Development Manager Teemu Näykki
  • Finnish Environment Institute
  • Project website

Bio and Circular Economy infrastructure

Bio and Circular Economy (BIC) subunit at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (ENS) at Tampere University (TAU) consists of research groups of environmental engineering, Energy and Biorefining, and Synthetic Biology. Our vision is to build a cleaner and safer future for the benefit of people and the environment, and to conserve the limited resources of raw materials. In the infrastructure project, we aim to develop and establish a new BIC-FIRI Hub, which enables holistic approach for the valorisation of different waste streams. BIC-FIRI Hub infrastructure consists of four platforms: microbiome analysis, biomass biorefinery, analytical equipment, and digitalisation. With the upgraded infrastructure, we can provide new services and establish strong connection with local stakeholders by filling analytical gaps in value chains, integrating leading-edge research with applications, and educate new experts for local needs.

  • Principal investigator: Associate Professor Ville Santala
  • Tampere University
  • Project website

BioLab

The University of Eastern Finland and the Geological Survey of Finland carry out high-level research that supports the green transition towards a carbon-neutral and biodiversity-supporting Finland. The new biosphere laboratory brings together research on the carbon cycle and plant stress of northern ecosystems. Its aim is to promote the bioeconomy, which is especially important in Eastern Finland, and to support the adaptation of agriculture and forestry to climate change. The Biosphere Laboratory consists of three modules:

  1. An experimental laboratory that is located on the university campus and enables experimental research in controlled conditions
  2. A mobile field measurement laboratory that enables a broad spatial dimension of the research and rapid reaction to disturbances such as forest fires and insect damage
  3. A data management module that supports efficient data transfer, storage, and research visualization.
  • Principal investigator: Professor Eeva-Stiina Tuittila
  • University of Eastern Finland and the Geological Survey
    of Finland

CRYO-RI

Snow and ice condition are changing rapidly due to the changing climate, which poses challenges to the Northern Finland natural and built environment. Past predictions and governance will need to be adjusted, which requires high-quality monitoring data. The current

infrastructure for regional snow and ice monitoring needs to be updated and harmonized to meet these needs.

CRYO-RI addresses this challenge by launching regional snow and ice monitoring networks, developing both low cost and stateof-the-art measurement stations, developing new measurements based on emerging technologies, increasing the regional capability to analyze and monitor geomaterial properties subject to freeze and thaw and providing a data sharing platform to allow fast and easy access to the CRYO-RI data for all users. The CRYO-RI platform is maintained and operated in a regional collaboration between the University of Oulu and three regionally important research institutes (GSF, SYKE, FMI).

  • Principal investigator: Associate Professor Pertti Ala-aho
  • University of Oulu, Geological Survey of Finland, Finnish Environment Institute and the Finnish Meteorological Institute
  • Project website

Digital electrification infrastructure

The digital electrification infrastructure consists of three essential elements: systems, digitalization solutions and data. Systems consists of electrification areas and the control and management systems of those. The most essential areas are the mobile working machines and the energy communities (microgrids) consisting of several power electronic converters. Each system has internal structures, but they create a system of systems via digitalization systems, electricity grid and markets. Digitalization solution part of the infrastructure includes sensors and measurement devices, communication and information exchange systems that are needed to control, monitor and optimize the systems’ operations, realize services and capabilities via digitalization and securing the performance of electricity and electrified systems as a whole. Data element is creating a platform for the infrastructure to store and share data, ensuring continuity of data access and methods to express metadata.

  • Principal investigator: Professor Sami Repo
  • Tampere University

Digital high-speed electromechanical energy conversion research infrastructure for data-driven informatics environment

High-speed (HS) electromechanical conversion (EC) technology has proven to be a feasible solution to reducing energy use and emissions in the industrial sectors. High rotational speeds are beneficial for improving the energy efficiency and reducing the cost of EC systems. Meanwhile, realizing these benefits presently is challenging because existing modelling and design practices are not fully capable to account for the physical effects arising at high operational speeds. DIGI-REINFORCE offers the physical and virtual test platforms where next-level data-driven research is conducted and next-gen HSEC technologies are validated. The infrastructure is to facilitate the development of HS electrical machines operating in the megawatts power range by providing the facilities, access to data, technological know-how, and services required for knowledge base development and design validation. It will also promote growth and internationalization of the regional RDI clean-tech ecosystem.

  • Principal investigator: Professor Jussi Sopanen
  • LUT University
  • Project website

FIN-CLARIAH

FIN-CLARIAH is a research infrastructure for Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) comprising two components, FIN-CLARIN and DARIAH-FI. In the current project, FIN-CLARIAH seeks to significantly broaden the scope of SSH infrastructural support into three major directions: first, to reach beyond processing of spoken standard Finnish into processing everyday speech; and second, to cater to a broad range of SSH research needs for processing unstructured text; and third, to facilitate research based on metadata. While FINCLARIN continues to break new ground in supporting research based on language data, DARIAH-FI will develop infrastructure for big, heterogeneous datasets for research in the humanities and social sciences. An important additional aim of the current project is for the two components to share and consolidate best common practices for the management and negotiation of deposition and access rights to data, tools and services as well as their hosting and documentation.

  • Principal investigator: Research Director Krister Lindén
  • University of Helsinki, CSC – IT Center for Science, Tampere University, University of Turku, University of Jyväskylä, University of Eastern Finland and Aalto University
  • Project website

FINMARI

The Finnish Marine Research Infrastructure (FINMARI) combines all major partners (SYKE, FMI, GTK, Luke, Universities of Helsinki, Turku and Åbo Akademi) of the Finnish marine research community. It is a distributed infrastructure network of field stations, research vessels, laboratory facilities, ferryboxes, fixed measurement platforms and buoys.

FINMARI provides access to observational and experimental Finnish marine research facilities. Our joint infrastructure development plan is based on addressing the multiscale variability of the marine environment by integrating the complementary areas of research expertise of each partner. As FINMARI now advances to the implementation phase, this FIRI2021 project aims at filling the remaining gaps in the present research infrastructure as well as maturing digitalization and Open Access to data and services. FINMARI will concentrate on biodiversity loss and climate change research and will act as a link between science and policy makers.

  • Principal investigator: Research Professor Maiju Lehtiniemi
  • Finnish Environment Institute, University of Helsinki, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Geological Survey of Finland, University of Turku, Åbo Akademi University and the Natural Resources Institute Finland
  • Project website

FINTIMS

Stable and radiogenic heavy isotopes (e.g., Sr, Nd, Pb, U) allow fingerprinting human, geological and environmental materials (e.g., archaeological finds, food, fuels, plastics, precious metals, waste, water) and their timeline ranging from several millions to tens of thousands of years and to Anthropocene. The elemental cycles within solid Earth, hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere lay foundation to circular economy and carry strong societal importance, e.g. from groundwater monitoring to recycling at waste/mining sites. FINTIMS improves the national and Nordic scientific landscape by establishing a high-precision heavy isotope mass spectrometric and metal-free clean room preparation facility for low abundance isotopes. In improving the sensitivity and precision of heavy isotope analysis, new low-concentration tracer materials are becoming available and new interdisciplinary research and collaborative projects are advanced in the framework of FINTIMS throughout the society.

  • Principal investigator: Professor Christoph Beier
  • University of Helsinki, Finnish Food Authority, Natural Resources Institute Finland and the Geological Survey of Finland
  • Project website

FiQCI

Quantum computers can dramatically increase the impact of research, by enabling solutions to problems that will forever stay intractable using conventional computing. Quantum computing is expected to impact practically all areas of research. Some of the most pressing challenges of our society, from accurate modelling of complex weather systems, via optimisation of resource usage, to development of novel, sustainable materials can be tackled with unprecedented vigour. To harness the full potential of this quantum revolution, quantum computers need tailor-made algorithms and software that take advantage of quantum physical phenomena like superposition and entanglement. To catalyse the uptake of quantum computing and quantum software development, access to a mature quantum computing infrastructure is crucial. The Finnish Quantum Computing Infrastructure (FiQCI) will provide an open-access platform for quantum computing, serving the entire national research and development scene.

  • Principal investigator: Research Professor Mika Prunnila
  • VTT, Aalto University and CSC – IT Center for Science
  • Project website

Flow cytometry unit

Flow cytometry allows the characterisation of particles such as cells from animals and plants, all types of microorganisms or other materials such as plastics. It can identify thousands of individual particles in a few seconds and, based on its measurements, sort different populations to be used in other applications. Given its flexibility, this technique is used by researchers in all fields of biological and biomedical sciences. The flow cytometry unit at the University of Helsinki offers access to equipment and know-how in this technique to users from our university, research institutes, hospitals and companies in the Helsinki region. In this project, we aim to provide a better and greener service to our users by replacing our old instruments by modern machines. These machines are more energy efficient and equipped with novel features, allowing our users to do better research on important issues, from impacts of climate change to understanding and treating diseases.

  • Principal investigator: University Lecturer Nina Peitsaro
  • University of Helsinki
  • Project website

FOODNUTRI

FOODNUTRI will contribute to achieving the global strategic aims included in EUs FOOD 2030 policy and reflected in the Finnish government’s vision (Ruoka 2030): “In 2030, Finnish consumers eat tasty, healthy and safe Finnish food that has been produced sustainably and ethically. The consumers have the ability and the possibility to make conscious choices.” FOODNUTRI will combine research expertise and facilities from the key Finnish organizations to form an internationally recognized top-level RI. FOODNUTRI aims to upgrade domestic raw materials and side streams using innovative food processing and packaging technologies and to provide information on food characteristics, structure and safety, physiological responses to food, consumer acceptance, food consumption and nutrient intake, and on sustainability of food choices. The services are targeted for researchers, food business operators, authorities, health professional, farmers, and for other interested stakeholders.

  • Principal investigator: Professor Marina Heinonen
  • University of Helsinki, University of Turku, University of Eastern Finland, VTT, Natural Resources Institute Finland, Finnish Food Authority, South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences – Xamk, Finnish Environment Institute and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare
  • Project website

Genome Center of Eastern Finland

The Genome Center of Eastern Finland was established in 2008 to lead the genetic research in human health and diseases at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF). This has significantly contributed to UEF’s current research excellence in human genetics and biomedical genomics. This plan brings the Genome Center services up to date by strengthening our sequencing capacity, automating sample workflow, broadening and streamlining our services, and developing our marketing strategy. These actions support green transition and promote digital transformation in personalized medicine. The renewal of our services will promote regional development through increased innovation potential and collaborations with e.g. Kuopio University Hospital (KUH), Biobank of the Eastern Finland, and local businesses. We believe that these actions will reinforce the UEF Genome Center to unleash our full potential in research excellence, clinical innovations, competence-based growth, and societal impact.

  • Principal investigator: Professor Mikko Hiltunen
  • University of Eastern Finland
  • Project website

GO!-RI

The GO!-RI project will release the NUVE-LAB's potential for the research of environmentally sustainable, autonomous commercial vehicles. Oulu University of Applied Sciences implements equipment needed to research and develop environmentally sustainable power sources and power trains. For electric vehicles, besides the energy supply via a battery and fuel cell, also the optimization of the powertrain is necessary. Additionally University of Oulu will complement the hardware infrastructure of the NUVE-LAB with softwareengineering related capabilities and digital twin creation and interoperability capabilities. These will enhance the agility and wide usability of the hardware capabilities towards easily configurable test settings, which will be also interoperable among different actors and machine elements on-site, as well as in interconnected scenarios with other labs in geographically distinct locations. This will enable digital design collaboration and shortens time to market.

  • Principal investigator: Head of Development Jukka Säkkinen
  • Oulu University of Applied Sciences and University of Oulu

H2MIRI

The transition to a hydrogen economy poses unprecedented challenges in the energy, raw materials and transportation industries. New hydrogen-based processes and applications need to be introduced in a very short time to meet climate goals. However, little is known about the interactions of hydrogen with materials such as steels, which are central to the functions of our society. Understanding the interactions is becoming increasingly important for the development and commercialization of reliable and safe hydrogen technologies. For example, in load-bearing structures, the embrittlement of materials caused by hydrogen can have catastrophic effects, and the use of hydrogen as a fuel does not produce the same lubricating film on engine surfaces as fossil fuels. H2MIRI's local infrastructures answer to these needs with powerful characterization techniques, strengthen the division of roles between the partners, and deepen know-how and enable the society to produce the information it needs.

  • Principal investigator: University Researcher Samuli Urpelainen
  • University of Oulu, VTT and Tampere University
  • Project website

HYDRO-RI

A competence center of the water sector for boreal and subarctic river and lake environments is needed. It will facilitate solving environmental issues (e.g. erosion, flooding, water quality) of these fragile environments. We will develop a HYDRO-RI-Platform including a pool of unique instruments for hydrological, hydraulic, morphodynamic and water quality measurements, with a variety of autonomous under- and above-water sensor platforms, a mobile field laboratory facility, and a data sharing platform to study essential scientific questions in present and future hydrology. The new research infrastructure with high-accuracy and -frequency data sets, and their efficient/real-time and open sharing, enable world-leading research, training new generations of scientists, and new services and business solutions within the water sector. These enable sustainable water resources management, decision-making, efficient knowledge transfer and future environmental assessment.

INAR RI

INAR RI is an umbrella RI, coordinating the distributed national nodes of European environmental research infrastructures (ICOS, ACTRIS, eLTER and AnaEE). INAR RI is benchmarking in the integration of multidisciplinary comprehensive environmental measurements with 30 stations, several laboratories and mobile units and two data infrastructures. This project shall upgrade the existing RI, build new INAR RI facilities and develop services e.g. related to data management and access provision to help the society to answer questions related to sustainability, climate change, and environment degradation. This project strongly supports the national goals of carbon neutrality by having a special focus on improving the RI for better quantifying carbon sinks and related climate effects.

  • Principal investigator: Professor Markku Kulmala
  • University of Helsinki, University of Eastern Finland, Tampere University, Natural Resources Institute Finland, University of Oulu, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finnish Environment Institute, University of Turku and CSC – IT Center for Science
  • Project website

LAWPOL

LAWPOL pools together political and legal documents and revolutionizes their research. A group led by University of Turku will develop the research infrastructure for the intersections of law and politics based on LAWRADAR (lakitutka.fi) and FINPARL. LAWPOL includes the entire life cycle of legislation. It comprises of policy documents laying the groundwork for legal reform; documents by the legislator, stakeholders, and experts; parliamentary documents; national and international court cases; research literature; and political agendas and manifestos. New research tools expedite and enhance the research of these documents, promoting unprecedentedly broad research on the interrelations between law and politics. LAWPOL is valuable for multiple disciplines, particularly for research on the law-politics interface. The project also improves the general public’s access to information – a fundamental right and cornerstone of democracy.

  • Principal investigator: Professor Anne Alvesalo-Kuusi
  • University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University
  • Project website

Life Science Data Competence Centre

Digitalization has become an essential part of life science research. Core facilities in, for example, genomics, proteomics, structural biology and microscopy are the largest data generators in life sciences. Recent technological developments have resulted in massive increases in the amount of data that must be analyzed, distributed and stored efficiently, while at the same time comply to sometimes conflicting requirements for data openness (FAIR principles, Open Data) and security (GDPR, Act for the Secondary Use of Healthcare Data). As a collaboration between the University of Helsinki IT center and life science core facilities, we propose to set up a Life Science Data Competence Centre (LSDCC) to deal with the critical gaps in core facility research data management. LSDCC will provide local data storage and processing solutions, as well as establish workflows for data management issues for all University of Helsinki LS core facilities.

  • Principal investigator: Researcher Lassi Paavolainen
  • University of Helsinki

Oulu 3D single particle analysis facility

The Oulu 3D Single Particle Analysis facility will be established at the Faculty of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, University of Oulu. The research infrastructure is based on already existing local instrumentation and expertise, which will be further strengthened by the purchase of a cryo-electron transmission microscope critical for structural studies of single particles. The facility will significantly enhance the efficiency of ongoing research activities in Oulu on a range of systems, including biological macromolecules and their complexes, lipid vesicles, membrane structures as well as natural and engineered nanoparticles. The infrastructure will facilitate new research collaborations between multiple faculties of the University of Oulu as well as with industries in the Oulu region. The infrastructure will have a significant impact on the University of Oulu research focus areas ‘Lifelong Health’ and ‘Sustainable Materials and Systems’.

  • Principal investigator: Professor Lari Lehtiö
  • University of Oulu

Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe

EuroHPC/PRACE Finland - access to world-class computing resources

High-Performance Computing has become a key enabling technology for all advanced economies. It increases the possibilities for scientific breakthroughs with immense societal impact, such as understanding climate change and advancing cancer research. The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking is establishing a world-class HPC ecosystem in Europe, acquiring leadership-class supercomputers, and deploying HPC services for science, industry and SMEs. One of the EuroHPC “pre-exascale” systems, named LUMI, will be located in Kajaani, Finland. LUMI will be one of the fastest and greenest supercomputers in the world. The EuroHPC/PRACE Finland is a virtual research infrastructure (RI) that brings the former PRACE Finland RI to the era of EuroHPC. EuroHPC/PRACE FI will help Finnish researchers to access state-of-the art computational and data resources for performing world-class science.

Photonics and Materials Research Infrastructure: Printable Luminescent Materials

Infrastructures are essential in the research and education in natural sciences such as physics and chemistry. The rationale of the Printable Luminescent Materials infrastructure (PRILUMAT) is to replace existing, out-of-the-date pieces of equipment and to get new research started on the 3D printing of tailored luminescent materials. The research will aim to various novel applications in lighting, luminescent solar concentrators, waveguide-based sensing, and switching in optical data transfer. These solutions will support both digitalization and green transition, the ultimate goals of Horizon Europe. Furthermore, the equipment and services enabled by them will be available for the local companies via the existing infrastructure organization of the University of Eastern Finland.

  • Principal investigator: Markku Kuittinen
  • University of Eastern Finland

Turku Immunology Centre

This project aims to promote immunological research in Turku by developing the infrastructure of the Turku Immunology Centre. The funding received will enable us to provide the latest research technology for the specific needs of immunology research and to increase immunological expertise and cooperation opportunities for pharmaceutical, life science and diagnostic companies. The new automated infrastructure emphasizes the objectives of the green and digital transition. The information generated through infrastructure can be used to mitigate climate change, improve human health and well-being, and prevent environmental pollution. More information can be found on the website of the Turku Immunology Centre:

  • Principal investigator: Sirpa Jalkanen
  • University of Turku
  • Project website

Turku Protein Core

Proteins are the building blocks of nature that have allowed life to develop. The study of proteins has made possible the development of numerous drugs to treat various illnesses. Proteins allow environmentally friendly production of fine chemicals and are key to unlocking the potential of bioenergy, both of which will play key roles in the transition to circular economy. Turku Protein Core is a joint undertaking by the University of Turku, Åbo Akademi University and Turku Bioscience to manage and improve research infrastructure essential to carry out high-quality protein research. The current facilities have been evaluated both externally and internally and we have identified several key areas for development. This application will allow hundreds of students, researchers and local industry to gain easy access to numerous state-of-the-art equipment that will greatly improve know-how in a field of science that will become increasingly important for our society in the future.

  • Principal investigator: Professor Mikko Metsä-Ketelä
  • University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University
  • Project website

Wild Animal Phenotyping

Knowledge of the morphology, physiology and behavior of organisms i.e. their phenotypes, is an important aspect of life science research across fields spanning conservation biology to medicine. It also contributes to improved forecasting of the resilience of populations and species to environmental changes. ‘Big data’ use is common in many research fields, but animal phenotype data collection lags behind due to its persisting manual, often non-digital, nature. This results in limitations for research, and also conservation and management. WildAP will fill a gap in the Finnish infrastructure landscape via coordinating state-of-the art phenotyping services, training and expertise for the entire Finnish research, conservation and management communities. WildAP brings added value via existing co-operations in several local regions, (Lammi, Evo, Lahti, Helsinki), and by supporting high quality research on animals in variable environments, WildAP directly supports green & digital transitions

  • Principal investigator: Professor Craig Primmer
  • University of Helsinki
  • Project website

WSTAR

Wasa Zero Emission Data Center (WSTAR) is an infrastructure enabling research on future climate-neutral data centers. As a part of the Technobothnia research infrastructure in Vaasa, the energy capital in Finland, it provides direct and near contacts to the energy industry.

Globally, data centers today use around 1% of the electrical energy; this is predicted to rise to 8–21% by 2030! As almost all energy consumed is offloaded as unused waste heat, the carbon footprint of data centers is huge if renewable energy sources are not used.

WSTAR enables research on how to completely change the energy model of data centers, and tight integration with the local energy system allows them to act as efficient electrical grid balancers in combination with renewable energy sources. Future mobile, local, and small-scale data centers, also enables effective edge-based installations, and provides research possibilities to fulfill EU guidelines of climate neutral data centers by 2030.

  • Principal investigator: Associate Professor Petri Välisuo
  • University of Vaasa, Åbo Akademi University, Vaasa University of Applied Sciences and Novia University of Applied Sciences
  • Project website

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