Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation has granted €8.3 million in funding to 12 initiatives in the fields of technology, art, and culture. The largest grants went to the University of Helsinki.
Atomic to nanoscale precision
The largest grant, €1,562,000, was awarded to Professor Konstantinos Sarakinos from the University of Helsinki for a physics research project: Nanoscale Design of Thin High-Entropy Alloy Films.
High entropy alloys (HEAs) are materials that contain more than four constituent elements at nearly equal concentrations; a feature that yields enhanced structural stability and performance superior to that of contemporary engineering alloys.
Yet, the unique features of HEAs can only be harnessed to their full extent if the positions of constituent atoms are tuned with atomic to nanoscale precision.
This is currently not possible, and this project seeks to address this challenge by combining cutting edge experiments with advanced computer simulations. The knowledge generated from the project will provide the scientific foundation for unlocking the full potential of HEAs for use in extreme conditions, including high mechanical and thermal loads, corrosive environments, and high radiation.
Creating new materials from vapor one atom at a time
The air pollution cocktail
Professor Hanna Vehkamäki and Professor Leena Järvi at the University of Helsinki was granted 1 171 000 € for a project Emerging chemical pathways in future urban air quality.
Significant efforts are directed to improve urban air quality, but due to the complexity of the air pollution cocktail, these often come with unexpected and unwelcome side effects. The proportinal share of organic particle formation is on the rise due to, among other factors, increasing emissions of organic aerosol precursors, from both biological sources, and household chemicals.
Vehkamäki and Järvi will uncover the future urban chemical cocktail by combining state-of-the-art molecular-level simulations on recently discovered aerosol-forming organic compounds, automated reaction mechanism generators, and high-resolution local scale air quality modelling. This will set a new standard for urban air quality studies. They will explore the changes caused by the ongoing inorganic-to-organic shift on key urban air quality parameters such as particle numbers, mass and size distributions, in selected case study cities.
The role of bacterial viruses in plant growth
Professor in Microbiology Ville-Petri Friman was granted 736 000 € for a project: Discovering the benefits of plant growth-promoting bacteriophages.
The plant root microbiome is vital for helping plants to grow and defend against pathogens. In this project, Friman with his team will investigate the role of bacterial viruses, or phages, in plant growth by focusing on three mechanisms.
First, they will study how the lysis of bacteria by phages affects the availability of nutrients for plant growth. Second, they will investigate if phages can enrich the relative proportion of plant growth-promoting bacteria in the rhizosphere. Finally, they will explore whether phages carry genes that enable bacteria to express plant growth-promoting traits. This information will be used to design plant growth-promoting phage transplants, opening new opportunities to develop phage applications that can improve food security and crop yields in a sustainable manner.
3D Printing Without Incisions - Direct Biomaterial Delivery into the Body
This round prominently featured young group leaders conducting high-level scientific research. Three such leaders received grants, together accounting for 24% of the round's total funding. Their research topics included aromatic hydrocarbons, protein foams, and ultrasound-guided 3D printing.
Post-Doctoral Researcher Peter Weber 's team at the University of Helsinki was granted €373,000 to develop a new ultrasound-based 3D printing method. This technique enables production without moving print heads or high temperatures, making it ideal for sensitive materials like biomaterials.
In the future, this could have major medical applications, such as printing biomaterials directly inside the body from the outside, avoiding surgery.
Many New Applicants Involved
"This round saw a particularly broad range of applications in the field of technology, with many new applicants from different career stages-both experienced and early-career researchers. Especially basic science projects stood out positively. The competition was tough, and many high-quality applications went unfunded," noted Hanna-Mari Peltomäki, the foundation's Secretary General.
