Nearly 5 million euros for research in the sciences from the Research Council of Finland
The Faculty of Mathematics and Science from the University of Jyväskylä received a total of four Academy Projects and three Academy Research Fellows. The Faculty of Information Technology gained one new Academy Research Fellow.
- Funding from the Research Council of Finland is highly competitive, and in this competition, the University of Jyväskylä’s nearly five million euros in funding is a significant achievement. It reflects the high level of research done in both of our faculties, says Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Science from the University of Jyväskylä Timo Sajavaara.
The Research Council of Finland has selected 61 researchers in natural sciences and engineering research to receive Academy Research Fellowship funding. The RCF’s Scientific Council for Natural Sciences and Engineering also granted funding for 76 new Academy Projects, which involve a total of 103 subprojects. The Scientific Council’s total funding comes to some 41 million euros for Academy Research Fellowships and around 53 million euros for Academy Projects.
Academy Research Fellow funding supports high-quality research
The RCF’s Academy Research Fellowship funding is intended for early-career researchers on a fast career track who have formed international networks and who are conducting scientifically high-quality and high-impact research that contributes to scientific renewal.
Funded researchers:
Faculty of Information Technology: Anna-Maria Raita-Hakola, HSI-UNITED, 692 995 €
HSI-UNITED unites the fragmented field of hyperspectral imaging (HSI) into a coherent scientific foundation. HSI extends vision beyond the visible spectrum, enabling breakthroughs in medicine, environmental monitoring, and industry. The project builds a new computational basis by integrating representation learning, spectral world models, transfer learning, and federated learning, creating camera- and domain-agnostic models that learn the behaviour of light and matter without sharing raw data.
Department of Physics: Franziska Maria Maier, Doppler and Sympathetic Cooling for Ultra-High Precision Mass Measurements of Short-Lived Radioactive Ions (DopCool), 699 319 €
The project DopCool will develop a new method to measure the masses of short-lived radioactive ions with record-breaking precision. The resulting data will not only help test the foundations of modern physics but also enable more accurate dose calculations for cancer therapy using radionuclides. By pioneering this new technology for high-precision mass measurements, DopCool strengthens Finland's leading role in precision nuclear research and supports both fundamental science and practical applications.
Department of Physics: Mariia Fedkevych, Bridging Detector and Nuclear Physics for Next-Generation Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay with Slow Liquid Scintillators, 644 639 €
This project explores how new types of liquid materials can help reveal the fundamental nature of the neutrino. If neutrinos are their own antiparticles, they could explain why the Universe is made mostly of matter instead of antimatter. To test this, the project develops and studies “slow liquid scintillators,” special transparent liquids that emit light in two distinct flashes. The work combines computer simulations, laboratory studies, and nuclear-physics experiments at the University of Jyväskylä and partner laboratories in Italy and Germany. In addition to advancing neutrino research, the methods developed here may benefit medical imaging and radiation detection.
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Julian Weigt, Maximal functions and families of basic geometric objects, 699 841 €
Maximal operators are fundamental tools in various areas of analysis. The Hardy-Littlewood maximal operator is the most classical maximal operator, while the Kakeya maximal operator is the most prominent maximal operator in modern research in harmonic analysis due to its close connection to many important open conjectures. The project study such families in order to solve different recent problems in analysis, such as proving endpoint gradient bounds for Hardy-Littlewood maximal operators, and variants of the Lipschitz multilinear Kakeya inequality which also have consequences in geometric measure theory.
Academy projects strengthen international research collaboration
The aim of the RCF’s Academy Project Funding is to promote the regeneration and broad range of Finnish science and to improve the quality and scientific and other impact of research. The aim is to attain internationally as high a scientific standard of work as possible and to support scientific breakthroughs and top-tier international research collaboration.
Funded projects:
Department of Physics: Arttu Miettinen, BIODECWOOD: X-ray tomography assisted BIO-Hygrothermal Multiscale Modeling of Fungal DECay and Moisture Transport in WOOD, 493 756 €
Wood is an excellent sustainable building material that stores carbon and reduces construction emissions. However, moisture and fungal decay can limit its durability, making it difficult to predict how long wooden structures will last. BIODECWOOD develops new methods to understand and predict wood decay by combining experiments with computer simulations. The knowledge helps engineers design more durable timber buildings, supports standards development, and enables manufacturers to develop improved wood products.
Department of Physics: Janne Pakarinen, Monopole transitions in atomic nuclei, 542 121 €
In the atomic nucleus, the interplay between single-particle motion, collectivity, and pairing creates a rich tapestry of coexisting nuclear shapes and exotic excitations. To verify and understand shape coexistence, it is crucial to determine what drives nuclear deformation, the underlying structures of nuclear states associated with different shapes, and the roles of pairing, proton-neutron interaction, and configuration mixing in this picture. The scientific aim of this project to determine the lifetimes of nuclear states in neutron-deficient Pb nuclei that de-excite via monopole transitions and using these measurements both to test current density functional theory (DFT) models and as an input for the develop-ment of next-generation DFT models.
Department of Chemistry: Jani Moilanen, 3D-Printed Molecular Thermometers, 600 000 €
Currently, contact-based thermocouples and thermistors dominate the thermometer market, but such devices are unsuitable for use at the submicroscopic scale, in small moving objects, in integrated optics, and in environments with strong magnetic fields. The research project aims to develop 3D-printed optical thermometers based on coordination complexes of lanthanides and polymer matrices, capable of measuring temperature under strong magnetic fields. The research combines inorganic chemistry and materials science and is carried out in international collaboration.
Department of Mathematics and Statistics: Mikko Salo, New and emerging trends in the Calderón problem, 518 646 €
Inverse problems arise in various medical, seismic and industrial imaging applications, where the objective is to produce images of an unknown medium from measurements made on its boundary. The project is concerned with the mathematical theory of inverse problems and it explores the role of geometry, nonlinearity, nonlocality, and free boundary methods in the solution of these problems. This basic research contributes to the understanding of the mathematical models that underlie various imaging methods.
