Twice a year – in May/June and Nov/Dec – an expert panel of faculty and industry advisors reviews proposals submitted from across the academic and clinical landscape. Finalists are invited to present to the panel before final selections are made. On top of that we have partner programs – the first one is a Finnish version of BioDesign – from which we have a separate path to SPARK.
In open calls SPARK Finland looks for projects targeting on new solutions in health tech and life science space. Eligible applicants are from Helsinki, Tampere, Turku, Kuopio and Joensuu regions – scientists, students, and healthcare professionals – from our member institutions.
Typical characteristics of targeted solution: it is targeted to a health related (clinical) problem or for enhancing processes of developing or producing the solution (e.g. drug development), it requires some health related regulatory approval, and most likely also a some sort of clinical validation.
HOW TO APPLY?
Info session: 8.5.2025 at 13-14 EET in Zoom
Calls are targeted for wide spectrum in health tech and life science field; from drugs and vaccines to diagnostics and med tech – all the way to bioinformatics and healthIT.
The solution of the proposed project must:
Applicants are not required to have external funding for applying the program.
For Biodesign Finland winners we have a special route. Those applicants we ask to contact first Biodesign program managers and get their endorsement. (Notice: If your project is not associated with Aalto, UH or HUS, unfortunately you are not eligible to get to SPARK.)
For more information take a closer look to our frequently asked questions.
NOTICE: If you have already an operating company then you will receive support from existing business development service providers (incl. accelerators, incubators…).