Business Finland is granting funding to research organizations for new projects with high societal impact. The TomoHQ project, led by the University of Helsinki, aims to revolutionize computed tomography in medical imaging and elsewhere. The expertise in inverse problems research of the FAME Flagship plays a key role in this three-year project with a funding of over five million euros.
Business Finland has awarded multi-year funding to the medical imaging-focused TomoHQ project as part of its Rise to Challenge funding call. Organised annually specifically for research organisations, the Rise to Challenge call grants funding for groundbreaking research initiatives with the goal of achieving long-term impact.
The three-year TomoHQ project, granted over five million euros in funding, will develop new methods to improve computed tomography – “slice imaging” – processes used in hospitals. Tomography is a medical imaging technique that produces detailed images of the body’s composition, for example, in investigations of bone fractures, internal organ injuries, and cancer.
Quality and cost-effectiveness through Finnish expertise in inverse problems
Traditional tomographic devices are large and expensive because they are built to produce precision measurements required by older computational formulas.
In the TomoHQ project, this thinking is turned on its head. New hardware can be manufactured from more affordable components and in smaller sizes. The measurements may be incomplete and low-quality initially, but they are refined for imaging purposes using inverse mathematics. This is the core area of expertise of the FAME Flagship. Indeed, the project’s principal investigator is the Flagship’s vice-director, Professor and Vice-Dean Samuli Siltanen from the Faculty of Science at the University of Helsinki.
“The funding granted to the TomoHQ project is a significant recognition of the high-quality research being conducted in Finland’s inverse problems community and its continued long-term work for the benefit of society,” Prof. Siltanen comments on the recent funding decision. “The mathematical methods advanced in the project enable images that are 10,000 times more precise than what is possible today, with lesser burden to tissue and smaller financial investments.”
Breakthroughs ascend from medicine to industry and climate work
In addition to the University of Helsinki, the project includes Aalto University, the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the University of Eastern Finland, LUT University, and the University of Oulu. The mathematical methods advanced in TomoHQ enable slice imaging not only with X-rays but also, for example, with electric currents and magnetic fields. Through the project, increasingly costly components can be replaced with more affordable parts, also enabling portable applications. Furthermore, the project’s findings will be put into practice beyond medical sciences.
“In addition to medicine, our work can be utilised, for example, in industry for materials research and in technology-driven climate actions to monitor greenhouse gases and pollutant emissions. The new practices will also generate new scientific questions in their own right, which is always exciting for a researcher.”
A significant investment in building the expertise and success of the future
Rise to Challenge is Business Finland’s most significant form of funding for research organisations. The annual call seeks radical initiatives that accelerate top-level research and build capabilities in the growth sectors of the future. Criteria for funded projects include the uniqueness and novelty of the research idea, its relevance to the Finnish society, the ambition of the project plan, and the diverse expertise of the implementing team in international comparison.
Business Finland received over 180 letters of intent in its 2025 Rise to Challenge call. Of the 32 that advanced to further coaching, the 16 most promising and exciting projects were invited to submit full applications. In the end, the total funding awarded to the six approved project proposals amounts to approximately 30 million euros.
“We are extremely grateful to Business Finland for the funding they have awarded us and for all the support they provided during the application process. We are also very pleased that such significant resources are being directed to research organisations to enable high-quality and impactful research,” Prof. Siltanen says.
Photos: Business Finland (top) | Samuli Siltanen; FAME Vice Director, Prof. Samuli Siltanen ready for the challenge ahead.
