The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) will join hands with Finland to support development of ICT (information and communication technology) solutions for health and well-being as part of the Indo-Finnish research and innovation collaboration.

The DBT will support the potential projects in partnership with the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) while Tekes, the main public funding organisation for research and development and innovation in Finland, will be its counterpart.

The agencies will call for proposals for innovative R&D projects of companies and research organisations from next month. The time for submitting the proposals will be open till the end of November.

Both the agencies are still working on the specific themes for joint collaboration. However, the main focus of research will be application of computational biology/ bioinformatics/ICT in health and well-being solutions for affordable and user-friendly health care technology, diagnostics, medical technology, telemedicine and m-health.

In the run-up to forming the partnering and development of joint projects, Tekes will organise a workshop in collaboration with DBT in September in Helsinki.  The workshop will offer an opportunity to learn about Indian and Finnish expertise in the area, to meet potential collaborators, to identify and further develop project ideas.

DBT and the Academy of Finland Research Council for Health, Government of Finland, have already an existing collaboration in the areas of vaccine research, diagnostics and drug development since 2005. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two sides were signed to support systematic research cooperation especially to establish long-term research networks between the two countries.