The aim of the upcoming joint initaivite is to launch ambitious joint projects of high international standard between Finnish and Indian organisations. Potential projects will be funded by Tekes in Finland, and by DBT in partnership with Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) in India. While DBT is one of the leading government funding agencies for biotechnology in India, Tekes is the main public funding organisation for research and development and innovation in Finland.

The joint projects must meet the requirements of the funding organisations. In the Finnish part of the project, the general funding terms of Tekes will be applied, and in the Indian part of the project, the general funding terms of DBT/BIRAC will be applied.

The call for proposals will be launched in August 2013. The proposals shall be submitted to the appropriate funding organisation using their normal procedures latest on 29 November 2013. The guidelines for applicants will be available in the call announcement. The applicants will be notified about the funding decisions in April 2014.

Under consideration would be the projects on 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.

To facilitate partnering and development of joint projects, Tekes will organise a Indo-Finnish healthcare technology workshop in collaboration with DBT on 11-12 September 2013, at Helsinki, Finland. workshop. 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.