Insights

In July, Spinverse Consultant Sonja Lätti defended her doctoral dissertation on the evolution of innovation and strategy processes at Aalto University School of Business, becoming the 14th holder of doctorate degree in our company. She presented her case study on the development of the people flow solutions at KONE between 2004-2015. The findings show how the efforts on both top and middle management levels are interconnected when driving change in a large organisation. We asked Sonja a few questions about her research and how she managed to combine work and scientific study.

The European Commission has just launched the first call for proposals under the Innovation Fund, with over 1 B€ allocated for clean technology projects. This massive programme is meant for the projects for innovative low-carbon technologies and it is financed by revenues gained from the auction of emission allowances from the EU's Emissions Trading System.

The CleverHealth Network ecosystem is buzzing with activity as the ongoing six co-development projects aim to develop new treatments and solutions to address clearly defined clinical challenges. The product and service innovations under development will use extensive and high-quality health care data of the Helsinki University Hospital (HUS). The projects are characterized by close-knit, multidisciplinary cooperation between HUS clinicians, research institutes and leading health technology and ICT companies.

The CHARM ECSEL JU project coordinated by Valmet aims to develop industrial IoT solutions with an improved tolerance towards harsh industrial surroundings. Digitalisation of the European manufacturing industries is the key to their continuous renewal and competitiveness. Harsh environmental conditions in manufacturing processes and end user environment may slow down the opportunities brought by IoT (Internet of Things) and AI (Artificial Intelligence). The CHARM project is set to solve this challenge.

Business Finland launched a competition in early 2020 for leading companies (so called Veturi companies) with international operations to challenge them to solve significant future problems and increase their research, development and innovation investments in Finland. Four leading companies with three projects were announced as the winners of the competition. Nokia, one of the four winning companies will launch a project called “Unlocking Industrial 5G” which allows the company to innovate new products, services and solutions in Finland and develop and commercialise them together with the companies in the local ecosystem.

Spinverse customers Fortum and Metsä Group join forces with Business Finland to create a world-class R&D programme with pulp fibre from renewable and sustainable sources as its node. The 4-year joint R&D programme, called ExpandFibre, aims to develop ground-breaking technologies and smart business concepts that are required to convert straw and wood pulp fibre into novel bioproducts, such as textile fibres. The R&D programme has been granted EUR 20 million from Business Finland. 

In the midst of the pandemic, Spinverse welcomed several new colleagues onboard. Some of them started as permanent employees and some joined us for the summer. Between April and early June, we have onboarded a total of nine new colleagues at Spinverse with little or no face-to-face contact. How did it go?

The European Commission has announced a remarkable investment programme worth 10 B€ or more, focusing on highly innovative, mature technologies and big flagship projects that aim to bring significant emission reductions in Europe. We asked Risto Savolainen, our Vice President for the Sustainable Industries business unit, to shed more light into this topic.

Business Finland held an interesting webinar on EU funding recently and we collected some key messages for you in two parts. In this second part, we summarise what our Principal Consultant Eeva Viinikka shared regarding practical matters on how to get started with building the consortium and EU funding proposal. She knows what she is talking about: Eeva has supported our clients with EU applications at Spinverse for over six years and helped them secure funding worth millions of euros.

There is a multitude of opportunities in EU funding instruments for sustainable industries who are ready to reinvent and renew their business practices. Applying for EU funding is a long and competitive process but doing your homework will increase your company’s chances to succeed and reap the benefits of European collaboration for years to come. In this first part, we collected some key messages from a recent Business Finland webinar on European Union funding and collaboration.