New EU Innovation Material's centre to be based in Finland
The European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) has made a decision to finance a European innovation cluster specialised in the field of minerals. The new innovation cluster will focus on the European raw material needs. One of its six offices will be based in Otaniemi, Espoo, Finland. Spinverse is part of the Finnish cluster.
Spinverse has been involved in fostering Finnish mining sector innovation infrastructure for some years by coordinating our national Green Mining program. Essential part has been promoting the internationalization of the cluster and particularly the SMEs providing technology or services to the industry. Combining this with Spinverse´s strong expertise in material technology we can facilitate the networking along the whole value chain and assist in creating new business opportunities and setting up new start ups in the cluster European wide.
During the first five years the EIT will invest about 270 million Euros in the EIT Raw Materials –innovation cluster. The investment aims at creating new business in the minerals industry by activating the commercialisation of research results. Support for start-ups as well as versatile training will also be organised. The aim is to create 10 000 new jobs and 50 viable start-ups in Europe, as well as to train 8000 new entrepreneurs.
The cluster consists of over 120 companies, universities and research centres from different regions of Europe. In addition to Spinverse, Finland is represented by Outotec, Metso, FIMECC, Aalto University, University of Oulu , Lappeenranta University of Technology, VTT and GTK. The annual funding of the Finnish organisations participating in the cluster can rise up to over 10 million Euros.
In addition to Espoo, Finland, the EIT Raw Materials cluster will have offices located in Luleå, Sweden, Leuven, Belgium, Wroclaw, Poland, Metz, France and Rome, Italy. The association to be founded for the Innovation Cluster will be located in Berlin.
In its initial phase, the EIT Raw Materials will concentrate on resolving problems associated with the raw material needs of the ICT, traffic and energy industries, as well as the machinery and equipment manufacturing industry. The entire raw materials value chain will be under scrutiny, starting from the search for minerals, mining, refinement, and recycling - not forgetting the substitution of rare or harmful materials.
Petri Peltonen, Director General of the Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy, states that “the Finnish partners invested a lot in the preparation, bringing forth an excellent result. The cluster that will be established supports the mineral field of the Finnish Cleantech sector, as well as business in Finland.”