Insights

Spinverse has accumulated years of experience on professionally leading and orchestrating innovation ecosystems with varying levels of complexity and size. Recently our experts Laura Koponen, Markku Heino and Sari Kola joined forces with Ulla Koivukoski to share their experiences in a brand-new Ecosystem Handbook. Spinverse also offers a renewed service portfolio to help with the inevitable challenges of working in ecosystems. Read here how we can help you and your company to succeed in ecosystems and make a real impact together with your partners!

The Finnish economic success has been based on high-quality education and research. However, Finnish companies are currently investing significantly less in research and development than ten years ago. In 2010, the Finnish government began to decrease its annual support for cooperation between universities and companies by 250 M€. Read here our summary of an article by Swedish Yle where, among other experts, our managing director Laura Koponen was interviewed.

Horizon Europe, the EU’s next framework programme for research and innovation, is approaching fast after the policymakers are returning from their August holidays. The work has already commenced in Brussels — next steps are being taken to finalise the Horizon Europe programme. We are sharing here our insight into how Horizon Europe evolves at the moment and how some other interesting funding opportunities, such as the new New Generation EU, await innovative and sustainable industries.

In the innovation project, In2Track3, within the  Shift2Rail programme, the Swedish Transport Administration entrusted IMCG for the project development and the proposal for EU funding. The project proposal was approved and In2Track3 was granted EU support of 11 M€.   

In today’s rapidly changing world, very few organizations or people can make it alone. At best, orchestrated ecosystems built around companies can be strong drivers for growth and competitiveness but building and leading them can be tricky. A group of Spinverse ecosystem leaders recently rolled up their sleeves with Ulla Koivukoski for an interesting book project. The newly published Ecosystem Handbook offers fresh insights for engaging different people and organizations, to work better together to solve complex problems and grand challenges. The book gives practical help both for ecosystem leaders and all people working in them.

The goal of the European multi-disciplinary ELISE project, recently funded with 12 M€ by the European Commission, is to drive artificial intelligence (AI) by machine learning (ML). The consortium of 23 partners, including Spinverse, will build upon the open and excellence-driven ELLIS research network of top-level and diverse AI institutes that aim to drive adoption of outstanding ML algorithms and research in European companies. Spinverse facilitated the preparation of the funding proposal and will lead the communication and dissemination activities toward European industries at large during the project.

Spinverse recently helped the Norwegian start-up sensiBel in securing the 2.5 M€ grant and 4.2 M€ equity from the EIC Accelerator instrument. The funding will assist sensiBel in their goal to finalise their product development and scale up the manufacturing of their unique optical Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System (MEMS) microphone. With the accelerated manufacturing, sensiBel will be able to satisfy the needs for better high-performance microphone technology in voice-controlled user interfaces, high-fidelity audio recordings and sound capture markets.

When our customers succeed, we succeed. So do our employees. The new promotions in the Sustainable Industries business unit are a result of relentless work in supporting our customers’ projects, big and small. Warm congratulations to our colleagues! This month, we also welcomed a new colleague in the Spinverse team!

The European Maritime and Fisheries Fund supported the sustainable development of the blue economy SMEs across the European Union with an overall budget of 22,5 M€ in its 2019 call for proposals. The BlueInvest Fund addressed the challenge of developing and bringing to market new products, services, and business models for early-stage businesses, SMEs and scale-ups. The next BlueInvest call 2020 with a budget of 20 M€ is planned to be published later this autumn with a deadline in mid-January 2021. Is your company ready to tackle the new opportunities enabled by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund? Find out how Spinverse can help you get ready for the upcoming funding opportunity!

While waiting for European Commission to publish more details on their ambitious Horizon Europe programme, we would like to share some of the benefits your company would be able to reap by a successful proposal for funding through the programme. As Horizon Europe progresses, we can support you to stay up to speed with the latest developments by offering you a new service.