Insights

The European Working Group of Innovation Consultants (EWGIC) has published a new Position Paper regarding the agreement by European Council on the Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) and the Next Generation EU budget. The Position Paper, released on the 24th of July 2020 makes a plea to European Parliament's decision makers to take swift action to prevent the Horizon Europe's budget cuts that threaten to slow down the recovery of Europe from the current economic crisis.

In 2017, the European Commission officially launched the European Defence Fund to boost Europe’s defence capabilities. From 2021 onwards, the new European Defence Fund (EDF), worth 13 B€, will foster an innovative and competitive defence industrial base and contribute to the EU's strategic autonomy. Two pilot programmes, the European defence industrial development programme (EDIDP) and the Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR) precede the EDF. EDIDP is an industrial programme of the EU aiming to support the competitiveness and innovation capacity of the union’s defence industry, whereas PADR funds research projects.

Horizon Europe will be launched in January 2021 and extends until 2027. It is the European Commission's proposal for an ambitious programme worth close to 100 B€ to boost European research and innovation. Over the coming months, we can expect more detailed information on this programme and its strategic planning process, work programmes, funding calls and other relevant activities. If your company is interested in seizing the moment for future growth, now is the time to act! Spinverse has developed a new service to help you — find out how!

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?