Insights

Reijo Salonen, Senior Vice President of Research and Development of Pharmaceuticals and Chief Medical Officer from Orion and Reetta Kivelä, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer from Gold&Green Foods have been elected as Finland’s CTOs of the Year 2017. In the selection process, the emphasis was put on companies with significant societal impact. “Election of the awardees was exceptionally unanimous this year. Salonen and Kivelä have both shown their remarkable contribution to their companies and to their societal networks”, says Chairman of the Jury Harri Kerminen. CTO of the Year award is a joint undertaking by Tekes and Spinverse.

Kauppalehti - a leading Finnish language commerce-oriented newspaper - had just covered major development of one of the Spinverse's clients - Norsepower Oy Ltd. The company announced its agreement to install a rotor sail solution onboard of a Viking Line’s cruise ferry. This deal heralds the world’s first liquefied natural gas/wind electric propulsion hybrid passenger traffic ship.

Spinverse customer Goodmill Systems Ltd has secured a €1.5 million grant under the Horizon 2020 SME Phase 2 instrument for their OpSec project with a total budget of €2 million.

Elastopoli is breaking ground with its tougher-than-plastic biocomposite solution. The first production line for the AqvaComp biocomposite is already being manufactured at the company's headquarters in Sastamala. From there the line will be transferred next to Metsä Fibre's new pulp factory at Rauma. The production at the plant is planned to start in the beginning of 2017.

Spinverse is taking part in Slush - the hottest startup and tech event in the Nordics. It takes place on November 30th - December 1st, 2016 in Helsinki, Finland, with more than 17.000 attendees expected. Catch one of our experts to find your way to EU funding or navigate open Innovation ecosystems. Moreover, attend Slush side event: Smart Money from EIT RawMaterials on December 1st, where Catherine Bounsaythip of Spinverse will be talking about developing raw materials sector into a strategic strength for Europe.

Spinverse has recently opened a new office in Berlin, in the renowned Factory Berlin HQ - first and largest startup campus in Germany, located at Rheinsberger Str. 76/77. This new presence offers excellent connections within the network of innovators consisting of freelancers, startups from all possible stages and verticals, established corporations as well as investors and leading influencers from politics, science and society. Members of the community include SoundCloud, Uber and Twitter among others.

Technology Industries of Finland organised a workshop that discussed the opportunities of EU's Horizon 2020 programme. Spinverse experts Markku Heino and Pirjo Pasanen were invited to give a talk on the topic. In their talk they emphasized that a company must first have a viable business idea, which can be developed into a 100 M€ business.

Digital materials engineering concept executed by the industry-driven Dimecc Breakthrough Materials Doctoral School with its 37 doctoral students and tens of industry partners in the BSA and HYBRIDS programs aims to speed up R&D significantly.

Former Vice President of Intel Labs Europe and co-founder of the Innovation Value Institute, Martin Curley, who was speaking at the CTO Forum Finland in Helsinki on October the 13th, 2016, started off his address to the Finnish CTOs by saying that we live in a new era where the pace of innovation is a matter of survival.

Ian Roberts, CTO of Bühler and Michael Thiel, Chief Science Officer and Co-founder of Nanoscribe have been awarded with the title European Chief Technology Officer of the Year 2016 in their respective categories: large corporations and SMEs. The awards ceremony took place during the CTO Forum 2016 in Evonik Creavis GmbH, Marl, Germany on October 27^th, 2016. Both awardees serve as prominent role models fuelling growth and strengthening European innovation and technology leadership.