Business Finland has just granted a total of EUR 60 million for three new Veturi projects to be led by the leading companies Nokia, Wärtsilä and TietoEVRY. In return for the funding, the leading companies make a commitment to increase their research, development and innovation (RDI) activities in Finland by a total of more than 350 M€. At the same time, hundreds of new RDI jobs will be created in the coming years.
Laura Koponen CEO at Spinverse says: "Having had the privilege to support some of the companies in their application process for Business Finland's Veturi funding, we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the winners in this competition for leading companies. The funding, a total of 60 M€, will have a remarkable impact on many levels: it will help solve significant future challenges and increase the RDI investments and jobs in Finland."
Veturi projects are Business Finland's largest individual funding decisions. If successful, the projects will lead to multi-billion business impact, industrial investment, significant employment impact, growth in export and tax revenue, and positive environmental impact. Business Finland also plans to finance the partners of each Veturi company with a total of 50 M€.
In addition to the companies now selected, Business Finland aims to announce three more Veturi companies early next year. All leading company projects commit to grow their RDI activities and solve significant future challenges. The funding for the Veturi companies’s projects is mainly coming from the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), which is granted through Business Finland.
Ambitious goals call for significant investments
"The impact of large companies on our national economy is significant. Finnish companies have not increased their research and development investments in Finland that much, but have instead directed their RDI investments abroad. Finland's RDI expenditure has been in the order of 2.5 per cent of GDP, when the target in the government program has been set at four per cent. Business Finland contributes to the success of this goal by challenging leading companies to increase their RDI operations in Finland. It can be achieved with the right kind of incentives. With the competition of leading companies, both leading companies and the surrounding ecosystems will significantly increase their RDI investments," says Nina Kopola, CEO of Business Finland.
Nokia, Wärtsilä and TietoEVRY are ready to invest in Finland in the development of future sustainability solutions - this means zero emission maritime transport, energy-efficient data networks and significant strategic changes in software production. At the same time, hundreds or even thousands of new jobs will be created.
Launching the new projects for Veturi companies
Nokia: Competitive Edge builds new competitiveness from edge computing
The amount of data is growing exponentially, and its transmission over telecommunications networks and processing in data centers around the world is equivalent to the amount of energy produced by 50 nuclear power plants a year. Locally based edge calculation based on 5G technology can reduce CO2 emissions as much as 60%. The goal of Nokia's Veturi project, Competitive Edge, is to significantly strengthen Finland's edge computing expertise and research by cooperating with a wide range of ecosystem partners. The goal of the ecosystem to be created is an annual turnover of 1 B€ by 2030 and the creation of 200 new jobs.
The Competitive Edge project consists of:
Wärtsilä: Zero Emission Marine taking steps towards zero-emission shipping
Wärtsilä is building a zero-emission maritime transport ecosystem, the Zero Emission Marine, which is will also develop sustainable technology solutions for the energy sector. The goal is to achieve 60% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the maritime transport sector by 2030. After 2050, all products in the Wärtsilä Veturi ecosystem will be carbon neutral or carbon negative.
The roadmap consists of four interlinked areas:
TietoEVRY: Leading project to build trust-based digital society creates significant growth in the technology sector
A five-year project led by TietoEVRY will build trust-based digital services. The aim of the leading project is to expand research cooperation and speed up the introduction of new technologies, to develop Finland's technological know-how and, through ecosystem management, enable Finnish IT companies to embark on global business, increasing Finland's technology exports. The project will explore new business opportunities for data platforms and the role of societal development and accelerate the transition to cloud services.
The project is expected to create hundreds of new jobs in the technology sector. The goal of Business Finland's leading projects is to create ecosystems of significant size, with a turnover of up to one B€.
In its Veturi project, TietoEVRY aims to focus on the following areas:
This newspiece is a summary of the news published on Business Finland pages (in Finnish).