Nornickel Harjavalta, a refiner of nickel metals and chemicals in Finland, recently secured a significant investment of 15 M€ from Business Finland for expanding the production capacity of their plant in Harjavalta, Finland. The funding will strengthen the Finnish battery ecosystem and boost the building of sustainable battery industry to Finland. Spinverse funding experts supported Nornickel Harjavalta in the preparation phase of their successful project proposal.
Business Finland has provided 15 M€ for the expansion investment of Nornickel Harjavalta. The expansion project, aiming to increase the production capacity of nickel in Finland, will help meet the growing demand for battery materials needed for the sustainable production of electric vehicles with a low carbon footprint in Europe.
The investment will help the company to raise their annual production capacity of nickel for metal and chemical products from 65 000 tonnes in 2023 to more than 100 000 tonnes in 2026. When implemented, the expansion investment will significantly support the growth of the Finnish battery ecosystem, increase business operations and create new jobs in Finland. At the same time, the environmental performance of the production plant will be improved.
Spinverse supported Nornickel Harjavalta during the funding application process
Commercial Director Pekka Alisaari from Nornickel Harjavalta was leading the project application process and mentions that the collaboration with the Spinverse experts was one of the factors securing the success of the funding application. According to Alisaari, Spinverse experts helped to form a coherent project entity and identify the relevant topics that corresponded to the requirements and framework of the Business Finland funding call. According to Alisaari, Spinverse played a big role in finding the key topics for the project whilst providing strong support. Spinverse experts also sparred the Nornickel Harjavalta team during the application process.
Why use an external consultant in funding applications?
Early on, Nornickel identified that the goals of the Business Finland funding, made available via the EU Recovery and Resilience Fund, had a clear match with the sustainability goals and expansion strategy of Nornickel Harjavalta. However, it soon became quite clear that the in-house resources and expertise on the funding application process might not be sufficient, given the very tight schedule available for the application process. As a result, Nornickel decided to increase their chances on securing the investment funding and contacted Spinverse to see if their expertise on numerous investment funding applications could also help Nornickel by taking on some of the inevitably heavy workload. Pekka says: “We were impressed by the broad expertise of the Spinverse team. Spinverse did not only demonstrate strong expertise on the technicalities of the funding application, but also provided support on the financial aspects and processes.”
Pekka sums up: “Spinverse experts were working efficiently and kept the project running on schedule, guiding us to provide the relevant content. This project clearly demonstrated Spinverse’s strong expertise on funding application process and I would be happy to recommend Spinverse to those who want to save their time and resources when looking for public funding to help them grow their business.”
Photo of Pekka Alisaari by Veera Korhonen
Read more: Nornickel Harjavalta press release, 15 Dec 2021 (in Finnish)