Insights

(UPM, Helsinki, 18.12.2014 at 11:30) - UPM and Indicatorium Oy have entered into an agreement for the international commercialisation of the food freshness indicator technology developed by UPM. Food freshness indicator is a smart label that reacts to certain chemicals and helps to determine whether a food product is still fresh and safe to eat. Indicatorium is aiming to introduce food freshness indicator to the global markets. Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation will finance the initial stage of the project.

Column in Kauppalehti by Pekka Koponen 15.12.2014, B16

The industry-driven PPP, public-private partnership programme, FIMECC DEMAPP has created a unique competence platform and a variety of concrete energy, materials and cost-effective solutions boosting the competitiveness of the metals, engineering and cleantech industries. Focusing on need-based, application-driven R&D of advanced materials for extreme service conditions the programme has provided great results, both in terms of scientific novelty and high industrial impact, which were presented in the final seminar in September 30, 2014 at Kino Tapiola, Espoo, Finland.

Professor Richard Parker of Rolls-Royce plc and Dr. Gert-Jan Gruter of Avantium were awarded as CTO of the Year Europe 2014 representing large companies and SMEs, respectively. The European CTO of the year 2014 award ceremony by Spinverse and EIRMA took place in the evening of October 9th in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

Column in Kauppalehti by Pekka Koponen 6.10.2014, B18

According to the recently published statistics of Finland’s participation in the EU’s 7th framework program, Spinverse is in third place as to the number of projects out of all Finnish SMEs, totaling to seven funded projects. The success rate for Spinverse for the application to funding ratio is 100%.

Many large corporations in Europe are going through a time of transformation. Economic circumstances drive corporations to reduce non-core activities and to seek more dynamic R&D networks to meet the future market needs. This is an opportunity for entrepreneurs.

FIMECC research programmes have already proven their strength as target-oriented public-private partnerships (PPP), capable of creating new solutions and implementing results effectively. Now a new wave of intensive research cooperation between academia and industry is brought alive through an industry-led FIMECC Breakthrough Materials Doctoral School. Built as a part of the FIMECC BSA and HYBRIDS programmes launched in the beginning of 2014, it will involve 22 doctoral students in its first phase. Focusing on fundamental scientific challenges and modelling, this multi-disciplinary group of young scientists with their senior advisors and international partners will tackle critical research questions set by the companies involved to build new solutions and relevant competence for the industry.

FIMECC has launched two new research programs that will have a major impact in bringing innovative and sustainable materials solutions for many emerging and growing industry sectors. The programs will also enable a major renewal in the Finnish metals and engineering cluster. Spinverse facilitated the preparation of these novel industry driven public-private partnership (PPP) programs and has now been selected to manage both of them.

The Green Growth & Cleantech Summit 25.2.2014 in Helsinki brought together over 600 top Finnish influencers and experts. Tekes’ Green Growth programme, coordinated by Spinverse, was one of the main partners of the event.