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.

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.

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.

The European innovation and business environment is facing severe structural changes, requiring key players to continuously update strategies to maintain and foster competitiveness. Hence, a new breed of innovation is emerging. It exploits disruptive technologies to solve societal challenges sustainably and profitably by blurring the borders between research, industry and governments. It is called Open Innovation 2.0.

Carl Haglund, the Vice President of  Kaidi’s European strategy, has been appointed CEO of Kaidi Finland. Up to date, the acting CEO of Kaidi Finland has been Pekka Koponen, CEO and Founder of Spinverse. Koponen undertook the role of CEO of Kaidi Finland initially as part of Spinverse's task of building one-stop-shop Finnish operations for Kaidi Finland. Koponen continues his role as chief adviser in the Kemi biofuel refinery project as part of the cooperation between Kaidi Finland and Spinverse.

Shipping companies are actively looking for solutions to reduce fuel consumption and environmental emissions of vessels, particularly due to the recent fuel price instability as well as the forthcoming environmental regulations. Spinverse customer Norsepower is ready to address this challenge utilising new technology, advanced materials and leading-edge control system.

Starting in October 2016, Small and medium-sized enterprises in Finland will be able to benefit from the Innovation Voucher scheme. Introduced as a pilot venture by Tekes financial services, the Innovation Voucher is worth 5 000 € and is meant for micro-enterprises and SME’s. A company that receives the voucher can purchase professional innovation services from a service provider, that has a special know-how or expertise that the voucher recipient does not have. The Innovation Voucher is a part of the Enterprise Package that the Finnish government announced in April 2016. The package aims to promote entrepreneurship by providing SMEs with access to tools they may require to realise their innovation potential.