Insights

Column in Kauppalehti by Pekka Koponen, May, 2014

The Industrial Technologies conference was organised for the third time in April 2014. The event took place in Athens during the Greek Presidency of the European Council, and gave an outlook to European and global developments and latest innovations in the fields of nano and biotechnology, advanced materials, and new production technologies. It was a tremendous success with over 1,300 participants from more than 60 countries around the world.  Spinverse had an important role as one of the main co-organisers of the event.

Spinverse and EIRMA, the European Industrial Research Management Association, have announced that they will launch the quest for Europe’s CTO of the Year 2014 in June. The CTO of the Year Award is to highlight the role of the most prominent leaders of technology-based growth, promoting innovations to renew European industry and to upturn competitive advantage.

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.

In the previous column ‘Large Cooperates Join SLUSH too!’ I regretted the absence of large corporations in SLUSH. There was an appreciable amount of feedback; for example, Kimmo Alkio reported he brought along the entire management group of Tieto to the event. Excellent!

Spinverse will team with eight European companies and research institutes in the EU-funded research and innovation project “IP4Plasma” in an effort to fight the second biggest killer among infectious diseases. The aim is to produce a highly sensitive tuberculosis test that will allow a diagnosis within minutes with costs as low as 1€ per test.

Luc Jones of Antal Russia wrote in his recent publication: “Russia is not a country where you can just show up and make a quick buck – you need to be in it for the long term. Many have tried and failed, but even more have done extremely well in Russia.” Finnish-Russian economic co-operation has been intensively in the spotlight recently, as the growing Russian market offers plenty of business opportunities for Finnish companies. Though entering the Russian market requires careful planning, and it is vital to get expert advice.

The Final seminar of the Tekes Functional Materials programme coordinated by Spinverse gathered together close to 300 experts at The Circus, Helsinki, 11.12.13. The event arranged in a former rock club provided a cosy atmosphere for digesting the scientific novelties and technological result highlights provided by short and sharp presentations. A special session and exhibition focusing on “Coatings & manufacturing” showcased highlights regarding the theme. Exciting keynote speakers: Prof. Nasser Peyghambarian (holographic telepresence), Paul Kallmes (Strategic IP Management) and Kivi Sotamaa (Design & 3D manufacturing), a bunch of fresh result highlights from science and industry and a multi-disciplinary audience made it THE EVENT in the field. The “hard day’s night” culminated with an interactive networking session around demos, posters and live blues music – a great forum to build new ideas, multi-disciplinary co-operation and next steps to the future.

Column in Kauppalehti by Pekka Koponen 25.11.2013

Large corporations join Slush too!

The present year's Slush happening was a demonstration in force for Finland. 5000 people attended, 1000 companies, 100 billions worth of capital investors as well as domestic and foreign celebrities ranging from the President of Estonia to Miss Finland.

Innovation Mill commercializes large corporation’s unused innovations that are not within the core of their corporate strategy. The accelerator started as cooperation between Nokia, Tekes and Technopolis and during the four years of operation it has created 74 new companies and 650 new jobs.