Finland Times

OIA Communications Coordinator Ari Saine. Press Image

Oulu has curved itself a niche in the ever-growing competitive ICT sector over the years. Despite the fact that the city’s ICT sector is considered among the world’s finest and most talented ones, Oulu is not resting on its laurels. Creating a healthy environment to bolster further innovation in the face of fierce competition is high on its priority list.

 

Oulu has been very systematic in feeding innovation. The first Nordic technology village for creating a suitable development area for technological companies was founded in Oulu 30 years ago. Its immense potential has been reflected by agreements such as Triple Helix and the birth of the Oulu Innovation Alliance in the 2000s.

 

“To be the best innovation environment in Finland, and in the world, we need to be consistent and systematic. The main thing is close collaboration between the city, education organisations, research institutes and the companies. At the moment, we are already working on the next phase of innovation development in the region, which will be published this year,” says OIA Communications Coordinator Ari Saine.

 

In 2009, Oulu continued its efforts as a leading technological innovation herb following the establishment of Oulu Innovation Alliance (OIA), a multifaceted strategic agreement between the City of Oulu, the University of Oulu, the Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Technopolis and the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. Recently, Finnish Environment Institute-SYKE joined the alliance.

 

OIA primarily focuses on five main areas – internet research, printed electronics, international business studies, health technology, and environment and energy.

 

This collaborative effort aimed at creating a stable environment for technological progress is not only an agreement to work together, but actually working together. “Acting according to the agreement is one of the major actions within the environment. The collaboration has founded new companies and new business among joint development ventures and other co-operation between the partners. It’s important to continue this,” points out Saine.

 

Further progressive measures in the innovation environment are in full swing. OuluHealth, a health industry ecosystem, is to become an internationally attractive centre providing new solutions in healthcare by combining research, technology and new generation models for health and social care. The project with an estimated planned investment of over 700 million euros has created high expectations.

 

“Another major project is the intelligent city, which will be road-mapped this year and should become reality in 2020, including intelligent housing and public spaces, virtual environments, intelligent services and extremely energy-efficient solutions in construction, ” explains Saine.

 

Similarly, an upcoming large investment in 5G technology promises to be one of the massive launches as part of the intelligent city development.

 

In as much as technological innovations are in a constantly speeding cycle, the same cannot be said of public bodies due to flexibility concerns. With the herald of, for instance, 3D printing, connected appliances and intelligent spaces, how is a region to stay up to things?

 

“We need to check actions in real-time but with flexibility when needed. Some of the strategies and decision span years if not decades; those need to be checked annually, and made agreements need to be re-evaluated when necessary. In BusinessOulu, we are offering innovation services, such as event organising, forecasting business information, activating new business and developing existing innovation environments further,” adds Saine.

 

According to Saine, in the best interest of innovation efforts, an innovation environment should not be limited to a single, or even few perspectives, such as need of use, available and upcoming technology or even goals or aspirations – it should include all of those. However, it is only natural that in a town with this level of ICT knowledge, the solutions from that industry should be used in the development of the innovation environment.