The innovation system in Finland is being developed by bringing together resources into strategic centres for science, technology and innovation. The first of these was the forest cluster, to be followed soon by the ICT industry and then the metal products and mechanical engineering industry.

A strategic centre for science, technology and innovation (abbreviated in Finnish to SHOK) is a centre for the development of innovations that is formed together by companies, research units and financiers. At its core is a central organization in limited-company form that gathers around it a network consisting of Finnish and foreign companies.

“The centres provide top-level research units and companies that utilise research results with a new way of cooperating closely together. The centres are application-responsive and supportive of interdisciplinary methods,” says Petri Peltonen, the Director-General of the Innovation Department at the Ministry of Employment and the Economy.

Towards the future

The strategic centres of excellence will help in allocating new and existing financial, personnel and other resources to areas that are important for companies. The centres will provide companies with a new opportunity to develop sustainable competitiveness.

By taking part in a centre companies will be able to specify their research plan and obtain the expertise they need. This will make it possible to speed up and improve innovative activity.

“In order to succeed in international R&D competition, a small country such as Finland must be able to make strategic choices,” Peltonen says.

“The centres are choices for ensuring competitiveness in the future. They are based on areas that are considered to respond best to the needs of Finnish business life and society in the long term.”

Forest provides model

Finland’s first development centre operates in the forest industry. The innovation company Metsäklusteri Oy intends doubling the value of products and services in the sector by 2030.

“Metsäklusteri also acts as a model and groundbreaker for other centres. The operations have made a good start and the first major research programmes got under way during the first months of the year,” Peltonen says.

Peltonen says preparations for the ICT and metal products and mechanical engineering sectors are at an advanced stage. If everything goes well, the clusters will start operating during the spring. Centres for the energy and environment sector and health and well-being are being looked into at the moment.

Five centres The policies and start-up of the activities of the strategic centres for science, technology and innovation are the responsibility of the Science and Technology Policy Council of Finland. In June 2006 it decided to start up five centres in the first stage: the forest cluster energy and the environment metal products and mechanical engineering health and well-being information and communication industry and services

During the spring a metal products and mechanical engineering cluster will be created in Finland if everything goes to plan.
(Photo: © Tekes, Niko Nurmi)