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KEIKKA - Utilisation Path of Innovations

KEIKKA - Utilisation Path of Innovations


The KEIKKA project will increase innovation, research and development in health technology in North Savo and raise innovation awareness.

Need

There is an identified need in the North Savo region to increase the number of innovations and inventions and to increase the number of start-ups. The Strategic Programme for Research, Education, Development and Innovation (RDI) in the Wellbeing services county of North Savo 2023-2025 aims to increase the number of invention disclosures fivefold and the number of invention disclosures leading to patents and new service production severalfold by 2030.

According to the National Roadmap for Research, Development and Innovation (RDI), Finland's competitiveness and well-being are built on knowledge, research and innovation, which also create the basis for a functioning social and health service system.

Objectives and means

The aim of the project is to increase the number of innovations that can be commercialised and to raise innovation awareness in the Wellbeing services county of North Savo. We will create new opportunities for start-ups and growth companies and support the creation of new services and products. In addition, as an output of the project, we aim to create a roadmap for innovation development to support innovation in the health sector.

The project will build practical tools, such as an electronic platform, agile methods, workshops and competitions, to combine the needs of the welfare sector, the expertise of professionals and the solutions of companies. The aim is to rapidly bring staff and residents' development ideas to testing and deployment, generating new business and improving services. For business, KEIKKA offers a unique opportunity to contribute to the development of Wellbeing services county of North Savo and to work with us in a new way.

The project is targeted at staff, researchers and stakeholders in Wellbeing services county of North Savo, such as the University of Eastern Finland, Savonia University of Applied Sciences, the City of Kuopio and the Savo Consortium of Education. Residents, patients and clients of the region with ideas for improving the activities are also welcome to participate in the co-creation process. An important target group for the project is the region's business community. There will also be cooperation with Business Center Pohjois-Savo, Spark and Kuopio Health.

Duration of the project

The project will be implemented in the Wellbeing services county of North Savo from 4.2.2025 to 3.2.2027.

Implementation

The project is implemented by the Wellbeing services county of North Savo (Clinical Research Centre).

The project will create an innovation environment in which research and need-driven ideas are developed into commercial solutions. This environment will include knowledge, models, services and practices to support innovators, teams and companies developing innovations. The project will also develop a set of metrics for commercialising innovations. The indirect objective is to generate new businesses and commercialisable innovations.

In concrete terms, the objectives will be achieved by setting up an innovation platform to collect as many new inventions and development proposals as possible in the future. The project will organise innovation workshops to co-develop health innovation activities with a wide range of actors and create a "researcher to innovator" growth path. Two innovation competitions will be organised during the project, involving partners from health technology companies in the region and international pharmaceutical and diagnostics companies. We will identify awareness and experience of innovative procurement and promote new ways of adopting it.

At the end of the project, we will have a clear service process for commercialising ideas (from idea to market) and a broader innovation ecosystem: the collaboration between RDI, business and the welfare sector will intensify during the project. After the project, needs-driven solutions, such as residents' ideas, will become part of the development of the Wellbeing services county of North Savo. In the future, concrete business partnerships with the Wellbeing services county of North Savo will increase and commercially promoted innovations will be refined together with companies in the region.

Funding

The KEIKKA project is a business-oriented project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and implemented by the South Savo Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment.

Contact

Project Manager Vesa Janhunen
tel. +358 44 717 4935
vesa.janhunen (at) pshyvinvointialue.fi

Project Coordinator Sonja Reinikka
tel. +358 44 717 1830
sonja.reinikka (at) pshyvinvointialue.fi