TAMPERE, Finland – One of Nokia Research Centre’s open innovation initiatives, the Demola Facility picked up the Activator of the Year award from the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications. The award recognizes the work the facility does to enable open innovation in the region. Co-founded by Nokia Research Centre, the Demola Facility is also a major collaborator and during the first five months of its existence the Demola centre and the NRC worked on seven open innovation projects.

At the Demola Facility students and researchers come together to co-create and develop new digital products and services. Companies, like NRC, suggest project ideas and concepts together with guidance for the students who then develop the ideas further. As well as developing prototypes the students conduct tests and analyse results along with developing potential business models. Successful projects go on to be implemented by the companies involved.

Jukka Saarinen is a Nokia Research Fellow and one of the founders of the Demola concept. He says:

“It takes time to establish and maintain functional collaboration networks, and at Demola we have taken our first steps in this direction. The award is a welcome reconginition and we will continue to strive for a win-win-win situation where all parties genuinely feel they gain from the collaboration.”

Teams from three local colleges, TAMK University of Applied Sciences, Tampere University of Technology and Tampere University, take part in the projects. Demola is operated by the Technology Centre Hermia Ltd and supported by the City of Tampere, the Tampere Region, Pirkanmaa TE Centre, Creative Tampere program and the Centre of Expertise Program.