Innovation Pipeline
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Background
”Business from the innovation pipeline – commercialization of cleantech innovations” offers customized support to companies and inventors in the environmental monitoring, material and energy efficiency sectors. This support is tailored to meet each participant’s requirements and can include help with the idea development, bringing innovations to market, finding partners and funding and internationalization.
Converting ideas to business throught the innovation pipeline
The innovation pipeline project is coordinated by Green Net Finland and is open to applications from promising environmental monitoring, material and energy efficiency innovations throughout the three-year project duration. Since starting in 2008, innovations admitted into the project have been maturing into commercially viable products and the companies involved have taken big steps towards international markets. Each innovation moves through the innovation pipeline at its own pace. The innovation pipeline is especially advantageous for inventors, as it provides them with expert networking advice to improve their personal networks, help in find potential partners and funding and guidance on protecting their intellectual property.
Bringing Finnish environmental technology companies to the world markets
The global market for the cleantech, environmental and climate-conscious energy sectors are significant and constantly increasing. Although Finnish companies have a great deal of research and business expertise in these sectors, they have yet to fulfill their potential in terms of global market share. This is especially true of small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), which are the focus of this programme. In order to strengthen the growth of Finnish environmental business export, the innovation pipeline project is organizing a permanent nation-wide innovation system aimed at selecting, testing and commercializing Finnish environmental innovations. The project also seeks to discover, develop and commercialize uptapped innovations in the public sector.
Objectives
The objective of the innovation pipeline project is to develop a new, customised and tested cooperation and operational model for the commercialization of expertise in both the public and private sector. The project will develop the operational model for a Cleantech-sector innovation system, which will include phases of innovation recognition and evaluation, product development, testing in Living-Lab conditions and other test environments and global commercialisation. Bottle-necks in the innovation commercialisation process will be identified and examined and information about the process will be communicated to different stakeholders. The more new ideas from the public sector, researchers and companies reach experts for evaluation, the greater the opportunity to develop those ideas into viable innovations and products.
Minimum targets
- 15 product development projects, 10 tested products and 5 commercialised products.
- 3 new enterprises or new operation segments for existing companies
- 70 new jobs during the project
Project consortium
- Green Net Finland (project coordination)
- Culminatum Ltd Oy – Helsinki Region Centre of Expertise
- University of Helsinki
- HAMK University of Applied Sciences
- Finnish Meteorological Institute
- Lahti Science and Business Park Ltd
- Lappeenranta University of Technology
- STOK Posintra Ltd
- Finnish Environment Institute
- Turku Science Park Ltd
Project duration
2.1.2008-30.6.2011
Project volume and funding
The project budget is 2,500,000 eur and is funded by the European Regional Development Fund.
Contacts
Antti Herlevi, Innovation director, Green Net Finland
