Smart Campus

Branch: Digitalisation

Duration: 1.7.2020-31.12.2022

Region: National

Financed by: Academy of Finland

Project Manager: Kyösti Marjakangas

Smart Campus Network is an innovation engine initiated by eight universities and universities of applied sciences in Finland.

Our campuses share their trailblazing research visions, world-leading technology and education competences with companies.

We give our industry partners an easy access to latest technology and research based knowledge in various campuses. Our RDI activities include pilots of novel technologies and services in vertical industries together with company collaborators.

The Smart Campus program is a new kind of platform and partnership model for innovation collaboration with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The program boosts the competitiveness of Finnish companies with the introduction of novel technologies.

Our research, development and innovation (RDI) aims to accelerate the digitalisation of society to tackle grand global challenges and meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Smart campuses pioneer new types of solutions and services that benefit widely the society, accelerate smart city development, and improve citizens’ well being.

The Smart Campus program builds on co-creation and multidisciplinarity.

The program is a joint effort between the universities of Oulu and Tampere, Lappeenranta – Lahti University of Technology, universities of applied sciences in Oulu, Turku, Kajaani and Southeast Finland, and Centria University of Applied Sciences.

The program is coordinated by the University of Oulu, and it is linked with the Allied ICT Finland network, which is formed by 31 Finnish universities, research institutes, and city business development units, and hundreds of companies.

The Smart Campus program is funded by the Academy of Finland and is tightly connected to the 6G Flagship program, similarly funded by the Academy of Finland, which researches and develops future wireless networks, applications, and services.

Smart campuses share their research-based visions, world-leading technology development, and education competences with companies. The collaboration opens new paths from the latest research findings to global business.

Companies can benefit from our research innovations and services in the creation of new services, technology platforms, testing, and business development. Research-based knowledge and co-creation also boosts competence building in companies.

Our aim is to significantly accelerate the digitalisation of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in particular. Even the smallest companies will have access to the Smart Campus’s service offerings.

Together with companies, we pilot promising innovations and services in key industry areas including construction industry, transport and logistics, shipping, the chemical industry, and the service sectors.