Industry and Academia cooperation in Finland
Michał Joachimiak
Spin-offs
• 110 companies born at TUT since 1985
• Inventions made during the research project are transferred to the University’s
collaboration partners who took part in the project
• Invetion can be comercialized through a spin-off company
• The University does not seek to independently commercialize research results
• The University encourages researchers to commercialize their inventions and research
results whenever possible
• Special team called Talli (garage) exists to promote commercialization of research
results
Invention policy
• First submitted to the University in the form of Invnetion disclosure
• If invention is made through the open research the rights remain the property of
inventor
• In case of collaborative research the rights belong to the University
• External financiers – collaborators can impose restrictions on the publication of the
results
• Invention disclosure and notification for financiers is made before publishing the results
• Premature public disclosure typically prevents the inventor from obtaining a patent
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A commercialization plan is needed to launch the patent process. The plan must:
specify why it is necessary to patent the invention
describe the potential utilization of the invention
describe the commercial potential of the invention
Funding for commercialization
To be eligible for TUTLi funding, the project must have substantial commercial potential.
The project should preferably last 1-2.5 years.
The TUTLi (New Knowledge and Business from Research Ideas) funding programme
supports commercialization projects that are based on patent that is owned by a
university and originates from research conducted at a university
• TUTLi funding poses no risks for researchers and encourages universities to
commercialize their research results
• Share of funding: 70% from Tekes, 30% from the University (department)
• Up to 1M€ of funding per project
• Research results are commercialized in collaboration between the University and
researchers
• TUTLi funding supports the commercialization process, not the actual operations of
the new company
After the commercialization projects ends
• After the project has ends, the party seeking to commercialize the results must either
obtain a license or buy the necessary rights from the University.
• If a spin-off company is established, the parties usually agree upon a combination of
licensing and shared ownership, in which case the contracting party is Tamlink Ltd.
• The University/Tamlink usually owns 5-10 % of a spin-off company’s shares.
• The TUTLi projects conducted at TUT have resulted in the establishment of two new
companies, Movendos and EkinLabs, before the end of 2013. Preparations for launching
a third company and licensing some new technologies are currently underway.
TEKES
• Tekes funds public research at Finnish research institutes
• International cooperation and researcher mobility are encouraged
• Tekes offers funding for international researcher mobility as part of the research
project carried out by a Finnish research group.
• In joint projects with international partners, Tekes can offer innovation funding for the
Finnish research group.
• Tekes encourages companies to recruit international researchers or consultants to
their projects in Finland, and to engage in research carried out by research teams
abroad.
TEKES
• Tekes programmes are topical entities targeted at financial and expert service areas.
• Within the programmes and initiatives, businesses and public research units can
develop new know-how and build networks
• Campaigns are directed especially to small and medium-sized enterprises. They can
be targeted to certain sectors or themes that are important and topical from the
standpoint of companies. The campaigns differ in their contents.
• Tekes provides information on European programmes and on how to apply for
funding. Tekes also promotes the networking of Finnish businesses and research
groups with international partners around the world.
• Tekes provides an easy access to the Finnish innovation ecosystem and helps
companies to start research and development activities in Finland.
TEKES project types
Business-driven parallel projects:
• Business-driven networked projects that can include the parallel research and
development projects of both SMEs and large corporations.
• A parallel project can also be a project coordinated by a research organisation
if the research organisation's project supports the businesses' research topic,
and if wide use can be made of its outcomes.
Multidisciplinary research projects:
• Public projects coordinated by research organisations that take into account
commercial research and innovation needs
• funded as public research networked with companies.
• The goal is to generate broad-based public research projects stemming from
commercial needs with outcomes that businesses can make wide use of.
• Founded in February 2008, DIGILE is a non-profit Finnish limited company.
• The bedrock of all of DIGILE’s activities is the capital that the 46 organisations, or
partners, which own DIGILE (including companies, university and public bodies) invest
in it.
• When funding projects, DIGILE combines both private and public funding to create
sufficiently credible programs.
• Tekes is the largest source of public funding for Digile
Demola
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Engages cooperation between students and companies
Students get paid and can acquire credits similarly to taking coures
Organizing events to meet students and companies
Group leaders from University
Experts from company side.
Provides open space office for students to work
Any equipment from companies is also stored there
Companies
University
Demola
Students