ABOUT – SAVONIA UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES
Project partner
Savonia University of Applied Sciences (Savonia) is one of the largest universities of applied sciences – by student and employee numbers – in Finland that links higher education with working life and fundamental research organizations. It is a multidisciplinary, campus-based university operating in three different cities in Eastern Finland. Education is led by applied research and innovation, entrepreneurship and working life skills. Savonia has a diverse scientific profile and strong track record in applied research and innovation in six knowledge domains: (1) Water Safety, (2) Wellbeing Technology, (3) Engineering and Energy Industries, (4) Bio- and Circular Economy, (5) Food Industries, (6) Social Sciences & Design. The Business Center and Digital Innovation Hub of Northern- Savo region hosted and led by Savonia acts as a center of the innovation ecosystem in the region. Our research and innovation specialist with academic, innovator and practitioner background are working on important environmental, social, and economic challenges such as climate change mitigation and adaptation, human security, economic growth through entrepreneurship, green energy, and inclusive well-being solutions. To tackle these systemic challenges Savonia is focusing on cross-boundary collaborations, one of the key capabilities of our university.
As the main integrator of the vibrant research and innovation ecosystem in the North-Savo region, Savonia is facilitating business and citizen engagement in co-creation of research and innovation content together with students, educators and research and innovation specialist. Savonia’s research and innovation activities cover proof of concept and feasibility studies, business model and methodology development and innovation management. Savonia has strong track record in applying participatory and co-creation methods such as living labs, test-beds and impact assessment to support the uptake of research and innovation in society. Savonia is active in innovation-based growth by facilitating entrepreneurship and
start-up creation with strong potential for international growth. Savonia has an outstanding research infrastructure that is used in collaborative international projects. The water laboratory is supporting research work related to water purification and smart water. The energy laboratory is testing and developing solutions in the field of environmentally friendly energy production and the circular economy. Savonia has the technological infrastructure and capacity for private wireless system architecture, data acquisition and data storage, internet of things (IoT) applications to support use-case demonstrations. The advanced 3D-printing environment of Savonia allows rapid prototyping of different kind of products such as agri-food applications or spare parts near the customer. At international level Savonia is collaborating with partners in more than 30 countries all over the world. Savonia is a successful external fundraiser and has been participating as well as managing and coordinating several large-scale projects funded by the European Union.
Savonia University of Applied Sciences team:
Harri Holopainen
Harri Holopainen, Msc. in Business Administration and Innovation management and Professional Teacher with pedagogical studies is working as a Research and Innovation Specialist at Savonia. He has a wide experience in planning and organizing entrepreneurship education and co-creation workshops for students, start-up entrepreneurs and SME’s. He has been co-developing the North-Savo Superecosystem, the European Metacluster that integrates research and innovation organizations and business actors, entrepreneurs and educational institutions along the knowledge triangle: Innovation –
Education – Business Creation.
Matti Laitinen
Matti Laitinen, M.Sc (Econ.) works as a teacher at Savonia on the topic of entrepreneurship and innovation, including areas like innovation processes, commercialization, and service design. He has strong experience in entrepreneurship coaching, working with entrepreneurial ecosystem stakeholders in practice, and together has built Pohjois-Savo ́s entrepreneurship and innovation education strategy. At Business Center North-Savo, he coaches teams and companies at the beginning and existing companies at their growth stage. General areas of expertise are supporting new business creation, commercialization, and applying co-creation methodologies to improve creativity and collaboration. He has a specialty in the application of service design for companies’ own businesses, for example, productization and marketing.
Marja Kauppinen
Marja Kauppinen, M.Sc (Econ.) is an entrepreneurship teacher and specialist. She is an experienced former entrepreneur and she coaches businesses along the whole spectrum of development, from business ideas through commercialization and go to market phases. Kauppinen has built several MOOC courses for business model innovation. Currently she works as a project manager of the project called “An Interactive Ecosystem of Virtual Commerce”. The project includes MOOC courses and business development.
