1. 1
Helsinki Smart Region:
Pioneering for Europe 2020
Working Paper Prepared for the EU CoR EDUC Conference
25-26 April 2013
Authored by EKA B project
The purpose of this paper is assisting in the international cooperation with respect to
the CoR EDUC conference theme "Pioneering Europe 2020 Smart Regions".This paper
describes the Helsinki regional innovation ecosystem, as well as a few interesting
developments.The paper will be further enhanced based on the results of this CoR
EDUC event, as well as through the collaboration of the regional actors.
STATUS: WORKING DOCUMENT, FIRST DRAFT
April, 24th
2013

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Helsinki Smart Region: Pioneering for Europe 2020
This Working Paper is a collective effort of several regional stakeholders in the Helsinki Region
working together in the EKA project. The current document status is “first draft”. We welcome
contributions to the next versions.
EKA - Helsinki Region as a Forerunner Area
The EKA Helsinki Region project is an instrument to assist the regional actors in defining the
necessary activities. It is funded by the metropolitan cities Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa, other regional
actors, and the European Regional Development Fund. EKA means Forerunner Area. The vision of
Helsinki Metropolitan area is to becomethe leading engine of growth and international success of
Finland and to be a European pioneer as an innovation ecosystem.
List of initial contributors
Tuula Antola, City of Espoo
Rogaciano Cavadas Kaipainen, Helsinki EU Office
KristiinaErkkilä, City of Espoo
Glenn Gassen, City of Espoo
Olli-Pekka Hatanpää, Uusimaa Regional Council
Kristiina Heiniemi-Pulkkinen, Uusimaa Regional Council
Tuija Hirvikoski, Laurea University of Applied Sciences
Ari Hucskowski, Otaniemi Marketing Ltd
Hank Kune, Educore B.V.
MarkkuMarkkula, CoR, Uusimaa Regional Council, City of Espoo, Aalto University
Lars Miikki, EKA B Forerunner Helsinki Region, Culminatum Innovation Ltd
Riikka Paasikivi, Culminatum Innovation Ltd
Hans Schaffers, Aalto University
Taina Tukiainen, Digital Business Cluster, Culminatum Innovation Ltd
Ville Valovirta, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
EeroVenäläinen, Uusimaa Regional Council
Jukka Viitanen, Hubconcepts Inc.
Pertti Vuorela, Culminatum Innovation Ltd
Contact
Lars Mikki, E-mail: lars.miikki@culminatum.fi
Markku Markkula, E-mail: markku.markkula@aalto.fi

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1. Introduction
The objective of this paper is to discuss the opportunities and challenges for Helsinki Region, and in
particular the T3 area, in the context of European 2020 policies and initiatives aimed towards
creating connected smart cities and regions. The diversity and strength of the Helsinki Region
innovation ecosystem makes it verywell positioned as a pioneering region in implementing the
Europe 2020 Strategy and as an attractive partner for collaboration with other cities and regions.The
paper considers the position, ambitions and objectives of Helsinki Region against the background of
such European strategic collaboration opportunities.
This paper in its present form will provide input for the EU CoR EDUC meeting in Espoo, 25-26 April
2013. The paper reflects a dialogue during the past period among all Helsinki Region stakeholders
concerned. The paper will be further enhanced based on the results of this CoR event, as well as
through the collaboration of the regional actors. Partnering actors in the Helsinki Region will use this
process to further collaborate on strengthening the Helsinki Smart Region, and for developing an
action plan for T3 and Helsinki Region to pioneer urban and regional ecosystems collaboration in
Europe 2020.
There are many ongoing activities in the Helsinki Region in preparing regional strategic plans and
implementation activities. A special objectiveof this paper is to create a stronger link to the new
Europe 2014-2020 programme period and the EU principles for regional innovation strategies for
smart specialisation (RIS3). To clarify this, the following policy dimensionsare of special relevance, as
defined in the EU RIS3 Guide1
:
• Making innovation a policy priority for all regions:provide incentives toregions to invest more
Structural Funds (SF) in strengthening their knowledge and competence base and in upgrading
their innovation systems.
• Focusing investments and creating synergies:RIS3 to concentrate SF investments on areas of
relative strength, economic opportunity, emerging trends and growth-enhancing measures.
• Improving the innovation strategy process:RIS3 to require smart, strategic choices and evidence-
based policymaking: priority-setting on the basis of evidence/strategic intelligence about a
region's capabilities, competences, competitive advantages and potential for excellence.
• Strengthening governance and stakeholder involvement:RIS3 to foster stakeholder engagement
under a shared vision, link small, medium and large firms, encourage multi-level governance, and
help build creative and social capital at the community level.
2. EU Strategy 2020: Opportunities for Pioneering Regions
2.1 European strategic frame for 2020
The Europe 2020 Strategy focuses on growth for the coming decade, promoting a smart, sustainable
and inclusive economy. Among its seven so-called flagship initiatives are “Innovation Union”,
focusing on a comprehensive research and innovation strategy, and “Digital Agenda for Europe”,
which targets the development and adoption of digital technologies.
Innovation Union. As part of the Europe 2020 Strategy, the 'Innovation Union' flagship initiative sets
out a comprehensive innovation strategy to enhance Europe's capacity to deliver smart, sustainable
and inclusive growth. Key initiatives in Innovation Union are addressing education, skills, funding
instruments, access to finance, EIT, pre-commercial procurement, and creation of a single innovation
market. Innovation Union highlights the concept of Smart Specialisation as a way to achieve these
goals. Especially relevant for Helsinki Smart Region strategy development is the approach towards
Smart Specialisation. This is a strategic approach to economic development through targeted support
1
EU Regional Policy, RIS3 Guide 12.12.2011

4. 4
to Research and Innovation. It will be the basis for Structural Fund investments in innovationand
capacity building as part of the future Cohesion Policy's contribution to the Europe 2020 jobs and
growth agenda.
Digital Agenda for Europe. The key objective is stimulating the digital economy and addressing
societal challenges through ICT. The seven priority areas that are relevant as regards Helsinki Smart
Region include creating a new digital single market, creating interoperability and improved
standardization, enhancing Internet trust and security, much faster Internet access, investment in
cutting-edge research and innovation for ICT, enhancing digital skills and inclusion, and applying ICT
for the benefit of society. A concrete action is, for example, the Web Entrepreneurship initiative.
Horizon 2020 and Structural Funds are different programs designed to jointly contribute to the
shared objectives of Europe 2020, the Digital Agenda for Europe and Innovation Union by developing
synergies. Horizon 2020, the framework programme for research and innovation, is the instrument
for implementing Innovation Union in addressing grand societal challenges and industry
competitiveness.Structural Fundsafter 2013 will have an increased emphasis on innovation and
smart growth specialisation in order to address closing the innovation divide between countries and
regions. This will be achieved by developing world-class research and ICT infrastructures, establishing
networks of research facilities, developing regional partner facilities, and increasing European
partnerships. Of particular relevance is Smart Specialisation (RIS3)2
.
Many other programmes are relevant as well for Helsinki Smart Region. Urban Europe3
is a Joint
Programming Initiative (JPI) in which a number of European countries participate. Its main aim is to
coordinate research and make better use of Europe’s public funds in order to Transform urban areas
to centres of innovation and technology, to realise eco-friendly and intelligent intra- en interurban
transport and logistic systems, to ensure social cohesion and integration, and to reduce the
ecological footprint and enhance climate neutrality. Through JPI Urban Europe, countries can
generate European solutions by means of coordinated research. The aim is to create attractive,
sustainable and economically viable urban areas, in which European citizens, communities and their
surroundings can thrive.
2.2 Europe 2020 and Regional Innovation Ecosystems
The mentioned flagship initiatives need effective implementation in Horizon 2020 and Structural
Funds at the practical level4
. As far as urban and regional development is concerned, an
“entrepreneurial discovery” mindset is critical. Close cooperation must be achieved between R&D
projects and programmes relating to the creation, performance and effectiveness of local innovation
ecosystems. For this we need new types of European research partnerships. Renewal and
transformation are often based on concepts for orchestrated collaboration and innovative and
effective use of key enabling technologies. Making these more widely accessible for European
projects will refine and further develop their capacity to create actionable results and real impact.
With EU funding for regional partnerships and collaboration based on smart specialisation, they can
become building blocks for European cross-border innovation and regional ramps for societal
innovation.
Regions need new arenas as hotspots for innovation co-creation. These could be described as
"innovation gardens" and "challenge platforms", which together form a prototype workspace for
inventing the future. These are needed to address challenges - from small local challenges to major
2
http://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu/home
3
http://www.jpi-urbaneurope.eu/
4
This section includes parts of the CoR Draft Opinion “Closing the Innovation Divide” to be discussed and voted in the CoR
EDUC meeting 25 April 2013.

5. 5
societal challenges at global level. RDI activity is therefore required that will pilot and create
prototypes of (1) spatial configurations with physical, intellectual and virtual dimensions, and (2)
orchestration and knowledge management toolkits needed to address challenges.
It is particularly important from Europe's perspective to explore regional innovation ecosystems and
the role, importance, activity, spatial solutions and success enablers of communities and institutions
that spur new and dynamic innovation activity in such ecosystems. The new innovation institutes
focus on the new mind-set and environment required for user-centric design, co-creation and rapid
piloting.
These new institutes, most of which have only been set up in the past few years, are flexible entities
with a collaborative approach. Examples include: Incubators and Accelerators, Living Labs,
Entrepreneurial Hubs, Development Labs, Social Innovation Labs, Fab Labs, Societal Innovation
Learning Camps and Future Centres. They usually operate as associated entities of universities,
municipalities and businesses. They combine new, open operating practices, use of social media, new
intellectual property rights and funding practices, a broad stakeholder network and
entrepreneurship.
2.3 Opportunities for Pioneering Cities and Regions
For pioneering regions such as Helsinki, EU Strategy 2020 and instruments such as Horizon 2020
provide a wide range of opportunities to support the transformation towards smart regions. As soon
as the Horizon 2020 Work Programme for 2014 is published (Summer 2013) more will be known
about concrete priorities, calls and objectives.In relation to Smart Cities and Regions the pillars
(2)Industrial Leadership (in particular leadership for enabling technologies such as ICT and for
support of SMEs), and (3)Societal Challenges are highly relevant. The Societal Challenges pillar not
only addresses key societal themes such as health and wellbeing, and sustainable mobility and
transport. Particular relevant for Smart regions is the theme “Inclusive, Innovative and Secure
Societies” especially where it aims to close the divide between research and innovation towards
innovative regions and clusters in Europe (complementary and synergetic with Cohesion policies),
and exploring new forms of innovation including social innovation and creativity. Social innovation is
promoted through grassroots on-line and distributed platforms for networking citizens. This allows
them to collaborate and co-create solutions based on an extended awareness of the social, political
and environmental context; in this way, it can be a powerful tool to support the objectives of Europe
2020. For this, support can also be expected to networking and experimentation of the use of ICT for
improving learning processes, as well as to networks of social innovators and social entrepreneurs.
It is expected that the following general themes relevant to Smart Regions will be very prominent in
the upcomingHorizon 2020 Work Programmes:
Smart applications in areas such as energy efficiency, sustainable urban mobility and transport,
smart governance.
Smart and sustainable digital infrastructures based on Future Internet enablers and technologies
such as cloud computing.
Social innovation in regions, cities and neighbourhoods enabled by collaboration- and
community-based platforms.
Connected innovation infrastructures such as Future Internet experimentation and testbed
facilities, living labs and other resources as backbone for 2020 connected innovation ecosystems
across Europe.
During the last few years, Smart Cities and Regions as a research and innovation theme has
considerably grown in importance at the European level. A wide range of Smart City pilot projects
have been carried out or are still running in the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP),
using living labs methodologies (ICT-Policy Support Programme). The 7th
Framework Programme

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(FP7-ICT)has launched a range of RTD projects in the ICT priority with Smart Cities, related to themes
such as energy, transportation, healthcare and assisted living, environmental monitoring, public
security, citizen participation, and Future Internet. New ways of creating innovation ecosystems
building onliving labs are being experimented on urban, regional and cross-border scale. The large-
scale Future Internet PPP programme5
partially addresses the application of such projects in urban
contexts. The EIT ICT Labs initiative, which has a key node in Helsinki6
where Aalto University, VTT
and Nokia collaborate as core partners, has implemented such projects focusing on mobile data,
smart spaces and ubiquitous interaction, green ICT, Big Data and service design, ICT for wellbeing and
active ageing.Within these initiatives, stakeholders in the Helsinki Region such as Aalto University
and VTThave participated in a considerable number of such projects.
The growing importance of Smart Cities is reflected in the European Innovation Partnership on Smart
Cities and Communities (SCC), a partnership across energy, transportation and ICT, which was
launched in July 2012 by the European Commission (DG ENER). This SCC aims by 2020 to
demonstrate and scale up a series of major innovative solutions that combine energy, transportation
and IT technologies, and enable pioneering cities to outperform by achieving European targets for
reducing carbon emissions, use of renewable energy resources, and increasing energy efficiency.
For the next years these developments will provide new opportunities for pioneering regions and
cities including Helsinki Region to position themselves as excellent partners in European projects for
Horizon 2020, and other programs such as the Urban Europe Joint Programming Initiative and future
KICs such as Healthy Living, Urban Mobility and Smart Societies. This calls for strong collaboration
between relevant regional research and innovation actors, businesses and societal organisations to
build a collaboration platform enhancing multidisciplinary research and innovation in order to
engage in successful international collaboration at the European level.
3. Helsinki Region Innovation Ecosystem
3.1 Helsinki-Uusimaa Region
The region Helsinki-Uusimaa forms the metropolitan area in Finland. Uusimaa Regional Council is a
regional authority for Helsinki-Uusimaa Region. The Council is owned by the municipalities of the
region, being a coordinator and consensus builder for the region. Its main tasks are regional and
land-use planning, as well as the promotion of local and regional interests in general. Helsinki-
Uusimaa Region operates in close cooperation with the regions of Kanta-Häme and Päijät-
Hämewhich are often referred to as the part of the expanding metropolitan area.
The core of the Uusimaa Regional Plan, to year 2033, is crystallized in the vision Helsinki-Uusimaa
Region serves as an international metropolitan home base for prosperity. The political vision of the
Region is the idea that a strong capital area serves as an engine securing prerequisites for Finnish
success. The Region is being developed as a growing metropolis y by paying particular attention to
expertise, innovation and well-functioning local structures. The vision has been concretized into six
strategic objectives, which will be implemented by means of strategic choices. The ongoing renewal
of this plan is the product of an extensive consultation process involving all major stakeholders in the
region and in state administration. The new plan also demonstrates political commitment, since it
will be approved by the Regional Council, which consists of the representatives of all 26
municipalities of the region representing 1,5 million inhabitants.
5
FI-PPP (www.fi-ppp.eu) is a 300 mln € EC-funded programme and has a duration of 5 years (2011 – 2015). In this, Aalto
University (CKIR) has a prominent position in coordinating the FI-PPP Programme Facilitation and Support project
CONCORD.
6
http://www.eitictlabs.eu/about-us/nodes-co-location-centres/helsinki/

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Fig. 1 visualises the regional planning system. According to Finnish law, Regional Councils are
responsible for preparing regional development plans in cooperation with municipalities and other
public and private actors.
Fig. 1: Regional planning system in Finland
Political commitment and productive collaboration covering the entire region are manifested
through the strategies. Some essential political alignments of the recent strategy are as follows:
• Helsinki-Uusimaa Region to become the most significant innovation concentration in the Baltic
Sea Region. The innovation concentration aims to bolster SME prerequisites to identify and
establish strategic partnerships. The Region will be developed into the most significant
innovation cluster in the Baltic Sea Region with a customer-driven, open innovation environment
benefiting from the strengths of the different Regional areas. In particular, favourable conditions
will be created for the integration of science- and research-driven and practically oriented
innovation activities. Collaborative platforms and interfaces are needed to form a stepping stone
for innovations. Focus is on societal innovations where entrepreneurship and new forms of
business and especially services are needed; similarly the role of SMEs and new start-ups is
accentuated.
• Sustainable development promoted with innovation. Innovations in sustainable development
help save non-renewable resources and reduce emissions. Such innovations face an extremely
huge global demand as e.g. a substantial decrease in greenhouse gases without radical
innovations poses great challenges. In these markets the Region is to have a dual role: (1)It
adopts and benefits from innovations created elsewhere; and(2)It develops and industrializes
innovations promoting sustainable development.
• Helsinki-Uusimaa Region is assuming a role as the first Finnish carbon-neutral province and
forerunner in response to climate change.This was decided in its Regional Council. To achieve
this, it has made the strategic choices to focus in particular on the following: (1) Increase in the
use of renewable energy forms and development of sustainable development technologies, and
(2) Creation of new practices in construction to promote sustainable lifecycle thinking.

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3.2 Helsinki Cluster Policy7
As the leading national expertise cluster, the Helsinki Region remains the strategic core of Finland’s
international competitiveness. Helsinki region is the economic heart of the small and open economy
of Finland. ’Helsinki Region’ is both a fairly loose cross-municipal organization and a vaguely defined
area surrounding the capital region, consisting of the City of Helsinki and 13 other municipalities
around it. These municipalities have a joint competitiveness programme, as well as different
collaborative arrangements for water management and public transport and various informal
networks as grounds for active co-operation. Increased collaboration between the municipalities is
needed for the metropolitan region to function as an effective ‘Smart Region’. Helsinki, as a
developing Smart City working to promote a Smart Region, does not endorse limiting smart solutions
to its municipal boundaries, or to organizations that serve a single municipality. Removing
boundaries between bureaucratic organizations is necessary within and across a competitive and
agile smart region of the future. For the Helsinki Region to act effectively towards smart services it
must provide platforms for innovation that are open to all municipal and regional parties with an
interest in developing new products and services. The competition for applications and cases, as
discussed below, offers evidence of this (cross-municipal) collaboration in setting up an innovation
platform around open data aiming at smart services for citizens.
Collaboration is of crucial interest. The first innovation strategy for the Helsinki Region shows the
way forward for collaboration that will more efficiently harness the huge innovation potential of the
metropolitan area. The future competitive strength of the Helsinki Region and its appeal as a
strategic partner for the world’s other leading knowledge hubs will depend on the Region’s record of
effective collaboration. In terms of Porter’s concept of cluster, Helsinki region forms a strong
innovation oriented cluster around mobile technology, based on favourable factor determinants such
as high quality research and education institutes, a continuous demand for change and innovative
services, a highly competitive business environment, and at the same time strong innovation-driven
networks of businesses and with governmental actors.
Fig. 2 Clusters in Helsinki-Uusimaa Region
7
This and following sections arebased on a Helsinki Smart Cities case study developed by CKIR for the FIREBALL
project (www.fireball4smartcities.eu) as well as on Culminatum materials.

9. 9
Cluster policy in Finland has been facilitated by a fixed-term (from mid 1990’s to the end of 2013)
special government funded Centre of Expertise Programme aimed at focusing regional resources and
activities on development areas of key national importance. The programme has promoted the
utilisation of the highest international standard of knowledge and expertise that exists in the
different regions. All specialization fields have had their own defined focus areas and strategic
partnerships and customers. Services offered by the clusters have been productized and there are
several development projects linking different cluster competences collectively involving thousands
of companies and all important innovation organizations, universities and research institutions. The
well-organized cluster concept and cooperation environment managed by Culminatum Innovation in
the Helsinki-Uusimaa Region is presented in Figure 2.
3.3 Espoo T3 Regional Innovation Ecosystem
Helsinki Region is transforming into a strong regionally based innovation ecosystem. Most visible is
the Espoo T3 regional innovation system, also called the Innovation Triangle(Otaniemi-Keilaniemi-
Tapiola). This is the largest technology, innovation and business hub in Finland and North Europe: it
consists of 800 companies, 20 R&D centres and a number of Centres of Excellence. Its ecosystem of
companies, universities and technology centres accounts for 50 % of the R&D value of Finland, and
generates 60-80 start-ups a year. Stakeholders and partners include City of Espoo, VTT Technical
Research Centre of Finland, Aalto University, Laurea University of Applied Science, Metropolia
University of Applied Science, Technopolis, KCL, Sitra and the Federation of Finnish Technology
Industries.
Finland's geographical location makes it a
gateway for companies entering the Nordic,
Russian and even the whole European market.
Espoo is centrally located between Europe,
Russia and Asia. The City of Espoo (Population:
250 000) is the second largest city in Finland
and is the innovation driver within the Helsinki
Region. The city has gained international fame
as a hub of know-how, research and
development, at the heart of which stands the
Aalto University campus. Espoo is also a
centre of international company headquarters
and high-technology businesses. The city has
developed this position in effective interaction
with various partners.
Espoo’s most important resources are its active inhabitants, its educational institutions, communities
and businesses. The goal is to make Espoo a pioneer in the municipal sector, as well as a good place
to live, learn and work, and the place engage in entrepreneurship. Espoo’s core interest is to develop
the T3-area to become both an effective operating environment that energizes people, and a globally
unique orchestrated innovation ecosystem based on the mutual interaction of the university, the
business community, the public sector and the third sector.
The role of Aalto University in the development of T3 is crucial. Human-driven built environments is
one of the Aalto University’s strategic focus areas. The University’s objective, supported by the
creation of Design Factory, Media Factory and Service factory as innovation platforms facilitating new
forms of collaboration between academic teams and students with business and communities, is to
develop its main campus and its neighbouring areas i.e. the T3-area into a globally leading innovation
centre. The ambitious goals support realizing the Aalto University’s mission, which aims to change

10. 10
the world by means of internationally high-level research, pioneering education, border-breaking,
courageously exceeding limits, and renewal. Additionally, Laurea University of Applied Sciences
focuses on service innovation carrying out professional education, regional development and
research and development activities using the Learning by Developing model, strongly focusing on
the Knowledge Triangle for strengthening interaction and synergy between research, education and
innovation and using new mechanisms for collaboration among regional stakeholders such as Living
Labs. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland as the biggest multi-technological applied research
organisation in Northern Europe provides a range of technology solutions and innovation services for
industry and society.
In transforming the T3 area, several challenges and opportunities are being addressed. Laboratories
for research and innovation are no longer traditional university facilities, but regional innovation
ecosystems operating as test-beds for rapid prototyping of many types of user-driven innovations:
new products, services, processes, structures and systems which need to be transformative and
scalable nature. The new generation of innovation activities is a socially motivated and open
innovation ecosystem, which is complex and global by nature and which exists thanks to the
participation of all using the online community. European regions should move towards open
innovation, within a human-centred vision of partnerships between public and private sector actors,
with universities playing a crucial role. This means modernizing the traditional Triple Helix model of
academia, industry and government. This way the T3-area will further evolve as a regional innovation
ecosystem which serves its actors, activities, and events and its external stakeholders. Special
emphasis is on how Espoo T3 can become a global pioneer as a societal innovation test bed.
3.4 Helsinki Smart City as Living Lab
The prominent role of user driven and open innovation (living labs) underlines the strength of the
cluster. Actively supported by local and regional government, as well as through governmental
funding for research, development and innovation projects, Living Labs have been established in and
around Helsinki Region (e.g. Helsinki Living Lab, Arabianranta Living Lab, as well as several living labs
operating around the educational institutions, i.e. Aalto, Laurea etc.). Their functions are diverse, but
all are basing their activities on the principles of User Driven Innovation. There is a strong tradition of
Living Lab research in Finland and various types of organizations – universities, city or region-owned
development agencies (e.g. Forum Virium), companies and SMEs – have established Living Labs in the
Helsinki Region area. The municipalities use Living Labs for economic development and societal
activation in energy issues, service provision in health care of the elderly, preventive care, and urban
living. Several Universities of applied science conduct research in Living Labs at the edge of science
and practice. Companies such as NOKIA andPhilips, use Living Labs as user-centred hubs for ideation
and product development, and national research institutions use Living Labs as platforms for
innovation. These living labs focus on bringing users – with their knowledge, ideas, and experiences –
together with the developers of new services and products to increase the quality and usability of
the services and products created. Collaboration with local small and medium sized companies is
actively sought and managed, while entrepreneurship is enhanced at service, media and design
‘Factories’ through the collaboration models at Aalto University.
Since 2007, a network of “Living Labs” hasbeen providing test and experimentationenvironments
where user communitiescan work with producers to co-createinnovative smart city services in
theHelsinki Metropolitan Area. A number ofsuccessful trials and commercial projects,such as a traffic
information platformand Helsinki Region Infoshare, havebeen deployed in Helsinki, which hasalso
run open data competitions, such asApps4Finland, to inspire start-ups, citizensand established
companies to utilise opendata resources.This network is overseen by Forum ViriumHelsinki, a private
non-profit organization owned by the City of Helsinki.Forum Virium’s projects spansix key areas -
smart city, wellbeing,new forms of media, innovative publicprocurement, innovation communities,
and growth services.

11. 11
While the role of Living Labs is only one aspect of Helsinki Smart City programme, it has a wide
influence because of its emphasis on openness, user engagement and co-creation. Within the
Helsinki cluster environment it provides the powerful glue between the diverse elements of a strong
innovation system.
Since the 1990’s there have been a growing number of new developments based on mobile
technology in the Helsinki Region. For the Helsinki Smart City strategy the emergence of a mobile
application cluster is a benefit and the resulting competition within the cluster is equally essential.
The proximity of the cluster members, both geographical and cultural, supports the constant drive to
innovate in order to grow. This gives a push to development of innovative ideas for the Smart City.
The user demand and citizen’s participation and demand provide a powerful pull. By becoming a
centre of innovative and competitive firms a cluster attracts new firms to the area, thus creating
economic growth. Within the Helsinki Region, this competitive-collaborative process is ongoing
within IT, media, services, and particularly in the sector of mobile application development.
The City of Helsinki has stimulated the development of a Mobile Application Cluster through
organizing competitions for innovative applications. The Smart City services that are developed in
competitions benefit both the Mobile Application Cluster and the citizens. The function of the
competition mechanism was to encourage the development of new mobile applications utilizing
Open Data. Experience so far hasshown how a Living Lab functions as an innovation intermediary
where competition is utilized in stimulating the development towards a smarter City.
3.5 Helsinki Region Policies
As the leading national expertise cluster, the Helsinki Region remains the strategic core of Finland’s
international competitiveness. High educational standards, a firm grounding in science and
technology and a long track record of cooperation between the private and public sectors have laid
the foundations for developing innovative products and services in the Helsinki Region. As open
environments for development, learning and interaction, development platforms reinforce
strategically important areas of expertise and competitiveness in the Helsinki Region. Designing,
implementing and developing such platforms is an excellent objective for the common business
development policy of the cities.
Apart from the well-organised platform and co-ordination among the stakeholders, innovative
funding solutions are needed to boost both RDI and innovation commercialisation. Pre-commercial
procurement (PreCo) and Innovative City® are examples of Innovative instruments boosting
innovation in the Helsinki region in recent years. The Innovative City® Program is an urban innovation
tool owned by the City of Helsinki and Aalto University and was launched by the City of Helsinki and
the Helsinki University of Technology in 2001. Today, this cooperation continues and develops with
Aalto University from 2011 onwards.
The SWOT depicted in Table 1 summarizes the prospects for a sustainable smart city and region
strategy of Helsinki Region. Smart Cities and Regions make use of the possibilities created by Internet
and Future Internet technology. The Helsinki Region seems to be well positioned as a model of a
Smart City for the push it gives to development of new technologies within a multi-levelled
infrastructure and towards the creation of new business sectors. Many elements needed to create,
develop, test and market new ideas and new technologies are present. However there are also some
weaknesses and threats to be addressed, such as the lack of diversity in technology base, and the
peripheral position of Helsinki in Europe. On the other hand, as explained, Helsinki Region also forms
a gateway for entering Nordic, Russian and European markets.

12. 12
Strengths Opportunities
Strong, mobile innovation oriented cluster
Strong level of collaboration government –
business - universities
Prominent role of user driven, open innovation
Innovative policy instruments
Gateway for companies entering Nordic,
Russian and European markets
Strong innovation driven collaborative networks
Push for creation of new business sectors
Emerging entrepreneurial ecosystem
Strong national and regional policy cohesion
Geographical location as basis for new
entrepreneurial opportunities
Unused opportunities of the Internet for business
and citizens and for smarter cities and regions
Weaknesses Threats and Challenges
Strong ICT sector but lack of diversity
Limited human capital base
Limited scale
Enterprises operating mostly in domestic
markets
Few growth oriented and innovative SMEs
Somewhat peripheral position in Europe
Ageing population impacting labour shortage and
conditions for SMEs
Increasing international competition;
globalisation pushing expertise and companies to
look for global opportunities
Industrial structure largely depending on large
companies and few industries
Dependency on mobile technology, lacking
diversity
Table 1: SWOT analysis of Helsinki Region
3.6 Regional Entrepreneurship Model
Helsinki-Uusimaa Region was nominated the European Entrepreneurial Region 2012. The region’s
entrepreneurship support throughout the business growth life cycle consists of the entrepreneurial
environment of the Region, which include the infrastructure, the organizations operating in the field
of entrepreneurship & business growth, development services and other support in different phases,
the tools used, and all the organizations and the partner network operating according to the principle
of Private-Public Partnering. This Helsinki-Uusimaa Region excellence – the Entrepreneurship Support
Model – is presented as a Table 28
. This model has been an effective base for the fast development in
recent years.
Firm birth
DISCOVERY
Development
INCUBATION
Expansion
ACCELERATION
Speed-Up to
Global Markets
GLOBALISATION
Universities
Research Institutes
Private and Public
Sector spin-offs
 Activation and
Idea evaluation
Pre-Incubation
Academia
Aalto University
VTT
Foundation for
Inventors
Incubators
Development organisations
Entrepreneurial eco-system
drivers
 Company set-up
Kick-off and Coaching
Helsinki Region Incubators
Enterprising Future aim
Aalto Entrepreneurship
Society by students
Laurea University of Applied
Sciences
Science Parks
Business Development
Private PublicPartnering
co-operation platforms
 Growth Financing
and Networking
Tekes financing
New hi-tech firms
growth acceleration
Technopolis growth
services
VC firms & Venture
Accelerators
VTT Ventures
Service Providers
Internationalisation
Centres of Expertise
Clusters, Growth
programmes
 Growth
Enhancement

Internationalisation
support initiatives
& co-operation
Cluster activities
VC firms
European schemes
and co-operation
networks
Table 2: Helsinki-Uusimaa Region Entrepreneurship support model
8
Helsinki-Uusimaa Region, Application for the European Entrepreneurial Region Award, January 2010.

13. 13
4. Helsinki Smart Region Initiatives
Helsinki Region has launched several key initiatives effectively linked to Europe’s 2020 strategy. In
this way Helsinki Region aims to be well positioned – from the perspective of Horizon 2020 – in
relevant networks across smart cities, living labs and future Internet. A few of these initiatives with
special relevance to the CoR EDUC conference are described below.
4.1 EKA Helsinki Region project
The EKA Helsinki Region project is an instrument to assist the regional actors in defining the
necessary activities. It is funded by the metropolitan cities Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa, other regional
actors, and the European Regional Development Fund. EKA means Forerunner area.The general goal
of EKA is defined as follows: “The Helsinki Metropolitan area acts as the engine of the international
success of Finland and is capable to take a role of a European pioneer as an innovation ecosystem."
The special target of the EKA project is to develop EU level answers in the following questions and
issues: 1) How to fill the gap between research and practice and how the practical activities in the
Helsinki region will be European forerunner activity, 2) How to utilize digitalization and open
innovation, 3) Dynamiting the Regional Innovation Ecosystem, creating operational model for
Knowledge Triangle and modernizing Triple Helix, 4) Inclusiveness, interaction, living lab -activities
and societal innovations and 5) Scalability of results. To achieve this, EKA activities focus especially on
the Espoo T3-area through workshops, events and networking with other projects to concretize
actions to implement EU2020 strategies in practice in the area.
4.2 INKA programme 2014-2020
The ´Innovative Cities´ programmeINKA is a new national instrument for policy-makers involved in
innovation, supporting a joint effort engaging both national and regional players. In collaboration
with the state and urban regions, the goal is to expedite the generation of new, major projects that
are not only national in scope but which have an international dimension. The INKA programme is
coordinated by the Finnish Ministry of Employment and Economy and Tekes. The Helsinki
Metropolitan area INKA proposal was completed in February 2013and submitted to the Ministry for
further actions. The five thematic areas of the INKA proposal are: developing solutions for digital
smart services, creating a climate smart metropolitan area, increasing the wellbeing of people,
utilizing creative know-how, and exploiting technological solutions in the urban environment. In the
following we take the digital smart services for more detailed review.
4.3 Digital Smart Services Roadmap
Within the national INKA Innovative City programme, Helsinki Region currently develops an initiative
focusing on Digital Smart Services. The vision is thatFinland will be a pioneer in open data digital
smart services by 2020. Needs-based innovative public procurement enable piloting and launch new
business and market opportunities. Flexibility and transparency attract foreign investments,
international experts from a variety of disciplines, as well as businesses to the Helsinki Region.
Roadmap
Digital smart services focus on developing internationally competitive digital service markets and
related enablers, test platforms and environments. Essentially, this is the production of intelligent
digital services through open, unified data and interfaces, as well as the creation of an integrated
information platform between the private and public sectors. Municipal purchasing power is used to
create innovation. Digital services will improve the fluidity of urban transport and vehicle traffic
overall, through the construction of a total transportation management and control system. Digital
smart services are also utilized in intelligent transportations systems (ITS) supporting urban planning
and related services, from functioning intersections to city parking.

14. 14
Expertise
The metropolitan area has been at the forefront of opening public information and offers an
internationally recognized and attractive ICT innovation ecosystem. The ongoing restructuring of ICT
demands renewal. Digital services are building a new type of excellence. Focus area themes revolve
around the metropolitan area competitiveness strategy, regional transport strategies, as well as the
University of Helsinki, Aalto University, strategies of the EITICT Labs, as well as the Ministry of
Transport and Communications intelligent transport systems and services strategy, the ICT 2015
report and the government program as well as the Suomi2030 -preparation project. The capital area
is networked globally, and significant international partnerships lay the foundation for the regional
development of intelligent digital services.
Focus area vision
Finland's largest new growth opportunity is in the global digital economy. Finland and the Helsinki
metropolitan area have solid capabilities in the development of this international opportunity.
According to the focus area vision for 2020, Finland is a pioneering country in open data intelligent
digital services. In the Helsinki metropolitan area, internationally significant new businesses are
established, including markets, jobs and enterprises are created for key industries. Metropolitan area
municipalities have invested in defining the overall architecture of ICT specifications as well as in the
opening of interfaces and data. This has led to a compatible and comprehensive basic data storage
database and data system. The flow of information between municipal, state, and publicly-funded
entities as well as commercial operator services enables better services and produces business
enterprises that can be exported. This increased efficiency leads to significant cost savings for the
public sector.
World-class expertise and exportable goods have emerged from creating a nationally and
internationally compatible ITS information resource. Finland will be among the five most advanced
countries in this respect. In support of infrastructure solutions, a diverse range of services have been
developed to guide city residents towards smarter urban mobility. Authorities now have a more
comprehensive understanding of both the traffic and other city operations to support planning and
decision-making.
The opening up of information resources will also enable faster development of other key municipal
functions, including construction, waste management, energy distribution as well as welfare. As
residents and businesses become well-informed, they will be able to make more rational and
sustainable decisions, improving the quality of life in an efficiently functioning city.
International and national business potential
Digital services and the ITS market are a growing business opportunity worldwide. By 2016, there will
be three billion Internet users around the world, nearly half of the world's population. Intelligent
digital services and the influence of the Internet will also extend to traditional industries, easily
stretching across traditional industrial and geographical borders.
In 2012, the total market value of the Finnish IT market was 5.7 billion €. IT services continue to open
new business opportunities for increasingly intelligent services. The European Commission estimates
that opening up public information can generate 40 billion per year.
Digital services traffic/operating market development correlates directly to the increase in online
traffic and the challenges this brings. Global digital service traffic market was 19 billion € in 2010 and
will grow by 22% by 2015. The Finnish IT market volume is estimated at 300 M € in 2010, and the
sector employs 1 700 people.

15. 15
On a national level, the metropolitan area hosts the most significant entities; more than half of
Finland’s world-class research activities, with sales (45 billion € in Finland), exports, GDP (10%), and
employment (100,000 jobs) located in the region. Approximately half of Finland’s ICT firms and
professionals are located in the metropolitan area. Finland, and especially the metropolitan area, is
the most networked area in Europe, with excellent links to Asia and the United States. This unique
situation and the high level of competence here will enable the ICT sector and digital services to
become one of the most important guarantorsof welfare and competitiveness for both the
metropolitan area and for Finland.
International, national effectiveness and attractiveness for developing the Helsinki region
The Helsinki region is already internationally recognized as an innovation ecosystem. It attracts
international ICT companies, investment and talent (e.g. Intel, Samsung, Huawei). The
competitiveness strategy of the metropolitan area,as well as the reform and renewal of its services,
can be realized with the help of intelligent digital services and digitization. Along with the strong
cooperation of municipalities in the metropolitan area, this facilitates the creation of an
internationallyimportant pioneer in the smart services market
Roadmap 2014 – 2020
According to the Suomi2030 -preparatory project, digital value creation will grow to be as large as
the material value. Digital technology and the transparency of information, such as the opening up of
public databases, create new, global business opportunities, including design and simulation, as well
as new production processes, such as 3D printing which will be commonplace in 2030. Digital
governance is also an opportunity for Finland.
Intelligent digital services create opportunities for pioneers in international markets. In the
metropolitan area the digitization of services is increased by developing and implementing a
sufficient number of new digital services (i.e. mobile applications). Additionally, contributing to and
creating conditions for the creation of new international digital businesses and jobs. The Helsinki
metropolitan area is being developed into a digitally interactive urban environment, which makes
use of residents and the information they produce.The main steps that will be followed to implement
the vision are:
1. Developing pioneer markets in open data and digital services, especially for digital mobility in the
metropolitan area (starting in 2014), along with the related test platforms, pilots, pioneer market
initiatives, and coordination measures;
2. The creation of a novel market for innovative public procurement (1-5% of all public
procurements are considered innovative);
3. Leading the international digital service market in 2020
Key projects
Open data and interfaces are an enabler for digital services across industries, creating new digital
services business opportunities. Different sectors are brought together by digital services and open
data service platforms to make a sustainable, intelligent and efficient city.
INKA will implement LVM smart traffic strategy with regards to digital service traffic systems for the
metropolitan area, according to which Finland is among the world's five most advanced countries in
digital services and products, as well as a major smart traffic services and products producer and
exporter in 2020. See the Transport Agency's recent report "Traffic 2017" strategy of traffic
management priorities development areas 11 and Helsinki area traffic management policies. Helsinki
region smart traffic control central INKA-objectives are: (1) Promotion of digital servicesand the (2)
overall management and control of smart traffic. Digital services and related key projects are
summarized in Table 3. The table describes each project and the primary participants in the project.

16. 16
Key projects 2014 – 2020 Stakeholders
The harmonization of open data as well as the
private and public sector data platform
Municipalities (HRI), Forum Virium Helsinki, EIT ICT Labs,
HSL, HSY, SME businesses, private developers
Corporations, mapping and location based services
Statistics Finland, Land Survey of Finland, Finnish
Meteorological Institute
Universities, research institutes and colleges
Digital tools for Residents as above
Digital services and content –municipal pilot Cities, EIT ICT Labs, SME businesses, private developers
Corporations: telecom operators, Tieto, Logica, Nokia
Statistics Finland, Universities, research institutes and
colleges
Digital services and smart traffic
The enablement of services based on open data
LVM, TEM, Finnish Transport Agency, LMV, Trafi, ITS
Finland, Finnish Meteorological Institute, cities,
companies, research institutes, Land Survey of Finland,
open data development communities
Overall control and guidance of Smart Traffic in the
metropolitan area
as above
Table 3: Digital services and smart traffic key projects for 2014-2020, with stakeholders
4.4 Energizing Urban Innovation
“Energizing Urban Ecosystems” is a Finnish 4-year research program for 2012-2015, with 20 million
€funding from industry and public bodies including Tekes, Espoo City and Aalto University. The EUE
program has brought together a broad group of researchers, innovators, business interests and civil
sector participants to pursue its ambitious objectives. The program is organised through RYM SHOK,
the Strategic Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation for the Built Environment.
The EUE research case is the T3 area in Espoo, Finland’s most significant concentration of innovation
activity and an ideal landscape for prototyping potentially valuable innovation methodologies and
technologies in real-life test beds. The program will create an internationally recognized and
multidisciplinary hub of excellence for urban development in Finland, working through a globally
networked cooperation platform for R&D projects in urban development.EUE willcreate and apply
operational models and solutions to the challenges posed by urbanization. The goal is to create user-
centric and competitive urban solution concepts applicable to both existing and new areas. Solutions
for smart urbanization, orchestrated innovation activities, energy use and mobility will be integrated
into the design of the built environment, land use and ecosystems of serviceproduction.
This research will create a powerful research-based practice for actively building the pioneering
smart city-region.
Within the EUE program, the Regional Innovation Ecosystem (RIE) work package has brought
together diverse technologies and methodologies for new urban design and development. In this
innovation-enabling environment, the EUE program demonstrates how to effectively implement the
key enabling success factors of the Europe 2020 strategy, and how an updated triple helix model
supported by the Knowledge Triangle approach can enhance collaboration between the city,
universities, research institutes and diverse enterprises throughout this regional innovation
ecosystem.
The EUE program was launched in May 2012 and has moved forward in a number of ways, including
its scientific research on regional information modelling integrated with virtual reality applications.
The EUE research program is using cutting-edge techniques for spatial data acquisition. These are
applied to, and combined with, concepts for a digital ubiquitous ecosystem in Espoo City T3 area. The
target application will be a mobile and virtual smart city model with geospatial virtual knowledge
elements. Specific attention will be paid to aspects of usability and innovative visualisation for

17. 17
various user needs.By capturing the city’s geometry and characteristics through laser scanning, the
resulting model can be applied in an information modelling process to conduct different kinds of
analysis. The virtual — possibly, photorealistic — models used as the basis for the regional
information model create a virtual city, geometrically accurate and visually close-to-identical with the
real one. This enables city planning, built environment and real estate management professionals, as
well as decision-makers and citizens, to use the model for diverse purposes9
.
One of the first visible outcomes of the EUE program so far is the Urban Mill (UM) concept. The UM
concept aims to become one of the most interesting global focal points for urban innovations. The
UM started operations in January 2013 by connecting the core urban built environment innovation
actors together. On the semantic level, the UM combines Research and Innovation Service (RIS)
offerings and, on the pragmatic level, physical and digital SPace-as-a-Service (SPaaS) processes. UM
activities are integrated into and offered through its 1.300 m2
smart co-working space on the Aalto
campus, and its virtually tailored 3D mirrors.
From the research and innovation perspective, the UM connects four wide research domains, their
actors and global networks. These domains are: (i) Built Physical Environments; (ii) Ubiquitous and
Ambient ICT; (iii) Urban Services; and (iv) Human Life in Urban Environments. From the thematic
innovation point of view, the UM’s agenda is driven by its private and public partners’ long-term
strategic needs. The provisional innovation themes for the year 2013, based on a EUE feasibility
study, are: (i) Shared resources and services; (ii) Sustainability issues of smart connected cities; and
(iii) (Service) Innovation ecosystem leadership. Physically, the Urban Mill is located in the same
building complex as Aalto Design Factory (ADF) and Start-up Sauna (SS). Together, these three co-
working spaces make up a physical Knowledge Triangle complex, with focused spaces for education
(ADF), research (UM) and innovation (SS).
From the perspective of Horizon 2020, the EUE program is highly relevant for achieving European
goals. In the EUE program, we see how value can be co-created with customers and stakeholders,
how the orchestration of support infrastructure between participating partners can create synergies
in using knowledge, skills, and resources to co-create value with customers, and how experience-
centric models value creation can be applied. Looking at the relevance of the EUE programme to
Horizon 2020, we see a number of important aspects, including:
1. Setting the example of a pioneering innovation region: how to create and maintain an effective
regional innovation ecosystem;
2. Using Espoo T3 as a test bed for specific innovative practices: developing realistic, close-to-the-
street innovations in practice, with measurable effect on the lives of citizens and stakeholders;
3. The potential for applying many of the technologies, methodologies, working processes and
collaboration models developed here in other European regions;
4. The possible scaling of relevant concepts, working processes, results, and research
questions,whereby lessons learned here could become lessons to be learned elsewhere.
5. Ambitions and Objectives of the Helsinki Region
5.1 Positioning towards 2020
EU policy frameworks call for smart regions and cities as key actors in addressing global societal
challenges. To meet the EU 2020 targets, regions and local authorities need to translate grand
challenges into regional priorities, developing regional innovation strategies based on smart
specialisation.
9
An integral part of the ongoing RDI process is the Meshmoon online virtual reality hosting system, which is based on on-
demand cloud hosting technology and the open source realXtend Tundra software.

18. 18
Digital and real-life Open Innovation ecosystems need to be adopted by innovation policy makers in
Europe. Cities and regions, which are closest to the citizens and SMEs, need to adopt regional
innovation strategies, not only to maximize the societal impact of innovation but also to increase
local innovation capacity and growth, building digital literacy and development. Future smart cities
and regions need to implement future Internet service infrastructures, based on open architectures
and standards, which allow interoperability, privacy and data portability.
In order to boost regional competitiveness in a global economy, regional innovation ecosystems need
to be embedded in global innovation grids. Orchestration, management, public-private-people-
partnerships as well as strategic alliances are crucial elements of a regional innovation ecosystem
strategy.
The realization of a bottom-up oriented innovation ecosystem, grounded in a backbone of connected
“assets,” is highly relevant for the Helsinki Smart region. These assets include research and
innovation test-bed facilities, living labs, venturing activities, innovative programmes and projects,
and the collaboration among various stakeholders and entities such as research and innovation
institutes, start-ups and SMEs, larger companies, venture capital and policy actors. The balance
between bottom-up innovation activities and top-down strategies is fundamental condition for
sustainability. Cities and regions would be testbeds for research and innovation10
.
The creation of Local Digital Agendas is a useful tool for translating societal challenges to the local
and regional level e.g. creating regional priorities and smart specialization strategies and bridging the
gap between research and market. This has further implications also for RDI funding, as they increase
the effectiveness and impact of activities through so-called national/regional and innovation
strategies for smart specialisation (RIS3). These are of particular importance, as within the post-2014
EU Cohesion Policy, smart specialisation strategies will become a key conditionality to receive
financial funding through EU Structural Funds.
Finland and Helsinki region are well positioned to meet future challenges to the innovation
ecosystems. Finland is ranked as one of the key innovation leaders. However there are some
weaknesses in the Finnish system, in particular regarding growth, entrepreneurship and
internationalization. The Finnish innovation system has much to gain from integrating into the single
European market for goods and services, as well as into the European Research and Higher Education
Area. The main challenge is to further increasing innovativeness through collaborative practice,
leveraging Finland’s ability to be a global forerunner in innovation ecosystems and its passion to test
and start using new solutions.
5.2 Enhancing the Helsinki Region Innovation Ecosystem
In order to further improve Helsinki region’s regional innovation ecosystems capacity, a number of
objectives can be defined.The orchestration of local innovation policy and actions amongst regional
authorities, municipalities, universities, businesses, and civil society is the first main area of
recommendations for Helsinki’s regional innovation ecosystem.
Second, to explore smart specialisation strategies in areas such as ICT for digital health and education
applications. The Helsinki Region can and should be a pioneer in tackling several burning societal
challenges.
10
The FIREBALL project in FP7-ICT has explored the concept of smart cities as innovation ecosystems for
experimenting the Future Internet.

19. 19
Third, to change governance regulations for the open architectures and open standards that the
future Internet ecosystem and smart cities and regions will be built on. This opens up government
data to facilitate digital services development.
Fourth, to change regulations and create incentives for young entrepreneurs – for example, setting
up small scale funding instruments targeted at the business processes of entrepreneurial start-ups
and SMEs, enabling piloting and prototyping at an early stage of the development process. EU
financing opportunities, e.g. the European Investment Fund, should be explored.
Fifth, to create an activity plan for European-wide innovation networking, based on the work
initiated by the Vanguard Group (regions of Catalonia, Friesland, Flanders, Helsinki) and other
regions, with the emphasis on increasing collaboration and synergies both within and between
regions. This should lead to setting up several inter-ecosystem strategic alliances based on and
complementing members’ regional smart specialisation strategies. This will eventually lead to
integratingthese innovation networks in the global innovation grid.
5.3 Helsinki Region and International Collaboration
In Europe 2020 strategy, regions should be connected, and be part of connected innovation
ecosystems. Helsinki Region is already exploring such collaborative forms of innovation practice. One
potentially powerful example of this kind of collaboration is the link between the regions Helsinki –
Skåne – Amsterdam, which will be further developed for European pioneering in order to create
ground-breaking societal innovations for Europe-wide use. This collaboration originated as part of
the 2012 Aalto Societal Innovation Camp (ACSI), an innovative international programme co-initiated
by Aalto University and the New Club of Paris. The three regions worked together to explore diverse
practical aspects of the question ‘How can we create an inclusive and fully accessible society, in
which all citizens can contribute to co-creating quality of life?’
Promising approaches to address issues like how to make innovativeness the common state of mind
in pioneering innovation city hubs, what is needed to create societal innovation test beds, how to
demonstrate innovations in both real-life and virtual reality, and the importance of the on-goingICT
Cluster revolution as an accelerator for job creation and growth were developed. Insights into the
new kinds of collaborationrequired to realize this– reciprocal relationships and relevant roles for
government and civil society– were exchanged, and are being further explored in the continuing
collaboration between Helsinki, Skåne, and Amsterdam regions. The initial collaboration at ACSI can
lead to the effective exchange and promising solutions between the three regions, and – in the
context of EU2020 and Innovation Union initiatives – to opportunities for piloting new European
partnership experiments and broader interregional innovation initiatives in the future.The Aalto
Societal Innovation Camp, which will be run in Skåne in 2013, continues to pioneer new approaches
to tackling societal challenges, and will link the Helsinki region to relevant potential partners in smart
regions across Europe and around the world.
The Vanguard Group (Catalonia, Friesland, Flanders, and Helsinki) has been a bottom-upinitiator in
developing a strategic approach to establish collaboration and to define and implement regional
smart specialisation strategies. It aims to pro-actively complement competences of regional
advantages across different borders. This cooperation focuses on co-creatively developing and
proposing joint programs (such as the Regions of Knowledge proposal for the EU 7th
framework
program), in order to exchange talent, best practice and to commercialise research discoveries.
Within the context of Horizon 2020 and Structure Funds, Helsinki Region aims to collaborate with
other cities and regions Horizon 2020 based on shared longer term strategies and objectives as well
as complementary competencies and assets.

20. 20
5.4 Conclusions and follow-up
In this paper we have discussed the opportunities and challenges for Helsinki Region, and in
particular the T3 area, in the context of European 2020 policies and initiatives aimed towards
creating connected smart cities and regions. The diversity and strength of the Helsinki Region
innovation ecosystem has been demonstrated. Helsinki region is well positioned as a pioneering
region in implementing the Europe 2020 Strategy and as an attractive partner for collaboration with
other cities and regions.
This paper will be extended and further refined using the results of the EDUC conference of 25-26
April 2013 in Espoo, as well as the collaboration of the actors in the Helsinki Region.
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