History

Innofinland since 1994

The campaign of the Jubilee Year 1992 of Finnish Inventiveness, Creativity and Skill and related projects had established a positive attitude towards inventions and innovative efforts among both political decision-makers and industry as among the media and the public, creating a downright social demand for concrete measures and building a basis for Innofinland.

The original mission of the Innofinland Project was to turn into an uptrend the Finnish economy, which was suffering under a strong recession in the beginning of 1990's. This was to be done by taking the nation's intellectual resources into good use through a concerted effort of the leaders of the country and other public authorities, as well as the industry and citizens. The project was supported by the fact that the recession had not lamed the innovative power of Finns: for example, the number of domestic patent applications was on the rise together with financing requests filed with the Foundation for Finnish Inventions.

The Innofinland operating plan that was finished at the end of 1992 by the NBPR and the Foundation for Finnish Inventions chose a demanding general theme for Innofinland: From an idea- into a product -into the market. A turnaround in the Finnish economy would require transferring of the nation's mental power through measures taken by the Finnish leaders, businesses and citizens into a secured national and regional income. The operations of Innofinland were right from the beginning divided into a regional and a national level. At the same time, official and unofficial networks were emphasised and different cooperation partners were encouraged to participate. Innofinland was planned to work like a catalyst in varying ways in the promotion of innovation, related communication and cooperation between the partners, and commercialisation of innovations.

This has also happened and Innofinland has, during its ten splendid operational years, well fulfilled its original mission. Innofinland has been strengthened by its ability to evolve itself in the spirit of the age using different themes, new action models and varying focuses.

How Innofinland was launched in 1994

On the basis of a project plan of 1992, the central cooperation partners and financiers discussed on the operations and organisation of Innofinland. The sitting President of the Republic, Mr Martti Ahtisaari, considered Innofinland, its message and activities very important and engaged himself to act as patron of Innofinland and confirmed the rules for the Innofinland Prize of the President of the Republic.

The project was initiated on 2 January 1994. Innofinland's background organisations were in the beginning the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Foundation for Finnish Inventions, the National Board of Patents and Registration, The Central Federation of Small Industries, Finnish National Fund for Research and Development SITRA, Jobs and Society in Finland, The Confederation of Finnish Entrepreneurs SYKL, Technology Development Centre TEKES and the Ministry of Labour. Later on, after the merger of the employer organisations, the Federation of Finnish Enterprises has participated in the project. The cooperation partners, in particular regionally, have also included several other business-oriented organisations and educational institutes. The first Committee of Honour was chaired by the then Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. Seppo Kääriäinen. The management group and the working committee have as a rule included representatives for the background organisations. The managing group, or the jury, has during all these ten years been chaired by Director General Martti Enäjärvi, and similarly, Executive Director Kari Sipilä has been the Chair of the working committee.

The Innofinland Bureau was first situated in the premises of the Foundation for Finnish Inventions and later on in the National Board of Patents and Registration. The first project manager was Mr Keijo Varmola, followed by Mr Tuomo Laine, Mr Jarmo Helasterä, Ms Mirja Kuismanen, Mr Juha Korkeila, Mr Aarno Kaila and Ms Anneli Koljonen. Ms Leena Puolimatka was the first project secretary and still continues in this position.

The regional project was first managed by competition juries chosen by the counties, but now it is the responsibility of the TE Centres which have all the provinces as their areas of operation. The regional juries represent a wide range of innovation and business operators in the regions and bear in practice the responsibility for regional contests and events as a part of the Innofinland concept.

Kari Sipilä

Innofinland themes

2009 Material and energy efficiency - a new opportunity

2008 Climate and energy

2007 Innovations and age

2006 Turning skill and ideas into service products

2005 Creativity as developer of work and entrepreneurship

2004 Creativity and SMEs - intellectual property and innovation in the promotion of wellbeing

2003 Sustainable development through innovations

2000 Innovations and urban culture

1998 Finnish innovations onto the European market

1997 Innovations and the lives of Finnish people

1994 From an idea to a product and onto the market