Culture at the heart of our national economy

Let's start with the basics: Finland's economic growth and the sustainability of the society centre around the creation and commercialisation of innovations that the world needs.   

Even the most ingenious new material or application is not valuable if it later causes more trouble than benefits, for example, in material cycles. 

The world needs innovations that solve problems vital to humanity: energy, climate change, biodiversity loss, depletion of natural resources, food production, sustainable urbanisation and the effects of ageing on health care and the economy, among others.   

The problems of sustainable growth can only be solved systemically. In other words, issues need to be examined from many angles and the relationships between different phenomena need to be studied.  

Currently, the whole Western world is talking about the need to create radical cooperation between different sciences, arts and other fields.  

The entire community surrounding Otaniemi is based on such activities.  

When we talk about the Otaniemi community, we are not referring to geography but to a way of thinking and acting—to a culture of creating meaningful and impactful innovations that is radically interdisciplinary, collaborative and trust-based. The cooperation between the City of Espoo, Aalto University and VTT have made us realise that the promise of this culture of shared goals and values to the Finnish economy and the world is not just big but enormous.

The culture is condensed in Otaniemi, where hundreds of leading companies and start-ups, research institutes, students and experts from the fields of science, art, technology and business discuss and create truly revolutionary solutions that promote sustainable development. On one hand, this is because Finland is a small country; on the other hand, it is because of decades of development work since the days of Alvar Aalto, whose name and ideas are echoed in the name of the university in the area. 

The expanded Otaniemi area may be the densest area of systemic innovation in the world, and its people may have the greatest positive impact on the world's future on average.  

This is a story that we are proud to share with the world. However, Otaniemi is not a new Silicon Valley, but an innovation community based on trust and shared values, well-being and low hierarchy that solves global challenges. But we must also do better. Our shared success story requires that we are not only the world's most impressive but also the world's most attractive place to work at all levels of expertise. 

Decision-makers will not solve these challenges alone. We set a challenge for ourselves, residents, companies, research institutes, educational institutions and universities alike.   

When there are no ready-made solutions available, they need to be developed—and developed together.

Jukka Mäkelä
Mayor, city of Espoo

Antti Vasara
CEO, VTT 

Ilkka Niemelä
President, Aalto-yliopisto

Text: Maria Paldanius

This article was published as a part of a publication Impact when Otaniemi flaps its wings.