Ongoing development

The Finnish AI Region (FAIR) innovation hub, operating in the capital region, tackles challenges related to the use of high technology. These challenges affect companies of all sizes, but they are particularly highlighted in companies with fewer than 100 employees. They are often just taking the first steps, especially in terms of utilising artificial intelligence on a daily basis.

The FAIR innovation hub focuses primarily on digital services, smart cities and health. Its aim is to remove some of the obstacles that currently hinder the extensive introduction of artificial intelligence within local companies.

The services of the FAIR innovation hub are divided into six categories:

1. advisory services
2. competence development
3. support in concept and solution development
4. experimentation opportunities
5. networking
6. support in finding investments.

The services are mainly available to companies free of charge. The hub’s activities started in the autumn of 2022 and, during the first three years, the digitalisation of companies will be supported with funding of more than EUR 3 million.

The City of Espoo serves as the coordinator of activities that focus on support in concept and solution development, experimentation platforms and experiments and, together with Enter Espoo, offers events that help businesses find funding and partners. Together with the Business Espoo network, companies are advised to make use of the FAIR services. FAIR works closely with other Finnish and European digital innovation hubs (European Digital Innovation Hubs, EDIHs(external link, opens in a new window)).

In addition to the cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa, the FAIR members include the University of Helsinki, Aalto University, Haaga-Helia, Metropolia, CSC, KIRAHub and EIT Digital and Enter Espoo as affiliate partner.

Further information:

FAIR EDIH(external link, opens in a new window)

Heli Hidén, Project Manager for FAIR EDIH, heli.hiden@espoo.fi

Espoo is looking for new, innovative solutions to develop energy-positive areas as part of a European joint project. A key objective of the SPARCS project coordinated by VTT is energy-positivity, which means increasing local surplus energy production by means of renewable energy production and energy efficiency. 

Our aim is to achieve this by developing energy-efficient regional solutions based on local renewable energy sources for construction and mobility. Solutions are under development in two Lighthouse cities of the project, Espoo and Leipzig, and will be utilized in five successor cities. 

The project is part of a major challenge related to enabling changes in mobility and energy use and practicing a more sustainable lifestyle. In energy solutions, the analysis focuses on regions instead of individual properties. Further improvement goals include electric mobility, functionality of transport hubs and carbon neutrality. The goal is to generate globally significant imprints for the city – new innovations. In practice, companies in Espoo develop and experiment with new solutions first at the local level and then export the best solutions globally. 

Project’s schedule is from October 1st, 2019, to September 30th, 2024. During the first three years, solutions related to energy and mobility will be developed in Espoo and Leipzig and then tested for at least two years elsewhere in Espoo and in five successor cities. 

• Elina Wanne, Project Manager, elina.wanne@espoo.fi 
• Jani Tartia, Specialist (mobility), jani.tartia@espoo.fi 
• the webpage of the Espoo's project
• the webpage of the international project(external link, opens in a new window)

The City of Espoo is involved in an EU project called UserCentriCities, which promotes the user orientation of city services.

The UserCentriCities project is a joint project of nine partners aimed at promoting the availability and usability of digital services in cities. The project has received funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme.

The project is based on the Tallinn Declaration(external link, opens in a new window) signed by the EU Member States in 2017, in which they committed themselves to developing high-quality digital services in a user-centric manner.

As a large part of the public sector digital services are provided by cities, the UserCentriCities project aims to support the implementation of the principles of the Tallinn Declaration in cities.

The project will develop common user-centricity indicators and a view from which to follow the development, as well as a toolbox to support urban development work. The sharing of lessons learned and experiences is of great importance for the project, and various peer learning forums are organised not only for the members of the consortium but also for other European cities.

In addition to Espoo, the other partners involved in the project are Tallinn (EE), Milan (IT), Rotterdam (NL), Murcia (ES), the Emilia-Romagna region (IT), VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, the Eurocities network and the Lisbon Council think tank.

In Espoo, the UserCentriCities project is linked to the improvement of customer service and the MyEspoo project, which aims to develop a new self-service channel for electronic services in Espoo.

• Development Manager Piia Wollsten piia.wollsten@espoo.fi 

In accordance with the Espoo Story, Espoo wants to continue to be a pioneer of digital and smart services. Therefore, we are building together a national digital service platform, DigiOne, and creating an educational ecosystem around it. Together, we want to promote an operational change, learning and well-being. 

The cities of Espoo, Oulu, Tampere, Turku and Vantaa and Kuntien Tiera Oy have concluded a cooperation agreement for the long-term development of DigiOne’s service platform and ecosystem. 

Digitalisation and technology enable the development of new efficient and cost-effective services that make everyday life easier. For us to succeed as well as possible, it is worthwhile for the municipalities to join forces and build unified solutions together.  

The objectives of the DigiOne project are more far-reaching than one might think of a digital project at first glance: to create better preconditions for the learning and well-being of children and young people and reduce inequalities. Learning is an important value, and well-being is a basic prerequisite for learning. DigiOne supports learning by creating – by means of the digital platform – opportunities for supporting each learner from their own starting points.  

DigiOne also promotes a change in the pedagogical operating culture and management. A complete, modern system makes everyone’s work easier: administration, head teachers, teachers, guardians and learners.   

The project period is from 2019 to 2023, during which time services for basic education and upper secondary school will be produced. However, early childhood education and vocational education will also be taken into account in the design of the service platform, so that the related services can be incorporated into the platform at a later stage. The total budget of the project is approximately 11 million euros, of which Business Finland is financing 5.4 million euros. The goal is for the service providers and other operators in the field to contribute to the construction of the service platform and services with their own investments. 

Petri Elsilä, DigiOne Programme Manager, petri.elsila@espoo.fi 

Project website: digione.fi(external link, opens in a new window)

Tag for social media: #DigiOneFi 

The main aim of the project is to develop proactive property maintenance with the help of energy and condition data and to ensure the interoperability of the collected data at the national level. In order to ensure interoperability, standardised data and operating models must be developed for data collection and management and for the operation of interfaces.

The parties involved in the project are the cities of Espoo, Kuopio and Kouvola and the municipality of Marttila. The project is being carried out in close cooperation with Maakuntien tilakeskus Oy and the Ministry of the Environment’s Ryhti project, both of which are carrying out national-level development work related to the same field. This project adds to the national projects from the municipal perspective. At the beginning of the project, the participants have also examined the results of the previous Kiradigi project.

The aim of the project is to establish common guidelines as to how and where data on property conditions and energy and water consumption is collected in municipalities. The tools used for collecting and utilising data include sensors, metering and reporting. The same operating models will be used while taking account of the conditions in municipalities of different sizes.

During the project, practical implementations will be carried out in the municipalities in accordance with the mutually agreed operating models. The processes implemented and common practices will be documented for the purpose of sharing them with other municipalities so that they can carry out similar processes smoothly.

Schedule: October 2021–October 2023

Project funding: Ministry of Finance’s digitalisation incentive funding and participating municipalities

Project manager: Jouni Kukko, Development Manager, Premises Department

The Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Data project (‘Länsi-Uudenmaan hyvinvointitieto’ in Finnish or ‘HyTe-Data’ for short) is a collaborative project between Espoo and the nine other municipalities in the Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County. Its aim is to identify, assess and develop the database needed for the promotion of residents’ wellbeing as well as the competence required to maintain this data. Another aim is to achieve significant improvements in the current use of data.

The project will create a common database and process for the municipalities and the wellbeing services county to help them prepare their wellbeing account. In addition, the project includes creating a cooperation plan, based on which common indicators and goals will be set for the promotion of wellbeing. The purpose of the plan is to ensure that there are no overlapping tasks and processes.

In the future, other municipalities and wellbeing services counties can make use of the database model and cooperation plan created as part of the project.

The promotion of wellbeing is one of the most important statutory tasks of a municipality. In order to carry out this task, both municipalities and wellbeing services counties need a sufficient amount of data on the health and wellbeing of their residents and clients. As a result of the health and social services reform, which took place at the beginning of 2023, the responsibility for organising health and social services was transferred from municipalities to wellbeing services counties and thus this data was scattered between different organisations.

The project has received funding from the Ministry of Finance, and it will be carried out in cooperation with the Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County. The project will run for the duration of 2023.

Further information

• Wilhelmiina Griep, wilhelmiina.griep@espoo.fi
• Niko Ferm, niko.ferm@espoo.fi

The ‘Secure tools and practices for the use of data and for data-based management’ project (‘Secure Data’ for short, ‘Turvallinen tieto’ in Finnish) aims at developing municipalities’ ability to make use of data.

Municipalities are increasingly interested in and able to develop their services with the help of data. Just by using existing data in a new way, they could improve the effectiveness of services. However, this potential often remains untapped as municipalities do not yet have the required competence in data protection and security. Constantly changing and increasingly specific legislation also challenges municipalities’ ability to react to the changes and opportunities presented by digitalisation.

The Secure Data project responds to the above-mentioned challenge by creating tools and practices that support digitalisation and can be used by all municipalities. The concrete measures include improving competence in data security and protection, developing the processes of data use and data-based management, and harmonising the interpretations of legislation and the related guidelines.

The project has received funding from the Ministry of Finance, and it will be carried out in cooperation with the City of Turku. The project  will continue until October 2023.

Further information

Wilhelmiina Griep, wilhelmiina.griep@espoo.fi

The Digital Agenda's aim is to promote the digitalisation of municipal services, utilisation of new technology, introduction of electronic services and adoption of new operating methods. These are the goals we are implementing in the Digital Agenda programme 3.0 which is a continuation of The Digital Agenda 1.0 and 2.0. It is based on experiments that last from a few months to a year. In the experiments, we test product and service ideas and develope them with companies, educational institutions, research institutes and customers in the spirit of co-creation.

More information:

• Digital Agenda
• Valia Wistuba, Development Manager, valia.wistuba@espoo.fi

The City of Espoo considers it a priority to ensure that the daily lives of our residents run smoothly and our services are resident and client oriented. In order to serve our residents better also online, we are currently developing a new MyEspoo website. It is a self-service channel allowing clients to communicate with the city electronically and comfortably at a time of their choice.

Various services and the client’s personal information are easily found in one place on the MyEspoo website. MyEspoo also acts as a participation channel. It allows residents to participate in the development and operations of the city.

During the reform, particular attention will be paid on making the service easy to use and accessible. We want to ensure that an increasing number of people can, are able and willing to use the city’s electronic services.

We will also use service design, conduct surveys and organise workshops and testing opportunities for our residents and other clients throughout the project. We hope that as many people as possible will get to participate in the service development.

The city has developed management based on effectiveness in line with the Espoo Story since 2019. The ‘Effectiveness Indicators of the Espoo Story’ project has developed a set of indicators that help monitor the implementation of the Espoo Story in the changing operating environment.

The city’s various pilot projects develop effectiveness-based management within individual services. The projects assess and analyse data-based effectiveness indicators and effectiveness in the city’s internal and external operating environment. This will result in the creation of separate effectiveness indicators for the services, making it possible to monitor and ensure the achievement of the goals related to effectiveness-based management. In addition to the actual indicators and their data sources, the project will create an operating model for the use of data in effectiveness-based management.

• Client benefits: Better targeted decisions from clients’ perspective; the most effective measures are determined.
• Environmental sustainability: The indicators help develop green business and innovation ecosystems quickly. This will promote environmental sustainability.
• Competence development: The indicators will help ensure that activities are not only reactive from a technical and economic perspective but also systemically and socially proactive. This will increase employees’ ability to carry out effective activities.
• Economic benefits: The indicators help make better decisions, which results in clear economic benefits for both clients and the city: better services, more effective activities and less manual work in data production.

The project was launched in 2021 and continues.

Further information:

• Anni Orttenvuori-Ganter, Development Manager, anni.orttenvuori-ganter@espoo.fi
• Marko Karttunen, Data Analytics Consultant, marko.karttunen@espoo.fi