Through the Campus Incubators programme, the City of Helsinki aims to create new companies with growth potential together with universities. The programme develops pre-incubator and incubator activities for campuses located in Helsinki. Launched in 2021, the Campus Incubators programme is now expanding and diversifying with new university partners. The business incubator activities are joined by Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, University of the Arts Helsinki and Hanken School of Economics.
In addition to campus-specific activities, cooperation between campuses is central to the creation of new companies and the development of the ecosystem.
“From the city’s perspective, it is great to see how much commitment the universities have shown not only in developing their own activities but also in building cooperation between campuses and creating a mutually complementary service package for entrepreneurship-oriented students and new companies. Once established, the campus network will have enormous potential to produce high-quality companies, the best of which are set for growth in the city’s well-established and dynamic startup community. The new services and the network as a whole also offer various opportunities for attracting international professionals and building partnerships,” says Heidi Humala, Head of Team at the City of Helsinki’s Economic Development department.
Incubator activities planned in cooperation between the city and the universities are now in the kick-off phase, and a significant number of new experts have been assigned to services provided by the universities.
“Once we get the planned activities off to a good start, we will turn our focus to the future as soon as possible and resolve how new campus incubators can be permanently rooted in university activities,” says Jussi Laine, Project Manager for the Campus Incubators programme.
New university partners to increase diversity in business incubator activities
Business incubator activities will be further diversified through the new agreements recently concluded. The programme has previously involved Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Aalto University and the University of Helsinki. It is now joined by Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, University of the Arts Helsinki and Hanken School of Economics, all of which are bringing their own strengths and special competence to the programme.
Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences aims to open doors to working life. According to Vice President Salla Huttunen, entrepreneurship is a key part of the strategy of the university of applied sciences.
“The main focus of our activities is to offer our students practical options and opportunities for developing their entrepreneurial and business skills at university level and for promoting their own business activities in connection with their studies. Our partial implementation of the campus incubator serves this purpose well,” Huttunen says.
“In addition to teaching entrepreneurial skills, our StartUp School (Link leads to external service) focuses on agile experiments, effective and practical projects, commercial projects and, of course, the community formed by the university and its stakeholders,” says Hannu Vahtera, Research Area Director for Entrepreneurship and Business Renewal at Haaga-Helia.
The plans also strongly reflect the introduction of business incubator activities as part of permanent operations.
“The pre-incubator services have been proven to work during our partial implementation of the Campus Incubators programme, so we aim to introduce them as part of the StartUp School’s more permanent service offering, thereby strengthening the impact of both the City of Helsinki’s startup ecosystem and Haaga-Helia’s StartUp School in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, also in the long term,” Vahtera says.
The University of the Arts Helsinki aims to provide its students with the capacity to work as professionals in the ever-changing art scene.
“The goal of the University of the Arts is to support the whole art world in reinventing itself and finding sustainable solutions in the transformation caused by digitalisation, diversifying job descriptions and uncertain funding. The Campus Incubators programme offers one concrete means and cooperation platform for finding these solutions,” says Kaarlo Hildén, Rector of the University of the Arts Helsinki.
Art approaches the key issues in society and business with a creative, holistic and experiential approach, serving as an essential complement to the perspectives of science, technology and economics.
“Within the programme, we aim to generate viable and artistic business ideas that have the potential to grow into viable and socially relevant companies. I believe that the University of the Arts can give rise to social and cultural innovations linked to the green transition, for example, creating business ideas related to urban culture, digitalisation, well-being and ecological sustainability,” Hildén says.
Hanken School of Economics aims to develop preconditions for early-stage entrepreneurship from idea to enterprise and thereby create new business and career opportunities for students.
“Hanken’s strength lies in our existing entrepreneurship research, teaching and business incubator activities. Our commercial and international expertise is particularly valuable for the development of new growth-oriented companies,” says Markus Wartiovaara, Director of Hanken Business Lab.
Hanken’s plans also emphasise the expansion of networks and cooperation.
“We hope that the Campus Incubators programme will enable us to develop pre-incubator activities on our campus and do our part to deepen our cooperation with other universities and universities of applied sciences in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area,” Wartiovaara says.
Read more about Campus Incubators in a news item published in January 2022: Network of business incubators to be created on Helsinki campuses – aiming for 100 new companies per year
Campus Incubators programme
Through the Campus Incubators programme, the City of Helsinki is developing business incubation activities on campuses in cooperation with the local universities in order to support student- and research-oriented entrepreneurship. The key goal of the programme is to create new and innovative companies and to support the growth of early-stage, RDI-oriented business operations and the development of tthe ecosystem. The City of Helsinki funds the programme together with the universities. The programme will be implemented in 2021–2024.