SHOKs

Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation

The Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation established in Finland are new public-private partnerships for speeding up innovation processes. Their main goal is to thoroughly renew industrial clusters and to create radically new innovations.

Centres develop and apply new methods for cooperation, co-creation and interaction. International cooperation also plays a key role in the operation of the Strategic Centres. Testing and piloting environments and ecosystems constitute an essential part of the Strategic Centres' operations.

In Strategic Centres, companies and research organizations work in close cooperation, carrying out research that has been jointly defined in the strategic research agenda of each Centre. The research aims to meet the needs of Finnish industry and society within a five-to-ten-year period.

The operational work of each Centre is managed by a non-profit limited company that is responsible for initiating and resource allocation of the research programmes. The programmes are financed by the participating companies, Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, the Academy of Finland and the EU's Programmes.

Six Strategic Centres in operation