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FinNode - the new Finnish innovation centre in Silicon Valley
07.11.2006
Activities get underway with the Web-2-Mobile competition
FinNode, the new Finnish innovation centre, will open in Silicon Valley, USA, in January 2007. The innovation centre will serve Finnish and American companies and researchers. FinNode’s objective is to accelerate the arrival of Finnish companies onto the USA market, to augment the mobility of researchers and research cooperation between Finland and the USA, and to add to the attraction of Finland as a target for investment and as a place to establish a business. The innovation centre has been established by Finpro, the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development (Sitra), the Academy of Finland, Tekes – Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.
Almost all the founding organisations already operate in the USA. However,
FinNode brings all their services under one roof, making them more easily
accessible to customers. The centre will also develop new joint services.
The
official opening of the FinNode office in Santa Clara, Silicon Valley, will
take place on 24 January 2007. In the initial phase, staff from Finpro, Tekes
and VTT will work in shared premises. The International Business Accelerator
Center INBAC, which is a business accelerator owned by VTT and Technopolis
Ventures, will also operate out of the same premises.
FinNode
chose North California and Silicon Valley as its location because it is still
one of the world’s major innovation clusters. The region has two of the
world’s top-ranking research universities and several of the world’s leading
technology companies have offices in Silicon Valley.
FinNode
aims for open cooperation with all parties involved in innovation. Activities
in Finland are primarily linked to the operations of the founding
organisations. In the USA, FinNode is part of the network for Finnish export
promotion and internationalisation (the EPI actors). Besides actors from
FinNode, it includes other Finpro offices, Tekes USA East Coast office and
delegations from Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
FinNode
is Finland’s second innovation centre. The first one, the FinChi innovation
centre, was established in Shanghai, China, in 2004. Innovation centres
involving Finnish actors are also being planned for St Petersburg and Tokyo.
The
Web-2-Mobile competition seeks new mobile innovations
FinNode
is arranging a business plan competition in cooperation with Red Herring
professional magazine and an international trend-setting company in the mobile
sector. The Web-2-Mobile competition is mainly targeted at Finnish and
Californian start-up businesses. The competition aims at developing mobile
services for the future and at utilising mobile solutions in work as well as
in other areas of life.
The winners of the competition will
be invited to develop and test their innovations in the product development
labs of a leading company in the sector. Winners will also be profiled in the
Red Herring and present their company and innovations to interested investors.
All
entrepreneurs and companies are eligible to enter the competition. To
participate, fill in the form at www.makeweb2mobile.org.
The competition will run until 10 December 2006. The selected finalists will
be published on 2 January 2007, and the winners will be presented at the
opening of FinNode’s Santa Clara office on 24 January 2007.