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Philips Applied Technologies and VTT starting up a new innovation concept InnoHub in the city of Espoo

17.06.2008

Today, Philips Applied Technologies and VTT signed a letter of intent on establishing an Innohub in the city of Espoo. Both partners will have an equal role in the cooperation. A third party to the agreement is Well Life Center, providing the premises for InnoHub operations.

The purpose of the InnoHub is to assist companies in making actual business out of innovative ideas. The first InnoHub was founded in Singapore by Philips Applied Technologies in 2004. InnoHub is a unique innovation approach characterized by a physical environment, where people from different backgrounds are working seamlessly together in a pragmatic and real-life setting. Together, these provide a platform to create, review and test-bed new products and concepts in actual application environments, thereby speeding up time-to-market. The innovation process is facilitated by combining key competencies and experiences, brought in by Philips Applied Technologies and VTT. InnoHub builds on the synergy between the various experts working together to help companies see results from their innovation efforts. Innovation is jump started by identifying business opportunities, facilitating idea generation, formulating business cases around concepts and developing end-user-validated solutions in a short-cyclic fashion.

For companies, it will be a one-stop-service point: from creating a technology concept to elaborate design, piloting and testing in an open innovation environment. Companies are welcome to benefit from InnoHub by becoming members and paying a yearly contribution to obtain services. Companies can also benefit by commissioning ad-hoc projects.

Mr. Ruud van Vessem, Vice President of Philips Applied Technologies, says “Philips believes in the principle of Open Innovation. Philips Applied Technologies has been supporting Philips businesses as well as external companies for a number of years successfully. I am very happy with this opportunity to partner with VTT to extend our services to companies in the Nordic and Baltic countries. By using our proven approaches and tailoring them to the specific needs of regional companies, we can foster their business growth. Our experience with InnoHub in Singapore is that it is very effective in joining forces to speed up innovation and create concepts that really matter and get adopted. The Helsinki area is a global hotbed for innovation, and we are proud to start a second InnoHub here. I am convinced that tying our experience to the experience of VTT and the network with the companies in this region, will spark off great new innovations and bring them successfully to business.”

“Together with Philips Applied Technologies, VTT wants to contribute to the creation of innovations for promoting people's health and well-being. We believe that InnoHub is going to provide a stimulus to the Finnish R&D environment by helping companies, especially the small ones, in developing their ideas into business.

The presence of Philips in this partnership offers companies a unique access to international business perspective, which is absolutely necessary in today´s global economy. We can foresee that InnoHub will play an important role in the Finnish innovation infrastructure, complementing the services provided by other players, such as the Espoo Well Life Center,” says Jouko Suokas, VTT’s Executive Vice President.

“Well Live Center Ltd. provides premises for InnoHub in the city of Espoo. There are already several companies working in the field of research, development and education in the Center. Center’s Living Lab concept is a substantial asset to InnoHub. It offers an easy and fast way for piloting in a real environment and connecting the end-users already in the development phase”, says Olli Nuuttila, CEO of Well Life Center.

Further information

Philips Applied Technologies
Joost Maltha, Communicatios Director
Tel: +31 40 27 48882

VTT
Kari Kohtamäki, Customer Manager
tel. +358 20 722 6007

Olli Ernvall, Senior Vice President, Communications
tel. +358 20 722 6747

Philips Applied Technologies is a contract R&D organization that supports the development of products, applications and technical solutions. Its customers are market leaders, fast growing companies and start-ups. For every phase of the innovation process, it offers integral solutions, consultancy and specialist services. With over 1000 in-house experts, it can draw on a wide range of competences. For more information, visit www.apptech.philips.com

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is an impartial expert organisation. Its objective is to develop new technologies, create new innovations and added value thus increasing customer's competitiveness. With its know-how, VTT produces research, development, testing and information services for public sector and companies as well as international organisations. For more information, visit www.vtt.fi

Well Life Center Ltd is a non-profit company to boost service innovation development in the well-being sector. The company focus is threefold. First, it manages the properties to host well-being sector's services and technology companies, R&D units and municipality offices. The aim is to create an environment to enable "cross-fertilisation" of different expertise - the key element of innovation creation. Secondly, it runs R&D programs to develop new service innovations and to study the effectiveness of the services. Thirdly, it supports new businesses with management skills and financial arrangements.

Fact sheet: Philips InnoHub