Board Member in Spotlight pt. 2: Mervi Vidgrén
“Next, we will have to find the joint themes that we are going to start promoting. Making this choice is crucial, as we cannot do all the things we find interesting.”
Towards a strong future
Health technology is one of the priority areas of the regional programme of North Savo. In fact, the region has a lot of competence and business related to health and wellbeing technology. As we wished to make all this visible, Savonia University of Applied Sciences has joined the open Kuopio Health innovation ecosystem.
As the President of Savonia UAS, performing the regional development task of Savonia means a lot to me. However, my participation is not solely related to my role. I also personally wish that the Kuopio region remains strong and vibrant in the future.
Thanks to regional development, strong business activities will continue here in the coming decades, which will allow us to keep growing the number of inhabitants. We must work to promote these important issues.
Themes to promote aims
The Kuopio Health journey has only just begun. Next, we will have to find the joint themes that we are going to start promoting. Making this choice is crucial, as we cannot do all the things we find interesting. Once we have taken this concrete step, we can go full steam ahead.
My dream is that we will be able to build strong networks. Not only at the national level, but to also get involved in international ecosystems and, through this, attract networks and competence to this region.
We must aim at creating impact. As this is our aim, our activities cannot be unfocused, as we must not waste any of our resources. We must make choices on partnerships and ensure that with the partnerships we build, all parties gain benefits. For instance, we must be involved in European innovation hubs.
Finding such optimal partners and collaborating at the regional level lay a foundation for creating impacts. We must also be able to make our competence and achievements visible.
Reliability is also vital in this kind of an ecosystem, and this is something only achieved through actions: our activities must be transparent. Everyone involved bring their competence and needs to the table. Building trust also requires us know where to draw the line: while the nature of an open ecosystem means that some of aspects remain open, companies are careful about handling matters bound by business secrecy.
We must be able to discover collaboration models that serve all members. After all, companies will not get involved unless they feel they can gain advantages. Nevertheless, companies form the core of the innovation ecosystem.
On the cusp of innovations
The members of the open Kuopio Health ecosystem are highly diverse. I have been thinking about how this ecosystem could truly benefit each one of its members. I do not have ready-made answers yet, and we must particularly look for these from the perspective of companies.
We should also remember that having members with varying views and opinions is not a bad thing. Different interfaces play a particularly significant role in creating innovations.
The coronavirus pandemic makes this a challenging time. We must set our sights on how the world will look like after all this is over. We recognise that different business areas are undergoing a transformation and many need support for the development of competence, innovations and product development. Kuopio Health can serve as one of these support providers.
Read more board member presentations HERE.
Read more about the membership HERE.