Presenting Kuopio Health members: City of Kuopio aims to become a global innovation hub
“We need success stories. I would like to think that we can anticipate the future and follow weak signals. This enables us to react quickly to new situations or get involved in tiny ventures that may turn into something big in the future.”
City of Kuopio aims to become a global innovation hub
“Kuopio is just the right size. Those active in the area know one another and low-threshold connections work well. We have everything it takes for our activities to really take off,” says Arto Holopainen, Chief Innovation Officer at the City of Kuopio.
At the same time, he emphasises the significance of people and partnerships for the success of the Kuopio Health open innovation ecosystem. People working together is just what it takes to rev up the speed that will get us going. On this journey, however, we should take time to examine which is the best way for us to proceed at a given time.
High expectations for Kuopio Health activities
The City of Kuopio is one of the founding members of Kuopio Health. Kuopio is working towards a vision of becoming the capital for a good life and aims to be a pioneer in promoting and generating international business.
Arto Holopainen points out that wellness and health technology is part of a decades-long continuum in Kuopio that can be considered to have originated from the establishment of the Kuopio University Hospital at the beginning of the 1960s. Patience has been necessary along the way, as continuous development has occasionally required repeated efforts and refocusing.
Constructing the Savilahti neighbourhood is among the city’s biggest currently ongoing investments. This is one of the most versatile urban development projects in Finland.
“In practice, we are building a new neighbourhood in Savilahti. The area can serve as a development platform for the solutions and services of future wellbeing. Although it must be said that the activities are not bound to a specific place, but they have a spill-over effect both on the whole city, and the national and international level. Our ambitious goal is to be perceived as a global innovation hub worldwide,” Holopainen explains.
The role of Kuopio as a nationally recognised health and wellbeing ecosystem is also significant. Some of the responsibility for this cooperation has been placed on Kuopio Health.
Following weak signals
Thanks to the services it provides to its 120,000 inhabitants, the City of Kuopio is a significant producer of data resources.
“We have been reflecting and discussing how we could provide open access to our data resources and also ensure that companies can utilise the data in their product development. It could bring benefits to both our inhabitants and companies,” Arto Holopainen explains.
He wishes that the Kuopio Health story will also bring ideas and operating models to promote creating similar cooperatives in other industries. For example, networks are being built in the energy and water competence sectors, but equivalent organisations orchestrating similar activities are yet to emerge. Ecosystems representing different industries could enrich one another’s activities and create new ways of thinking.
“We need success stories. I would like to think that we can anticipate the future and follow weak signals. This enables us to react quickly to new situations or get involved in tiny ventures that may turn into something big in the future.”