[Social Talk] Company Town ③ Oulu (Finland)
Oulu is an innovation cluster in Finland, a Nordic country, centered around Oulu University and Oulu Technopolis.
It is located 500 km northwest of Helsinki, Finland. It has a population of about 200,000 and is said to have about 120,000 residents in the central city of Oulu.
Oulu University was founded in 1958, and it will accelerate its growth with the advancement of Nokia in 1973 and the entry into the Finnish Technology Research Center in 1974.
The result is a remarkable achievement that accounts for 4% of GDP, about 30% of total R & D investment, and about 20% of national exports. More than 250 IT companies are integrated, including Nokia, HP, SUN, and Elcotec.
Oulu Cluster is considered to be established because Oulu University acts as a base. Oulu University defines itself as an 'International Science Community' that fosters cutting-edge research and top-notch professionals.
IT, BT new industries and issues in the northern part of Finland, and environmental issues. The engineering field is a specific contribution to the development of local communities and local companies.
The college's curriculum updates are fast, and graduates are trying to stay on the scene, which is a result of an environment similar to industrial field technology. In the case of the Department of Electronic Information Engineering, 80 out of 120 subjects are organized for practical training.
In addition, Oulu Technopolis itself is operated on the basis of business principles so that it is traded on the stock market. If two or more companies are interested in the research topic of the university, the government will support up to 80% 20% is paid by the corporation, the company can commercialize it with less research investment, and the university operates with a structure that can acquire some patent rights after the project is carried out.
Oulu Technopolis Plc is an organization composed of private partnerships to support companies in Oulu region. It is responsible for the overall cluster support activities such as technology development and production linkage through industry-academia-affiliation, support service and enterprise space provision and operation and management of the complex. We are doing.
The Technical Development Center of Finland (VTT) is comprised of its own researches, undertaking various projects, providing a service for a wide range of basic and applied research by establishing a technology development and production network, and commissioned research, collaborative research and trend forecasting.
Oulu Polytech is responsible for supporting SMEs, nurturing professionals, targeting small and medium-sized businesses, and sharing the appropriate role with Oulu University.
The presence of Nokia, a Finnish company, has contributed to the successful growth of innovative clusters, which have accelerated the growth of professional production and service providers as networks have accelerated the separation of development and production, which was internalized in large enterprises.
As Nokia's outsourced development, design and production of short product lifecycles accelerate the growth of the nearby Electronic Management System (EMS) sector, Nokia is a typical network company that provides system integration capabilities for the smooth operation of the entire cluster. Perform core business.
As an integrator of the Cluster System, Nokia is outsourcing most of its production processes and is engaged in R & D roles with businesses, universities and research institutes with diverse technologies, gathering core competencies in areas such as product design, R & D and brand management .
