Part­ner­ing with Oulu region

Why part­ner­ing with Oulu region is the most impor­tant choice

Ambi­tious R&I invest­ments to boost the econ­o­my

Invest­ments in research and inno­va­tion advance knowl­edge, build capac­i­ties and devel­op and demon­strate inno­v­a­tive solu­tions. Oulu is ranked first in terms of tech­nol­o­gy research and devel­op­ment invest­ments in Fin­land. Oulu region suc­cess sto­ries rely on the region’s strong basis in edu­ca­tion, research and tech­nol­o­gy. In addi­tion to the uni­ver­si­ty and two uni­ver­si­ties of applied sci­ences, the region hosts sev­er­al voca­tion­al insti­tutes and region­al units of the nation­al research cen­tres. In 2017, ana­lysts from bank­ing group Mac­quar­ie named Oulu as one of 13 “brain belts” in the world – areas that attract the smartest peo­ple to work in cut­ting-edge indus­tries.

Oulu has a long tra­di­tion in co-oper­a­tion between edu­ca­tion and research insti­tutes, com­pa­nies and pub­lic sec­tor and Oulu’s high-tech image was built on this co-oper­a­tion in 1980´s. This col­lab­o­ra­tion was was for­malised in 2009 by form­ing Oulu Inno­va­tion Alliance which aims to keep Oulu as an inter­na­tion­al­ly acknowl­edged cen­ter for inno­va­tion. Incu­ba­tion, pri­or­i­sa­tion, and facil­i­ta­tion col­lab­o­ra­tion has led to strong research and busi­ness ecosys­tem of more than 100 uni­ver­si­ty sites and well over 50 com­pa­nies.

The strat­e­gy for smart spe­cial­i­sa­tion in Oulu region aims to pro­mote, at the region­al lev­el, mea­sures lead­ing to and util­is­ing inno­va­tions that meet the chal­lenges posed by cli­mate change, dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion and glob­al­iza­tion. The strat­e­gy aims to active­ly dis­sem­i­nate inno­va­tions and inno­va­tion activ­i­ties through­out the province and to increase the region­al econ­o­my and well-being. The strat­e­gy directs coop­er­a­tion across indus­tries and bor­ders. Oulu Region is an inter­na­tion­al, attrac­tive and net­worked region, whose com­pet­i­tive­ness is based on high know-how, renew­able indus­try, well-being and cli­mate wis­dom.

Fore­run­ner of Dig­i­tal Trans­for­ma­tion

Oulu region is known for its strong exper­tise in the ICT sec­tor and the com­pa­ny base in the sec­tor. The strongest indus­tri­al sec­tors are the met­al and met­al prod­ucts indus­try and the fur­ther pro­cess­ing of wood, includ­ing both biore­fin­ing and mechan­i­cal pro­cess­ing. New emerg­ing indus­tries include appli­ca­tions and equip­ment relat­ed to health and well-being, as well as var­i­ous appli­ca­tions of print­ed elec­tron­ics, for exam­ple. New inno­va­tions and indus­tri­al solu­tions are emerg­ing at the inter­faces of indus­tries, where dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion is often cru­cial. The activ­i­ties of the Dig­i­tal Inno­va­tion Hub sup­port the dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion of busi­ness life and the accu­mu­la­tion of dig­i­tal skills.

Oulu sets the stage for com­pa­nies want­i­ng to take a lead­ing role in tech­no­log­i­cal devel­op­ment: since the 1980s, a huge num­ber of wire­less tech­nolo­gies have been found­ed in Oulu. While the rest of the world is adapt­ing to 5G, Oulu is already work­ing on 6G.

Con­tribut­ing to the Green Deal

Oulu region is aim­ing to reduce its emis­sions by 80% by 2050 thus con­tribut­ing in line with the nation­al and EU tar­gets. Research and inno­va­tion is a key dri­ver and enabler for com­bat­ing cli­mate change, imple­ment­ing green indus­tri­al pol­i­cy and achiev­ing sus­tain­able devel­op­ment. Vision of a “car­bon neu­tral North­ern Ostro­both­nia” can only be achieved through coop­er­a­tion. The pub­lic sec­tor (munic­i­pal­i­ties, cities, pub­lic author­i­ties), com­pa­nies, RDI organ­i­sa­tions, non-prof­it organ­i­sa­tions and res­i­dents are all part of the cli­mate action: pro­mot­ing, sup­port­ing and imple­ment­ing.

Democ­ra­cy, inclu­sion and involve­ment through Cul­tur­al cli­mate change

Oulu is Euro­pean Cap­i­tal of Cul­ture for 2026 — join us! The con­cept of the pro­gramme “Cul­tur­al Cli­mate Change” is about recon­nect­ing with the world around us and cre­at­ing a new sense of togeth­er­ness. Oulu2026 wants to be a Euro­pean lab­o­ra­to­ry, to find solu­tions to the chang­ing cul­tur­al cli­mate in which we find our­selves. Our Cul­tur­al Cli­mate Change is built around three themes of Wild City, Cool Con­trasts and Brave Hin­ter­land.

Oulu is the core city for the devel­op­ment and deliv­ery of the Euro­pean Cap­i­tal of Cul­ture year, but also the wider “Oulu region” is includ­ed. Thir­ty-two munic­i­pal­i­ties have made offi­cial deci­sions to be part of the Oulu2026 area. A shared his­to­ry and traf­fic net­work con­nect the cities in the region. This cre­ates a fas­ci­nat­ing project area locat­ed between the bor­ders of Rus­sia and Swe­den.

Oulu is the fastest-grow­ing city in Arc­tic Europe

Oulu com­bines cool tem­per­a­tures with a red-hot busi­ness cli­mate. Being the biggest com­mer­cial, logis­tic and cul­tur­al hub in the region, Oulu is often referred to as the cap­i­tal of North­ern Scan­di­navia. It’s an effi­cient gate­way to the rest of the region and is set to under­go sub­stan­tial devel­op­ment over the next 10 years.

Today, Oulu is ranked first in terms of tech­nol­o­gy research and devel­op­ment invest­ments in Fin­land and is set to receive a fur­ther boost of €300–400m ($350–468m) to fund the 2025 Oulu Sta­tion Cen­tre devel­op­ment. Fin­land and Oulu’s com­pet­i­tive­ness is main­ly based on tech­no­log­i­cal exper­tise, which is utilised to sup­port new busi­ness­es and pro­mote cor­po­rate growth, but the city wel­comes a broad spec­trum of indus­tries.

In Fin­land, dur­ing the 1990s, elec­tron­ics com­pa­nies over­took tra­di­tion­al indus­tri­al firms, with Finnish mobile phone com­pa­ny Nokia tak­ing the lead. The city has gone from strength to strength since then.

Net­works for new tech­nolo­gies are being con­tin­u­ous­ly devel­oped, while Oulu Inno­va­tion Alliance brings togeth­er the finest minds in print­ed intel­li­gence, well­be­ing tech­nol­o­gy, clean­tech and 3D inter­net from research insti­tu­tions, busi­ness­es and pub­lic sec­tor organ­i­sa­tions.

Oulu’s suc­cess sto­ries rely on the city’s strong basis in enter­prise and edu­ca­tion. In addi­tion to its two uni­ver­si­ties, which have 25,000 stu­dents col­lec­tive­ly, the Oulu Voca­tion­al Col­lege – the biggest voca­tion­al col­lege in Fin­land – pro­vides thou­sands more edu­cat­ed can­di­dates for the city’s busi­ness­es.

Oulu also serves as a trans­port hub for Arc­tic Europe. Eas­i­ly acces­si­ble by road, rail, plane and boat, trav­ellers will find that arriv­ing in Oulu is huge­ly con­ve­nient, whether they are mak­ing the trip for busi­ness or plea­sure.

3‑hour dri­ve to
the Arc­tic Cir­cle

Sur­round­ed by
pure nature

3‑hour flight to
Cen­tral Europe

The fastest route
from Europe to Asia

Oulu Met­ro­pol­i­tan Area:
250 000 peo­ple, 120 nation­al­i­ties

37.6 is the aver­age age of the peo­ple in Oulu — that is one of the youngest in Europe

Oulu, Fin­land

#1 in R&D invest­ments in Fin­land,
among the top in the EU

1 in 3 peo­ple with a
uni­ver­si­ty degree

50-minute flight from/to Helsin­ki

#2 in Finnish air­port traf­fic

300–400 mil­lion EUR city cen­tre
devel­op­ment projects

710 M€ will be invest­ed in the infra­struc­ture
devel­op­ment by the City of Oulu in the com­ing years