Oulu Inno­va­tion Alliance launch­es strat­e­gy process for its 4th agree­ment peri­od – look­ing ahead to 2028–2034

Oulu Inno­va­tion Alliance (OIA) is launch­ing prepa­ra­tions for the new agree­ment peri­od, with the aim of steer­ing research, devel­op­ment and inno­va­tion coop­er­a­tion in the Oulu region towards the years 2028–2034. The prepa­ra­tion of the upcom­ing 4th agree­ment peri­od will bring togeth­er OIA part­ners, com­pa­nies, research and edu­ca­tion organ­i­sa­tions, and oth­er stake­hold­ers to con­sid­er what kind of impact north­ern inno­va­tion coop­er­a­tion should cre­ate over the next decade.

Why is the plan­ning start­ing now?

OIA’s cur­rent peri­od, 2021–2027, has strength­ened Oulu’s posi­tion as a nation­al­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized inno­va­tion ecosys­tem. Through coop­er­a­tion, Oulu’s strate­gic strengths have been devel­oped in the themes of dig­i­tal­iza­tion, health and well­be­ing solu­tions, sus­tain­able cir­cu­lar econ­o­my and clean solu­tions, growth and com­pe­tence, and dual-use tech­nolo­gies. Coop­er­a­tion between com­pa­nies and RDI actors has been strength­ened, and a broad joint project port­fo­lio has been built to move towards con­crete imple­men­ta­tion. OIA’s results have recent­ly been com­mu­ni­cat­ed, for exam­ple, in Kale­va in rela­tion to the hydro­gen ecosys­tem and health tech­nol­o­gy, as well as on the alliance’s own results pages.

At the same time, the oper­at­ing envi­ron­ment is chang­ing rapid­ly. The new EU fund­ing peri­od, geopo­lit­i­cal changes, the accel­er­a­tion of the green and dig­i­tal tran­si­tions, and the grow­ing skills short­age faced by com­pa­nies are chal­leng­ing our region to renew the direc­tion of coop­er­a­tion. For this rea­son, plan­ning for OIA’s 4th peri­od is being launched well in advance, so that the objec­tives, roles, oper­at­ing mod­el and strate­gic choic­es for the upcom­ing peri­od can be built togeth­er and with impact.

What will RDI coop­er­a­tion in Oulu look like in the 2030s?

At the heart of the plan­ning is the cre­ation of a shared vision: what are we aim­ing for, and what should the Oulu region’s RDI strat­e­gy and inno­va­tion coop­er­a­tion look like in 2028–2034? Dur­ing the strat­e­gy process, both the results and impact of the cur­rent peri­od and future oppor­tu­ni­ties will be exam­ined: which themes should be advanced in the long term, what new open­ings are need­ed, and how com­pa­nies and busi­ness life can be con­nect­ed even more strong­ly to OIA’s research, devel­op­ment and inno­va­tion coop­er­a­tion already dur­ing the plan­ning phase.

OIA’s strength lies in its abil­i­ty to bring togeth­er the city, high­er edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tions, research insti­tutes, the well­be­ing ser­vices coun­ty, edu­ca­tion providers, com­pa­nies and oth­er part­ners around shared objec­tives. In prepar­ing the upcom­ing peri­od, this coop­er­a­tion base will be fur­ther strength­ened: the aim is not only to update the strat­e­gy, but to build a shared com­mit­ment to how Oulu can gen­er­ate nation­al and inter­na­tion­al added val­ue through north­ern inno­va­tions.

The par­tic­i­pa­to­ry process will pro­ceed in stages

In the first phase of prepa­ra­tion, the results, impact and lessons learned from the cur­rent peri­od will be brought togeth­er. In ear­ly Sep­tem­ber, the joint strat­e­gy work will be opened more broad­ly at the OIA Net­work Day, where plan­ning for the upcom­ing peri­od will serve as a shared start­ing point for the strat­e­gy work across the whole net­work. Dur­ing autumn 2026, com­pa­ny and stake­hold­er sur­veys, key inter­views, future-ori­ent­ed work­shops and joint dis­cus­sions with­in the OIA net­work will also be launched. The aim over the com­ing months is to joint­ly out­line what we want to achieve and pur­sue through Oulu Inno­va­tion Alliance coop­er­a­tion in the next peri­od, and what strate­gic choic­es will help us move towards these objec­tives.

In spring 2027, the focus will shift to spec­i­fy­ing strate­gic choic­es, defin­ing the roles and respon­si­bil­i­ties of part­ners, and prepar­ing the fund­ing and oper­at­ing mod­el. The aim is for the agree­ments and shared direc­tion for the new peri­od to be ready before the begin­ning of 2028, when OIA’s 4th peri­od begins.

Impact is cre­at­ed through a shared direc­tion and a recog­nised mis­sion

The plan­ning of the upcom­ing peri­od of Oulu Inno­va­tion Alliance empha­sis­es impact, busi­ness ori­en­ta­tion, inter­na­tion­al­i­ty and the abil­i­ty to respond to rapid­ly chang­ing soci­etal and busi­ness needs. The key ques­tion is: which chal­lenges do we want to solve togeth­er in the Oulu region? OIA’s role will con­tin­ue to be to pro­vide com­pa­nies with a con­nec­tion to research, devel­op­ment, com­pe­tence, exper­i­men­ta­tion envi­ron­ments, inter­na­tion­al net­works and fund­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. Our shared val­ue propo­si­tion has been “the best inno­va­tion part­ner­ship”.

The prepa­ra­tion of the new strat­e­gy is also an invi­ta­tion to take part: the future of RDI coop­er­a­tion in Oulu will be built togeth­er. When region­al actors iden­ti­fy a shared direc­tion, objec­tives, strengths and new oppor­tu­ni­ties, Oulu will strength­en its posi­tion as Europe’s lead­ing ecosys­tem for cre­at­ing glob­al added val­ue through dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion, and will build solu­tions from north­ern inno­va­tions that have glob­al sig­nif­i­cance.

Maria Vuoren­so­la
Pro­gramme Man­ag­er, Oulu Inno­va­tion Alliance
Business­Oulu

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PPS. The 4th agree­ment peri­od of OIA is being pre­pared with the sup­port of the EU co-fund­ed project “Build­ing the Oulu Inno­va­tion Alliance ecosys­tem for the com­ing years” (EPELI). In addi­tion to Business­Oulu, the joint project involves OSAO, Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu. The project is guid­ed by all OIA part­ner organ­i­sa­tions.