VTT and IT Center for Science CSC in closer cooperation

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and IT Center for Science CSC have signed a strategic partnership agreement. The three-year agreement seeks to increase national competitiveness and support Finland’s success in science and research. The partners will harness each other’s complementary expertise and jointly engage in national and international networking.

CSC and VTT have previously cooperated on computational research and product development in, for example, fusion research and the modelling of industrial processes. The new partnership seeks to expand and deepen this cooperation.

– By combining our complementary expertise, we can, for example, promote the use of high-performance computing in companies and industry. Cooperation will also provide excellent opportunities to support the utilisation of research results in new services and products, says Antti Vasara, President and CEO of VTT.

Focusing on Big Data, the Internet of Things, and Intelligent Transportation Systems

Future cooperation will focus on a number of areas, such as analysing large data volumes, applications for the Internet of Things, and the use of messaging technology in transportation systems. One common goal is to support Finnish research and companies in their quest for international leadership. New opportunities for cooperation are also being sought in research commercialisation, entrepreneurship, and business development.

The strategic partnership also involves cooperating on the development of internationally competitive research and development infrastructures. These could be, for example, eco-efficient datacenters or cloud computing and data analysis environments serving research and product development. The partners can also cooperate on the design and use of equipment and premises, and on coordinating procurements.

More EU funding for Finland

One important aspect of the strategic partnership is joint participation in national and international projects to develop infrastructure and services for research and product development.

Compared to the other Nordic countries, and in particular a success story such as the Netherlands, Finland is lagging behind in its number of EU projects, proposal acceptance rate, and total volume of funding received.

– By increasing national cooperation, dialogue and coordination, we can significantly improve the amount of EU funding Finland receives and harness the benefits of European projects in Finland, says CSC’s Managing Director Kimmo Koski.