Data economy brings international growth – Business Finland has launched a funding call and data economy program
The success of companies will be increasingly linked to the data economy, where the winners will be selected by their know-how in data sharing. Business Finland wants to help Finnish companies on this path.
Data is a special commodity because it doesn't weigh anything, doesn't need a truck to be moved around, and doesn't wear out in use. The value of data increases depending on how efficiently it can be utilized. When we let go of considering data as just an asset to be protected, the utilization of data opens up to introduce new international business opportunities.
Finnish companies already have expertise in the data economy: companies like Relex and Aiven produce solutions that use data to grow business.
More traditional industrial companies, such as Ponsse, improve the use and monitoring of their equipment with the help of data. Vaisala has expanded its business from the sale of measuring devices to the commercialization of the data produced by the devices. The challenge is that Finland needs immediately multiply the number of companies like these.
The data economy opens up opportunities to develop the operations, services and products of companies widely in different industries and especially between industries.
Business Finland accelerates the development of digitization and the data economy
The data economy has a strong connection to digitalization and productivity. One of Finland's key challenges compared to peer countries is the slow development of productivity. Sweden has been able to invest in structural change, where traditional industry increases its productivity by complementing physical products with digital services and developing completely new intangible assets based on data. If a similar product is made in nine days in a competitor country, and it takes 10 days to make in Finland, we give the opponent an unsustainable competitive advantage.
Business Finland recently launched the Data Economy program to encourage Finnish companies to utilize data in their business. We want to increase Finnish know-how in the data economy, support innovations and business networks in the data economy, and support new international growth companies that utilize data. The program focuses especially on the opportunities emerging from data sharing.
The data economy program aims for a change where Finnish companies create significant new international business based on data sharing. We want our new program to have a direct impact on the birth of more Finnish companies and for our productivity to rise one step ahead of our competitors.
Search for topics in data economy in progress
In order to map ideas and Finnish know-how related to the data economy, Business Finland also launched a call for ideas for RDI development projects. Exceptionally, the application also grants funding for research projects.
The call is looking for development projects related to the data economy, which aim to increase Finnish know-how and companies' ability to create new export business through the utilization and sharing of data.
Projects can be related to, for example, data ownership, management and sharing, data marketplaces and platforms, new earning models, and the interoperability of data and different systems.
Towards new international growth
At Business Finland, we believe that data and the value created by sharing it play an important role in the competitiveness of companies and economies. We want Finland to succeed in this competition and beat companies that make less use of data in the international market.
Interested? Mark your calendar for May 9th when Business Finland will formally launch the program in an afternoon seminar with world class lectures and an extensive data economy networking plaza with leading data sharing ecosystems presented. Stay tuned, registration will open soon!
Also don't miss our webinar on April 25th to hear how our partner Frost & Sullivan sees the data economy.