Finland - Jyvaskyla Region - Final Self-Evaluation Report.pdf

the potential of growth enterprises. The process of productising and development of technology should alsobe made faster.With the new university law (especially on inventions and commercialization), deepening the co-operationwith the HEIs has become even more important than before. This includes developing services, allocatingresources and organising functions for example so that the HEIs (the university) would buy certain servicesfrom the Science Park.All in all, the co-operation between the Science Park and the HEIs is considered to be working quite well.However, sometimes the competition between the different departments of the university on the sameprojects and on funding causes problems. Sometimes there are also problems in the reporting chain andgeneral project management (for example in keeping on schedule) of joint projects.Regional Council of Central FinlandRole of the organizationRegional councils of provinces are authorities legally in charge of regional development and they act as akind of interest group of the municipalities. The Regional Council of Central Finland sees itself as the coordinatorof regional development that gathers all the operators around it and is responsible for provincialstrategy work. The conflict between the goals of development for the Jyväskylä region and the wholeprovince has cleared considerably during the last years, and the importance of a strong central region isrecognized more widely all the time.Role of the HEIsStrengthening competence is a clear area of emphasis in provincial development. In this both vocationaleducational organizations and the HEIs have a significant role. Vocational institutions in particular, but alsoJyväskylä polytechnic in increasing amounts, produce skilled human resources to the needs of the province.This is why the allocation of starter places of educational institutions to right fields of study is essential forthe supply and demand of labour to meet in the region. From the point of view of the innovation chain, theuniversity delivers the internationality, the knowledge and high level of competence, whereas the polytechnicoperates closer to the SMEs. In terms of provincial development, the University is seen more in the nationaland international networks. With the societal service task, there is the need for discussion about increasingregional orientation also at the University. The general conception of the Regional Council of CentralFinland in HEIs is that it is a distant financier. Creating real co-operation requires more development.Weak spots and areas to develop in the co-operation with the HEIsConnecting and unifying the strategies of the HEIs and the Regional Council of Central Finland is becomingincreasingly important for supervision of the interests and for acquiring resources. It is necessary to createstable models of co-operation for this. At the same time, more programmatic thinking should me integratedin to the thinking of the HEIs. Enforcing the regional development thinking within staff and sending positivesigns that emphasize co-operation to the region are considered important, especially for the university.More open co-operation between and mutual loyalty in considering the division of tasks between JyväskyläPolytechnic and the university is wanted. New innovation activity, that can find its highest potential at theinterfaces of co-operation, is expected of the HEIs. It would be necessary to integrate a way of thinking thatis holistic from a regional developmental point of view, into both HEIs.The intermediary organizations in the region form a significant resource in the region’s innovation chaintogether with the HEIs. It would be important to further tighten the co-operation between these operators, sothat the efficiency of screening of commercially viable ideas and the number of enterprises in the regionwould increase.The importance of OPTIIMI and the regional competence programmes it has developed are emphasized. Theview of the Regional Council of Central Finland is, that OPTIIMI is an excellent instrument ofcommunication and co-operation between the HEIs and the regions, and more investments should be made inorder to fully utilize it.141