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

The Institute for Environmental Research provides scientific research, services and training in theenvironmental domain for authorities, private and public organizations and firms. The institute also offersaccredited laboratory services. It has a strong national orientation and only one fifth of its operations aredirected at Central Finland. Despite this, the institute plays an important role in the environmental cluster ofCentral Finland as a provider of scientific research, services and training in addition to laboratory services inthe environmental field.The Institute for Educational Research (established in 1968) is a national multidisciplinary research institutebased at the University of Jyväskylä. Its strongest area is national and international assessment andevaluation of education. The Institute has close connections to the whole educational field and authorities inthe region of Jyväskylä. Its main challenge, also from the regional perspective, is to transform the results andoutcomes of educational research into product or service innovations.Besides these separate research institutions there are other R&D units operating within the faculties. Fromthe regional perspective, the Information Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and Expert Division of theSchool of Business and Economics are important actors. The Information Technology Research Institute(ITRI) is an independent unit of the Faculty of Information Technology and its operations are focused on thedevelopment and transfer of technological knowledge in the region. They It offers high level tailoredresearch to its customers, including a large number of firms and public authorities, in their fields of expertisewhich are software engineering, organizational information management and educational technology. Theinstitute operates in close contact with the firms of the Jyväskylä region.The Expert Division operates as part of the School of Business and Economics. It focuses on fulfilling itssocietal service task by providing R&D services to public sector organizations and firms. Its fields ofexpertise include evaluation and effectiveness projects, regional economic research, labour market issues andresearch into the operations of enterprises. The customers of the Expert Division consist of both national andregional bodies.4.6 Responding to regional needs and demandsFollowing the recession period in the early 1990s the Jyväskylä region has undergone a rapid growth andtoday it is one of the five growth centres in Finland. The crucial question today is how to maintain andcontinue this favourable development path in the dynamic and knowledge-oriented global environment. Thediverse innovation potential of the HEIs in the region of Jyväskylä is not fully exploited in the region at themoment. One of the key challenges is to secure the continuation of the innovation process from theinnovation resources (e.g. infrastructure and networks) to the realization of the innovations in the economy.The process of transforming research results and service ideas into commercial products is of specialimportance and should be rendered more efficient in the region of Jyväskylä. Instead of concentrating on thedevelopment of some specific industry, the role of new types of innovation (e.g., cultural and socialinnovations) and their horizontal exploitation as a prerequisite for regional growth and competitivenessshould be emphasized. This implies that the traditional boundaries between different industries are breakingapart and that the region’s ability to combine knowledge from different fields and to operate innovatively intheir interfaces has become more and more important (i.e. networking). In the Jyväskylä region thedevelopment of wellness technology and extension of ICT to traditional industries are good examples of newhorizontal openings (Box 4.3).50