VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
Inspiring Business
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has 70 years of experience in addressing the needs of industry and the knowledge-based society. VTT, the Technical Research Centre of Finland, is a government organisation established by law and operating under the auspices of the Ministry of Employment and the Economy. VTT operates under the public mandate established for it by the Act on the Technical Research Centre of Finland 953/2010.
The Research Centre is impartial non-profit expert organisation acting independently in respect of its customers. The objectives of the Research Centre are to create high level scientific and techno-economic knowledge and know-how and to generate technology and innovations for industry and society. The Research Centre improves its clients’ technological and economical competitiveness and promotes socio-political planning and execution.
This mandate requires VTT to develop and manage strategic research activities in the interest of the Finnish economy and society and thereby to help create the prerequisites for sustainable growth, employment and well-being. These research activities are planned and implemented as multi-year, coordinated research and innovation programmes. In order to allow VTT to carry out the high-risk strategic research necessary to generate the knowledge and know-how required for fulfilling its public mandate, VTT receives substantial funding directly from the Finnish government. This funding presently amounts to approximately 30% of VTT’s total income. In 2011, VTT’s turnover was 280 million €, with personnel of 2800.
By virtue of its status as a government organisation, its public mandate, and its substantial research programmes, VTT is the largest public multitechnological applied research organisation in Finland and Northern Europe. VTT’s technological focus areas are applied materials; bio and chemical processes; energy; information and communication technologies; industrial systems; microtechnologies and electronics; and services and the built environment. VTT is transdisciplinary in its overall approach to research and development.
Further, VTT is accustomed to work through and coordinate large projects. In 2011, VTT was involved in 322 EU-funded research projects (mainly FP7, but also CIP, RFCS, JU, EIT) and is ranked among the leading Research and Technology Organisations in Europe.
VTT Innovation Studies (VTT-IS) performs interdisciplinary research on the interface between technology, the economy and society including technology foresight and technology assessment. The research of VTT Innovation Studies supports strategic choices and decisions made by actors and organisations of innovation policy and businesses nationally and internationally both in developed economies as well as in emerging developing economies. The main expertise areas of VTT-IS are innovation and innovations, industrial renewal and knowledge economy, technology foresight and assessment, and innovation policy and impact assessment of RTD. The assessment of economic, social and ecological effects of technological change is an integral element of research. Research consists of studies with different aspects of inclusive innovations, innovation systems, technological developments and STI policies in developed and developing economies worldwide.