Merinova prepares 60 projects a year for the energy cluster
TECHNOLOGY CENTRE Merinova celebrated its 30th year in business in 2019. The company, owned by companies in the Vaasa energy cluster, regional cities, municipalities, universities and schools, is one-of-a-kind in Finland. Merinova’s expertise lies in energy technology and its business is formed by two operations: professional services and project development.
“We bring companies and universities together to collaborate on joint research platforms. Often it is more efficient to work together on new technologies than developing own solutions. One example of a collaboration is our project on 3D metal printing”, says Mika Konu, Managing Director of Merinova.
ONE OF THE PLATFORMS Merinova has taken part in creating for the region is EnergySpin,a growth accelerator for energy sector startups seeking international growth. The programmeis done in collaboration with some of the larger industry partners in the region, offering the participants a chance to work with these giants and giving the partners the opportunity to stay on top of the latest projects in the startup scene. The accelerator has been warmly welcomed: the previous programme got 122 application from 42 countries.
ANOTHER of Merinova’s ongoing projects is the Digitalisation Academy, which has even gathered ministerial interest. The Academy gives graduating ICT and engineering students a grasp of the most current digitalisation developments in the industry by offering them internships in an energy cluster company. In real digitalisation projectsthe students first do credit-earning work for a semester and then write their dissertations for their employer.
“Digitalisation is moving faster than the education in the field, resulting in digital graduates, who don’t have the skills needed in the business. With the success of our Digitalization Academy, theFinnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has financed a documentation project, which allows the model to be duplicated in other regions”, Anna-Kaisa Valkama, Program Director at Merinova tells.
