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Annual Review 2013

Tspvuoskari2013 eng web

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Page 1: Tspvuoskari2013 eng web

Annual Review

2013

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Innovate to Accelerate

Review by the CEO

2013 a successful year in the biotechnology sector

ICT sector in Southwest Finland in 2013

Business Development

Centre of Expertise

Marketing and Communication

Turku Science Park Ltd.

in 2013TABLE OF CONTENTS

4681013-17

1821-25

2628-29

3032-33

3436-38

Case: Forendo Pharma develops new hormonal drugs BioTurku® department reviewCase: 10 million tests per year and counting

Case: Teleconsultation and self-management integrated in daily health care ICT Turku department review Case: Multipurpose sensor technology

Case: From tap to world tradeCase: Bigdatapump follows digital footsteps

Turku Science Park events in 2013 | Headlines in 2013

Case: OSKE period culminates in Team Finland Road Show Case: Better procurement through dialogue

Report by the Board of Directors, income statement and balance sheet 2013

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ENAB

LERS

ENABLERS OF

PRODUCERS OFNEW INFORMATIONUNIVERSITIES & INSTITUTES

OF HIGHER EDUCATION

BUSINESSPU

BLIC

SEC

TOR

NEW KNOWLEDGE

4 | Innovate to Accelerate

Turku Science Park Ltd. Innovate

to Accelerate

Turku lives on expertise and is

inspired by innovations

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Innovate to Accelerate | 5

Turku Science Park Ltd. promotes the utilisation of expertise centred around institutes of higher educa-tion and the competitiveness of companies. It also generates new business activities in the biotechnol-ogy (BioTurku® – Life Sciences and materials technol-ogy) and information and communications technology (ICT Turku) sectors.

High expertise business is promoted by means of func-tioning co-operation between universities and institutes of higher education, companies and the public sector. Turku Science Park Ltd. is an impartial, not-for-profit company, which works in partnership with universities and institutes of higher education, as well as with both start-up and existing growth companies. We provide companies with services related to, for example, launch-ing and developing their operations as well as interna-tionalisation. In addition to the biotechnology and ICT sectors, we also support other business operations associated with high technology and expertise. Every idea deserves to be examined, even if it does not gen-erate business operations. Our services help compa-nies save time, effort and money and include the use of our network.

about our operations, make use of our growth and development services, or take steps to go international www.turkusciencepark.com

Learn more

COMPANIES AND REGIONAL WELL-BEING THROUGH EXPERTISEThe task of Turku Science Park Ltd., as a company focusing on enterprises and research for the City of Turku, is closely linked to the well-being of companies. Developing research-based and high expertise business is the driving force behind the success of the Turku eco-nomic region, since without expertise and jobs, other benefits to be shared will also be few and far between.

The co-operation and the economic success it boosts in the region also serve the development of the univer-sities and institutes of higher education in Turku and assist them in obtaining funding. High-quality basic and applied research are often a starting point for new product and service innovations. Making commercial use of these innovations requires practical expertise in networking, project consulting and projectisation, as well as practical knowledge of various aspects of business operations. We are an independent business service company, which has been promoting the oper-ations of small and medium-sized businesses based on high expertise for 25 years. As a rule, our services are free of charge.

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6 | Review by the CEO

The prolonged economic recession in Europe is not showing signs of subsiding. Germany, as the engine of the European economy, is beginning to regain its former momentum, but the rest of Europe is having a hard time following suit. The economic conditions are now less favourable for large companies, but there are more opportunities for small and medium-sized com-panies. It can therefore be said that the future belongs to the small and the agile.

The march of small companies is also visible in the focus of public funding. In the EU’s funding programme period which ended in 2013, funding for SMEs was scarce, and even extremely minimal, compared to the funding reserved for them in the new programmes. The new situation is favourable for Turku Science Park Ltd.’s customers as well, most of whom are SMEs. We now need to locate and offer our services to the compa-nies with the most interest in networking, growth and internationalisation. Funding bodies will also like them.

We are constantly renewing our operations in order to keep up with development. Planning new operat-ing environment for companies in their early stages of development played a major role in 2013. This

endeavour, dubbed Ahjo (“a forge”), will join forces with Turku-based actors in order to generate new business operations and to improve the operating conditions of start-up companies. Large companies can also bene-fit considerably from Ahjo by linking in our operations as well as connecting with other innovative companies and organisations. It is time for companies and organ-isations in Turku and Southwest Finland to show what we can accomplish together.

A good example of what can be achieved together was the application submitted in 2013 for the national Inno-vative Cities (INKA) programme. 150 people representing the different actors in the region took part in the prepa-ration of the application, with and the public and private sectors and academia each being represented in equal proportions. This broad and multisectoral combination helped us complete the INKA application,which high-lighted the strengths of the region, for the Ministry of Employment and the Economy. While our contribution could have related to any or all of the available themes, Turku’s input in the new programme, we decided, will focus specifically on the themes of “Future health care” and “Smart cities and industrial regeneration”.

In doing things together and creating new, old silos between sectors should be torn down, and a thematic approach be adopted. Only by letting go of earlier, linear thinking and by expanding our horizons can we accom-plish new, world-class innovations. The national Cen-tre of Expertise programme which ended in 2013 was heavily sector-centred, but despite that we were able to introduce interdisciplinary approaches in the operations we were involved in. A good example of this was the networking that happened between actors in the ICT sector and those in the Tourism and Experience Man-agement as well as the Maritime Centres of Expertise.

Reviewby the CEO

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Although this kind of activity seems fairly natural and simple, there is still extensive need for intermediary organisations such as TScP who bring together the expertise of various actors.

The completion of the Centre of Expertise (OSKE) pro-gramme in 2013, the delayed funding decisions in the INKA programme and the uncertainties around the timing of the EU’s new funding programme raised concerns in TScP regarding funding for 2014. Therefore, we had to carry out statutory labour negotiations in the autumn to adjust the number of personnel to the changed sit-uation. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all employees whose employment with us ended for their valuable work input and the expertise they offered the company over the years.

As we were hit by funding challenges, we also had to come up with new ways to obtain external funding and to maintain the volume of operations. One of the oppor-tunities to open up was the Nordic Innovation funding institution which launched a call for applications for Nordic networking projects in the autumn. A total of 54 applications were submitted, of which ten received funding in the end. Among the projects funded, TScP participates in three, which is more than any of the other organisations. Let this be an indication of our expertise and the right direction of our operations!

Rikumatti LevomäkiCEO, Turku Science Park Ltd.

Review by the CEO | 7

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8 | Report by the Board of Directors

The City Council of Turku approved the City of Turku Competence, Entrepreneurship and Business programme in 2009, which has also been guiding the operations of Turku Science Park Ltd. in recent years. In accordance with the City’s ownership policy, TScP’s tasks include the commercialisation of innovations created by institutes of higher education as well as the development of busi-ness operations in selected areas of high technology. The focus areas are biotechnology / materials technol-ogy and ICT. Central tools for carrying out these tasks include pre-incubators, business incubators, business accelerators, project activities, and consulting related to business development. In addition, TScP was the co-or-dinator for the national Centre of Expertise Programme for Southwest Finland and the national co-ordinator of the HealthBIO cluster.

2013 was a year of considerable changes. The City of Turku Competence, Entrepreneurship and Business pro-gramme was completed at the end of the year, and the preparation of a new competitiveness programme replac-ing it began as part of the City of Turku strategy work.

The national Centre of Expertise programme, which spanned 20 years, ended in 2013. The programme included several periods and a number of development stages but the time for renewal had come. The Centre of Expertise programme was replaced by a new national programme called Innovative Cities – INKA. However, the new programme has not got off to the desired start that was anticipated and has not been launched accord-ing to schedule or with the intended scope and content.

The European Union’s programme period also ended at the end of 2013. The start of the new programme period for 2014–2020 has been postponed until later in 2014 with respect to funding applications and decisions, as expected. This has created funding challenges for Turku Science Park Ltd. and several other development and research organisations.

Due to the aforementioned changes affecting the avail-ability of external funding, Turku Science Park Ltd. had to prepare for the anticipated uncertainty in funding at the beginning of 2014 during the period under review. Therefore, the company conducted statutory labour negotiations in the autumn which resulted in the termi-nation of the employment contracts of seven people. In the Annual General Meeting in the spring, TScP Ltd.’s Articles of Association were amended so that the com-pany is now officially a not-for-profit organisation. The solutions reached will secure the company’s financial standing and operating capacity in the future as well.

Biocelex Oy, a joint venture of TScP and Karolinska Insti-tutet Holding Ab, is an accelerator company catering to the needs of the Life Sciences sector and operating on a commercial basis. Biocelex assesses the commercial potential of biotechnology innovations by utilising Kar-olinska’s tools and aims to make use of Karolinska’s investment fund, in which TScP is also a shareholder. MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATIONThe Board of Directors elected in the Annual General Meeting consists of Pekka Sundman (Chairman), Seppo Lehtinen, Riitta Koskimies, Jorma Mattinen, Aleksi Randell, Matti Rihko, Jukka Rinnevaara and Kalervo Väänänen. Tuomas Heikkinen acted as the Secretary to the Board of Directors. Rikumatti Levomäki acted as the company’s CEO.

Reportby the Board of Directors

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Turku Science Park Vuosikatsaus 2013 | 9

Number of employees

38PERSONNELAt the end of the financial year, the Group employed 38 people, of whom 37 were with the parent company. ASSESSMENT OF THE MOST IMPORTANT RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES IN OPERATIONSIn connection with the strategy work they performed, TScP assessed risks and uncertainties related to the scope and structure of its operations, as well as other factors affecting the development of its operations.

The aim to expand the funding basis outside the City of Turku is has to do with uncertainties which are now being realised – at least for a while. Due to the uncertain global economic situation, the risks involved in invest-ment have also become more pronounced. However, proportionate to the overall situation, these risks are not considered to be very significant. FUTURE OUTLOOKThe Centre of Expertise programme period ended at the end of 2013. The company participated in preparing the INKA application for the Turku urban area. The funding decisions of the new 2014 programme will affect the

company’s future operating conditions considerably.

Because the process that was begun with the intention of developing Biocelex Oy did not yield the expected results, the future of the company must be resolved in other ways. As the company has no opportunities to con-duct profitable business operations, it will be merged with the parent company, and co-operation with actors of the Karolinska Group will continue within the parent company.

The business incubator activities will be developed and completely new operating models will be implemented in the companies’ scope of services in co-operation with other actors. At the same time, own incubator services and subleasing operations will be discontinued, with the exception of the Bio Incubator, which will continue in terms of the related special requirements. BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ PROPOSAL FOR DIVIDENDSThe parent company’s profit for the financial period was EUR 48,922.55, and the Group’s profit for the financial period was EUR 49,255.38. The Board proposes that no dividend be paid.

Income statementand balance sheet 2013

INCOME STATEMENT

Revenue 5 236 281,30 €Materials and services -1 190 738,15 €Personnel costs -2 452 879,15 €Depreciation and impairments -31 071,13 €Other operating expenses -1 393 356,86 €Operating profit 168 236,01 €Financial income and expenses -118 980,63 €Net result 49 255,38 €

BALANCE SHEET

Assets:Non-current assets 1 791 153,40 € Current assets 6 156 109,42 € Assets total 7 947 262,82 €

Liabilities:Equity 6 142 812,99 € Liabilities 1 804 449,83 € Liabilities total 7 947 262,82 €

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10 | 2013 in the biotechnology sector

The biotechnology sector brought long-awaited positive news in 2013. Turku-based pharmaceuticals development received world-class recognition with the international registration of as many as three drugs developed in Turku. Turku is a key region in the development of the biotechnology and Life Sciences sectors in Finland, and pharmaceu-ticals development carried out in the region is recognised by the sector around the world. Turku’s strong tradition in pharmaceuticals development dates all the way back to the 1940s. Innovations have always stemmed from academic research and active, growth-ori-ented companies skilled in product development. This positive trend is also manifested in increased jobs in the sector.

Large engine companies continue to growBayer is a powerful engine in the pharmaceuticals industry in the region and the largest payer of community tax in Turku. The annual sales of the hormonal IUD Mirena, the flag-ship product of Bayer’s Turku plant, reached EUR 719 million last year. A new addition to the range of polymer-based products developed in Finland was also included, as the newest intrauterine contraceptive Skyla® was introduced on the US market at the begin-ning of 2013. In Europe, the product was launched under the brand name Jaydess®. Both Jaydess and Skyla are also manufactured at Bayer’s plant in Turku. In 2013, the number of Bayer’s employees in Finland increased by 30 people.

Sales to end customers of Wallac Oy, a PerkinElmer Human Health unit in Turku, grew by seven per cent, approaching approximately EUR 230 million. The sales of the company’s

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2013 in the biotechnology sector | 11

Hormos Medical Oy’s Finnish drug invention, ospemifene, received marketing authorisation in the USA. Ospemifene is the first targeted drug for treating post-menopausal vaginal dryness. Hormos Medical first developed the drug on its own and later together with its parent company QuatRx Pharmaceuticals. The drug has been licenced for marketing to the Japanese company Shionogi, who were the first to bring the drug to the market in the USA.

Forendo Pharma, a new pharmaceuticals development company, started at Turku Science Park. The com-pany collected a—by Finnish standards—exceptional amount of EUR 10 million in funding from leading Nor-dic investors in the sector: Karolinska Development AB and Novo Seeds as well as Finnvera and the Finnish Funding Agency for Science and Innovation (Tekes). Forendo Pharma acquired the pharmaceuticals devel-opment programmes for endometriosis and male low testosterone from Hormos Medical.

Exports of diagnos-tics and measuring instruments on the increaseTurku-based HyTest is one of the world’s leading sup-pliers of raw materials to the diagnostics industry. Pow-erful investment in international sales, direct customer contacts with the world’s largest diagnostics companies and a more active commercial utilisation of the compa-ny’s own IP portfolio have played a role in keeping the company competitive. The foundation of the compa-ny’s sales continued to be its cardiac markers, which are based on the company’s own innovations. Other important segments included the product families for infections and diabetes. Exports accounted for a tradi-tionally high 96 per cent of sales. The company’s invest-ment in the subsidiary in China is starting to show in the sales figures, and currently China is HyTest’s sec-ond most important market area after North America.

DHR Finland Ltd., or Innotrac Diagnostics, is a rapidly growing company focusing on rapid point-of-care diag-nostics for myocardial infarction. Its production grew by more than 80 per cent last year. The company currently employs approximately 120 people, and hired more than twenty new employees last year. Its success is based on an easy-to-use, all-in-one dry chemistry concept developed using research from the University of Turku, as well as drawing on the solid distribution expertise of its Danish parent company in Europe and China.

Abacus Diagnostica Ltd. has succeeded with a new form of automated laboratory testing system built on DNA-based microbial identification. A total of more than

core products, or prenatal and neonatal screening systems, increased by nearly 12 per cent. Of the con-stituents in the global PerkinElmer Group, the Turku unit is a top expert in regulative matters. Therefore, it is becoming the Group’s manufacturing centre for in vitro diagnostics, with annual investments of approxi-mately EUR 4 million.

In 2013, the company introduced new products based on molecular diagnostics to the market, such as a screening test for neonatal immunodeficiency and a diagnostic test for the fragileX syndrome. The com-pany’s outlook continues to be favourable, since the sales of both its own products and the absolute mar-ket size are growing. Therefore, the team of approxi-mately 550 professionals recruits additional expertise at regular intervals.

Orion’s revenue exceeded the threshold of EUR 1 bil-lion in 2013. Sales of products based on Orion’s own research accounted for approximately 44 per cent of the pharmaceutical business revenue. Significant good news included the following: submitting a marketing authorisation application in order to expand the Easy-haler® product family used for treating asthma and pul-monary oedema; submitting a marketing authorisation application in Japan for Stalevo®, a drug treating Par-kinson’s disease; as well as a licence agreement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals for the development and com-mercialisation of a new drug for Alzheimer’s.

Orion has also established a packaging and logistics centre employing approximately 100 people in Salo. In addition, the Turku plant is undergoing a sizeable expansion in order to increase the manufacturing of the Axiron™ testosterone treatment. Overall, Orion’s investments totalled EUR 78 million in 2013. Orion employed approximately 3,500 people, of whom about 800 worked in the Turku unit.

Historic breakthrough in pharmaceuticals developmentBiotie Therapies Corporation made history in Finn-ish pharmaceuticals development by being the first Finnish SME to receive marketing authorisation for its product. In the spring of 2013, Biotie´s partner H. Lundbeck A/S received European marketing authori-sation for Selincro, a product aimed at treating alcohol dependence. Biotie also licenced its drug candidate being developed for Parkinson’s diseases to the Bel-gian UCB. In addition, Biotie has obtained an option to acquire the share capital of Neurelis Inc., based in San Diego, CA in the USA. Neurelis’ lead product, NRL-1, is a proprietary, patented intranasal formula-tion for treating patients with epilepsy.

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12 | 2013 in the biotechnology sector

50 devices in test systems designed for laboratories in hospitals and in the healthcare sector for the identifi-cation of, in particular, the MRSA bacterium and Clos-tridium difficile, a cause of diarrhoea in patients taking antibiotics, have already been sold to twelve countries. Last year, Abacus introduced a new test developed for rapid detection of pneumococcal bacteria in its product range. The test has marketing authorisation in Europe.

ArcDia International Ltd.’s mariPOC® point-of-care diagnostics business is progressing briskly. Distribution agreements were signed in most European countries and China last year for the world’s only rapid test sys-tem providing multiple test results, developed by the company for respiratory tract infections. The company is also in the process of developing point-of-care tests for other infectious diseases.

New products from biomaterialsThe biomaterials sector continued to gradually trans-form nearly twenty years of research into commercial products and business operations. everX Posterior, a fibre-reinforced composite designed for use as dentine replacement, developed jointly by the Turku Clinical Biomaterials Centre and Stick Tech Oy, received five international innovation awards in 2013. The innova-tion is based on fibre-reinforced composite technology which strengthens the tooth filling material, making it more durable than other filling composites. The inven-tion stands to benefit hundreds of millions of patients whose amalgam fillings are replaced after they have reached the end of their lifecycle.

BonAlive Biomaterials Ltd., a Turku-based manufac-turer of implantable bone replacement technologies, announced it will introduce the easy-to-use and mould-able BonAlive® putty bone replacement replacement to the market; the product it has developed and pat-ented for treatment of chronically infected bone. The BonAlive® putty will expand BonAlive’s product range, in which the first products were authorised for ortho-paedic use in 2006 and for bone cavity filling in chronic infections in 2011.

Skulle Implants Ltd. started manufacturing cranial implants, or prostheses intended for the skull, toward the end of the year. The Turku-based invention is the only implant containing bioactive glass. It enables cir-culation and bone growth in the implant. The infection risk is also reduced.

Biobanks, nanotechnology and bioeconomy open up new opportunitiesThe University of Turku, the Intermunicipal Hospital Dis-trict of Southwest Finland and the Satakunta Hospital District established Auria Biobank, the first professional biobank for university hospitals. Auria Biobank is the first clinical biobank to apply for a licence from the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health, Valvira. Biobanks, together with the unique Finnish healthcare registers, provide exceptionally extensive resources for medical research which is unique on a global level. Preparations for the establishment of a centre of exper-tise for the European Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI) are under-way in Turku. The centre of expertise will strengthen the biotechnology competence profile of Turku in Europe.

The biobank operations aim to generate benefits for both individuals and society. For example, cancer treat-ments can be increasingly tailored to suit the needs of individual patients, and will also be more cost-effective thanks to the increased accuracy of diagnostics. There-fore, biobank research is well suited for enhancing the region’s strong research expertise and the operating conditions of biotechnology companies.

Nanotechnology, just like other material technologies, is not sector-dependent but consists of several technolo-gies dealing with similar matters. In Southwest Finland as it is elsewhere, nanotechnology companies exist in numerous sectors. The majority of the companies in the region are small, employing fewer than ten people. The sector is internationalising powerfully: a quarter of Finland’s nanotechnology companies are currently operating solely in the domestic market, but accord-ing to estimates, in as early as 2015 approximately half of companies will rely on exports for more than 80 per cent of their revenue. Southwest Finland participated in the Nano cluster of the national Centre of Expertise program in 2011–2013, and this period was enough to bring together material and nanotechnology experts from the region’s universities and companies. More than 20 research groups in Turku include material researchers, and it has been important to harness their expertise to support the region’s business.

The Turku region also boasts strong expertise in indus-trial biotechnology and bioeconomy which stems from the long history of research in the fields of wood and paper chemistry technologies at the region’s institutes of higher education. There are more than one hundred companies in the sector in Southwest Finland, spear-heading developmemt in chemical technology, process competence and, for example, utilising industrial side flows and using biomasses in the production of energy and valuable materials.

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BioTurku® | 13

Forendo Pharma develops new drugs targeting

The core group of developers of a hormone drug already marketed in the USA received EUR 10 million in initial funding for Forendo Pharma. The Turku-based company’s two most promising and advanced drugs were developed in co-operation with University of Turku researchers.

CASE

The story that began with pharmaceuticals development company Hormos Medical Oy’s co-operation with University of Turku in 1997 had a happy ending in April 2013, when ospemifene, a menopausal drug developed by the company, received marketing authori-sation in the USA. Risto Lammintausta, who has been leading the company ever since its establishment, witnesses the results of his 16 years of work when visiting the USA in January 2014: an extensive television cam-paign advertised ospemifene to consumers. Such advertising would not even be possible for prescription drugs in Finland. “Ospemifene is a targeted drug in tablet form for treating vaginal dryness in menopausal women. Its sales are expected to be good in the US, as it will be replacing an estrogen drug which has side effects, such as a slightly elevated risk of breast cancer, and the other alternative, a topical treatment, has not been very popular either,” Lammintausta says.

Initially, Hormos Medical Ltd. developed the drug on its own, but the lack of funding nearly halted the development. The development was completed with the help of the new owner, the American QuatRx Pharmaceuti-cals. QuatRx’s distribution partner Shionogi

will gradually expand marketing globally.

NEW DRUGS, NEW COMPANYThe core team of ospemifene developers now continue to work on new drugs in Forendo Pharma Oy, established in the summer of 2013, in Turku and Oulu. Research cooper-ation with universities also continues in both cities. The new company received initial fund-ing worth a total of EUR 10 million, of which the majority will be spent on subcontracting.

“Our operating method has become much more effective, and we no longer develop everything alone but collaborate with special-ised laboratories and other service providers around the world. We now have extremely good possibilities to succeed. Hormos Medi-cal’s success helped us obtain the best pos-sible funding partners to back us, and the Swedish Karolinska Development AB spe-cialised in medical funding and the Danish Novo Seeds are also helping us create our network. In addition, Finnish partners include Finnvera and the Finnish Funding Agency for Science and Innovation Tekes.

Forendo Pharma is developing two hor-mone drugs which were initiated at Hor-mos. The company is developing a targeted

endometriosis drug for women which inhib-its the 17B-HSD1 enzyme and regulates hormone levels in the endometriotic tissue. The new drug concept has been studied by research teams lead by Professor Matti Poutanen and Docent Antti Perheentupa at the University of Turku. The development of fispemifene, a hormone drug affecting the male testosterone regulating system, is even more advanced. The company is currently seeking a partner in the US for phase 3 clin-ical trials with 1,000 patients.

CONTACTS AND FUNDING THROUGH TURKU SCIENCE PARKCooperation with Turku Science Park Ltd. began when Hormos Medical started its operations and it still continues.

“Turku Science Park Ltd.’s assistance has been active and concrete in locating facil-ities, creating contacts and finding capital investors. It has also been possible for us to make use of the networks of HealthBIO clus-ter’s service companies, and Turku Science Park Ltd. has also promoted the operating conditions of the sector nationwide,” Risto Lammintausta says.

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14 | Turku Science Park Vuosikatsaus 2013

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BioTurku® | 15

Southwest Finland is the strongest and most versa-tile region providing services to pharmaceuticals and diagnostics development in the country. BioTurku® promotes internationalisation of companies, transfer of research data and research cooperation between insti-tutes of higher education and companies. It is partic-ularly important to identify and promote new business which develops infrastructure and business opportu-nities, as well as to increase international awareness of the region. In 2013, BioTurku focused on activating regional projects, such as the Auria biobank, promot-ing international business opportunities of companies and service units and co-operation between material, nano and biotechnologies as well as promoting exper-tise-based seminar activities.

PROFILING THROUGH INTERNATIONAL SEMINARSIn order to promote expertise-based seminar activities, we organised the “Materials for Future Sensor Technol-ogy” seminar, which continued the efforts initiated the previous year to raise the international profile of mate-rials expertise in Turku. As an extension to the “Meet Your Nano” event, we organised business-to-business meetings for companies. In these events, experts talked about the opportunities provided by nanotechnology to improve companies’ products.

In addition, we organised the “Bioeconomy to support glocal business in Southwest Finland?” seminar, which aimed to encourage networking among bioeconomy experts in the Turku region and to improve the con-ditions of growth in the sector’s business operations.

In the now traditional Crosslinks seminar series, we organised the “Crosslinks Turku – Neuroscience” confer-ence to accelerate co-operation between neuroscience research and businesses. Moreover, we organised the “Microbiota and Human Health” seminar jointly with the University of Turku during the European Biotech Week.

We also participated in the national planning of labo-ratory animal science activities (FinLAS), and in asso-ciation with this, we are preparing an extensive Nor-dic conference for laboratory animal researchers in Turku in 2015.

BIOTURKU SUPPORTING KEY PROJECTSBioTurku has been promoting the participation of Turku-based teams in the EATRIS (European Infrastructure for Translational Medicine) bio marker network. In addition, BioTurku has been working as a facilitator and discus-sion opener for materials and bioimaging research teams of Åbo Akademi University which are preparing for an extensive launch of strategic research.

We have also provided significant support to Auria Biobank, the joint biobank initiative of the University of Turku, the Intermunicipal Hospital District of Southwest Finland and the Satakunta Hospital District. Our support for the biobank has been in the form of assistance in applying for operational environment support allowance and in the preparation of the “Biobanks – Bridging Basic Research and Clinical Practice” seminar. In addition, we hosted the negotiations around research co-operation between Auria Biobank and a large international com-pany in the spring 2013. The biobank operations aim to generate benefits for both individuals and society, for example by offering treatments that can be increasingly tailored to suit the needs of individual patients and that will also be more cost-effective thanks to the increased accuracy of diagnostics. With the help of more effec-tive research, we hope that the region will also attract foreign investments.

In order to market the region’s research expertise to for-eign actors, we compiled a sales brochure on the PET centre’s services and a brochure on cancer research expertise in the Turku region. In addition, we produced the Find BioFinland 2013 publication in order to attract international research activities to Finland and, in par-ticular, to raise large companies’ interest in Finnish research and companies.

In order to obtain and direct development funds to the region in the upcoming INKA – Innovative Cities project, we participated as a partner in the “Future health care” theme coordinated by Oulu and under “Resource-in-telligent Finland” in the “Industrial regeneration” theme coordinated by Tampere.

PARTNERS FROM EAST AND WESTBioTurku is a member of the Baltic Sea Health Region,

BioTurku®

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16 | BioTurku®

the core group of the Baltic Sea strategy flagship proj-ect, as a task force partner. This will make it easier for participants from Turku to join EU projects in the future. Our first joint project, HealthPORT, which aims to pro-mote the commercialisation of inventions made in hos-pitals among SMEs, organised two innovation contests.

The end seminar of the “Elämän merkit (Biomark-ers)” project, “Biomarkers – Translating opportunities to applications in the clinical setting”, was organised at the beginning of December. In order to accelerate business operations focusing on resource-efficiency, we launched a joint project called “Recycling business and resource-efficiency; the strengths of Southwest Fin-land” with the Turku University of Applied Sciences. The project is funded by the Regional Development Fund of Southern Finland.

Turku Science Park Ltd. has been preparing extensive biotechnology collaboration with Russian counterparts. In the summer, we signed co-operation agreements with the Skolkovo high-tech hub, and in the autumn, with Russian Venture Company RVC. We hope that these agreements will open new markets and co-operation opportunities for Turku-based Life Sciences companies in Russia. In addition, we participated in the St. Peters-burg Innovation Week, where we organised a biotech-nology seminar and introduced Turku-based expertise in our booth at the Fair.

We also signed a new strategic co-operation agreement with the Akron/Cleveland bioscience hub in Ohio, USA. The goal of this co-operation is to help Turku-based companies to gain easier access to the US market and, on the other hand, offer Turku as a base for Ohio companies preparing to enter the European market.

PARTNERS FOR CUSTOMER COMPANIESBioTurku participated in international partnering events in the biotechnology and nanotechnology sectors in Europe and the USA, where the BioTurku concept and our companies and research were presented directly to investor and customer candidates. In these events, we met nearly a hundred customer and investor can-didates on behalf of the region’s enterprises and ser-vice units. Several companies have conducted further negotiations as a result of these activities.

Turku Science Park Ltd. also co-ordinated the HealthBIO cluster programme of the National Centre of Expertise programme. The last, two-day annual HealthBIO sem-inar of the Centre of Expertise programme was organ-ised in Turku. This annual gathering of large Finnish biotechnology companies was attended by approxi-mately 250 people.

The Team Finland Road Show, a joint partnering event for several sector clusters and coordinated by BioTurku in Shanghai, had participants from 42 companies in Sep-tember, and from 33 organisations in the Moscow event in October. As an additional Road Show programme, we organised partnering events jointly with the Turku Region Development Centre in Turku’s friendship city Tianjin and in Beijing in China. Our main events in the complementary programme in Russia included, among other things, an introduction and networking event for companies, organised at the Moscow Open Innovation Forum together with Skolkovo.

BIOCELEX BOOSTS LIFE SCIENCES INNOVATIONSBiocelex Oy is a company focusing on the discovery and evaluation of innovations in the Life Sciences sec-tor and on business development, with Turku Science Park Ltd. and Karolinska Institutet Holding AB as the major shareholders. In 2013, the company continued assessing Finnish innovations, making use of Karolinska Institutet’s system which has gained international rec-ognition. The best innovations were presented to Kar-olinska Development.

During its operating period, the company focused on the strategic development of business operations, including discussions with universities concerning the expansion of the ownership base and the commitments of univer-sities to buying development services from Biocelex to support their own technology transfer services. How-ever, the discussions with the universities did not result in concrete agreements, and therefore the company will be merged with Turku Science Park Ltd. in 2014.

Further information:Turku Science Park Oy / BioTurku®

Director Tero PiispanenTel. +358 400 781 683

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BioTurku® | 17

Innotrac Diagnostics has grown from a small developer of reagents into an industrial producer which ships two truckloads of test kits to the markets every week. The transfer to foreign ownership was a stroke of luck for the company.

CASE

When Innotrac Diagnostics was founded in 1995 by Timo Lövgren and Kim Pettersson, two University of Turku professors, to develop diagnostics to detect myocardial infarction, biochemist Johanna Hankala was the com-pany’s first employee. Her job description has expanded as the company has grown from a small laboratory into a production facility with more than one hundred employees. She is currently the company’s Operations Director and responsible, among other things, for pro-duction in two shifts, sometimes even three.

“It has been very interesting to be able to experience everything from the beginning. At first, we were just 3–5 people in the base-ment of BioCity, but growth has been fast. At the end of 2013, we had approximately 120 employees, of whom about 50 work in production. This year, we will need an addi-tional 30 employees, partly in product devel-opment and partly in production. Our produc-tion volume has doubled every year, and last year we manufactured 10 million tests. Our sales were EUR 10 million in 2012, EUR 17 million in the following year, and we expect growth of 30 per cent in 2014,” Johanna Hankala says.

OWNERSHIP ABROAD, EXPERTISE IN TURKUThe company has not always fared equally well. In 2001, Innotrac launched its own prod-uct, Innotrac Aio!, and six analytes: troponin I, CK-MB and myoglobin, hCG, CRP and D-dimer, but finding distribution partners was arduous for a small company which had to compete with international giants.

In 2006, the winds changed when Innotrac was sold to the French Radiometer, owned by the US Danaher. Innotrac became DHR Finland Oy Innotrac Diagnostics. Radiometer succeeded in boosting sales after developing a compact analyser for Innotrac tests. Anal-ysers have been delivered to hospitals and laboratories in different parts of the world.

Innotrac’s products have gained international success. Various tests based on dry chem-istry can rapidly detect myocardial infarction markers and perform other analyses, such as CRP and hGC. In addition, the company manufactures quality controls for these tests. Overall, the company’s product range con-sists of 30 products.

QUICKER ANALYSIS FOR FASTER, CORRECT CARE“The tests can be conducted directly from whole blood; samples do not need to be pro-cessed but can be analysed immediately. In this way, results are available considerably faster. For example, the result of the myocar-dial infarction test is available in 18 minutes. The test is also very sensitive, so the illness can be detected at a very early stage. At hos-pitals, this means that the right kind of treat-ment can be started for the patient quicker.

Johanna Hankala believes that it is the high quality of tests and their low manufacturing costs that helped Innotrac find a new owner.

“It was a stroke of luck for us. Radiometer developed the analyser for the tests and han-dles sales and distribution. All products are sent to Denmark from our facility and distrib-uted to different parts of the world. Our next target will be Brazil. I am very happy that the jobs remained in Finland even though the owner is abroad. The quality of our technol-ogy is so high that it would not even be that easy to move the jobs elsewhere,” she says.

10 million tests per year and counting

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18 | ICT sector in Southwest Finland in 2013

While 2012 was primarily a time of great changes causing uncertainty for actors in the ICT sector in Southwest Finland, in 2013 new opportunities created by the tur-moil were becoming visible and being utilised. While large companies have been reducing jobs, the total number of jobs has increased. New jobs are primarily gen-erated in small and medium-sized enterprises, and the number of micro-enterprises in the volume of new jobs is growing rapidly.

This development trend is also visible in the ICT field in Southwest Finland. Numer-ous new companies have been established, and seasoned professionals in the sector have updated their skills and offered their expertise to micro-enterprises and SMEs. Promising start-ups can be found in the gaming industry, which often makes the headlines, and also in the well-being and health technology sectors and in busi-nesses based on expertise in managing large volumes of data.

Teleste’s strong yearTeleste Oyj’s expertise in video and broadband technology and related services was in high demand in 2013 as well. The sales of the Turku-based company operating in more than 20 countries and employing approximately 1,300 employees totalled EUR 193 million, of which more than 90 per cent was generated outside Finland. Measured by sales, the last quarter of the year was the best one in the company’s history. To a large extent, this was due to successes in the cable network devices and services area. During the year, Teleste signed a significant co-operation agree-ment with the Chinese nation-wide broadcasting company Gansu Broadcast and Television Network, Inc. and with Shanghai OTEC Information Technology on the

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ICT sector in Southwest Finland in 2013 | 19

development of the cable-TV market in China and launch of local production.

In 2013, Teleste’s focus in product development was, in particular, on the DOCSIS technology, which makes super-fast broadband connections possible in buildings without fiberoptics. Another strategically important area of development for Teleste is the further development of subscriber network devices, begun last year, to meet the requirements of the latest standard version of the DOCSIS broadband technology.

Vaadin growing stronglyThe success and growth of Vaadin continues. In 2013, its sales amounted to nearly EUR 6 million. The number of employees has grown to 76. This peak performance also landed the Turku-based software company on the acclaimed list of most exciting start-ups, published annually by the Red Herring media company. Vaadin is a forerunner in the development of web interfaces for business applications and has rapidly become a world-class technology company. Its internationalisation is

based on the company’s products using an open code operating model, which has become widely popular among software developers and has received praise from both experts and competitions.

The company’s technology is being used by more than 100,000 software developers in over 170 coun-tries. Despite the growth and internationalisation of the technology and the company itself, Vaadin is a software company deeply rooted in Turku. The com-pany’s headquarters are located in the Old Mill build-ing on Ruukinkatu.

Cambio Healthcare AB, the leading Swedish supplier of patient information systems, founded in 1993, opened an office in Finland. The company selected Turku Sci-ence Park as its location due to the strong biotech-nology expertise in the area and the launch of the biobank operations. The company’s product Cosmic holds a market share of approximately 25 per cent in Sweden. Cambio Healthcare AB’s sales are approxi-mately EUR 30 million, it has more than 300 employ-ees and the patient information systems the company has developed have approximately 95,000 users. Now the company is seeking growth and business oppor-tunities in Finland.

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20 | ICT sector in Southwest Finland in 2013

Gaming industry doubled its number of companies and personnelSouthwest Finland has also received a share of the powerful growth of the gaming industry. In 2013, the gaming industry in Turku more than doubled in terms of both the number of game companies and the number of their employees. The Benji Bananas game, developed by Turku-based Tribeflame, has been downloaded by more than 30 million times. In the game, the Benji monkey sporting an impressive hairdo flies from vine to vine and collects bananas in order to gain new skills and supplies.

To boost growth in the gaming industry, the Game Turku brand was established. The www.gameturku.com por-tal was released at the Turku International Book and Science Fair in the autumn. The gaming industry has also been focusing on educational products. The foun-dation created by new educational programmes has already generated export activities, as foreign gaming houses have sought expertise in gaming history and game design development.

The 2013 ICT Accomplishment of the Year award granted by the ICT committee of the Turku Chamber of Commerce was given to Nextfour Group. Despite the challenging general economic situation, the company focusing on product development in the electronics and software sector, has grown and is approaching an international breakthrough.

Nextfour’s most visible accomplishments in product development are products created for world-class cus-tomers, which have been presented internationally in the sector’s leading fairs and markets. Their success

inspires faith in the future, and the company is target-ing continued business growth by means of new inno-vations and planned expansion of operations. It is also worth noting that under the generally difficult economic conditions of recent years, Nextfour has succeeded in increasing the number of its personnel considerably while operating in a economically profitable manner. The company has also launched its own production unit.

Marine industry expertise for new fieldsWork is carried out to redirect expertise and integrate it with other sectors, such as the construction indus-try, in order to secure jobs in the marine industry and to utilise the sector’s expertise and business potential. The SensiLAB model by Turku Science Park Ltd. and the University of Turku Business and Innovation Devel-opment (BID) centre, operating in the Machine Tech-nology Center Turku Ltd., consists of a development laboratory and a company-specific innovation service. Its operations target, in particular, mechanical engineer-ing and metal industry companies and design agencies. For the marine industry, suitable participants include companies providing surveillance, entertainment and security solutions and services.

The SensiLAB test environment aims to make product development in companies more effective. Each com-pany obtains access to the development laboratory as well as special equipment and software for testing ideas. SensiLAB’s innovation service supports the company’s prerequisites for success. An expert team helps the company find the right path for further processing of its business operations. Together with the company, the team focuses on the opportunities to use technologies, sources of funding and partner networks.

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ICT Turku | 21

Rapid development of technology has revolutionised both earnings logic and ways of working in many fields. Roles and routines will gradually change in health care as well.

CASE

Well-being technology opens up new oppor-tunities in the daily activities of both person-nel and patients. Turku Science Park Ltd. participated in the three-year long eMedic project, in which old, often rigid processes were complemented by models using new well-being technology and making the life of patients and personnel smoother.

NEW MODELS FOR SELF-MANAGE-MENT AND TELECONSULTATIONIn eMedic’s self-management section, patients regularly monitored their blood pres-sure and glucose with measuring instru-ments, from which the results were trans-ferred to a database using a smart phone. In the database, patients with diabetes could monitor their state of health, and physicians could also review their patient’s results. Some of the diabetics in the trial felt that the new way of monitoring increased their own care motivation by showing clearly how their glu-cose values improved, for example.

In the teleconsultation trial, home care nurses in the Kaarina, Loimaa, Alastaro and Forssa healthcare centres could connect to the fixed

teleconferencing equipment installed in their respective healthcare centres using their tablet devices while visiting patients. Foot ulcers common in diabetics require regular monitoring, and a home care nurse usually does not have the special expertise needed in wound care. With the help of a live image and a voice connection, a physician in the healthcare centre can provide instructions directly to a patient’s home.

The objective of the model was to reduce the need to make a separate trip to see a physi-cian for patients whose health is poor or who may live far away from the healthcare cen-tre. Although limited 3G network coverage in some areas compromised the direct video link between home care and the healthcare centre, the model was found to be a good tool worth developing further. Users also felt it saved the nurses’ time and made starting the treatment faster.

TOWARDS ESTABLISHED PRACTICESThe fixed videoconferencing equipment installed at Tyks also made it possible for a healthcare centre physician and Tyks’ wound

care nurses to have teleconsultations. The image resolution of the fixed connection was of high quality, which eliminated the need for patients to physically travel to the Tyks wound care clinic and made treatment mea-sures faster. At the end of the project, the positive experiences gained from teleconsul-tation would seem to accelerate the estab-lishment of the model as part of daily care. Providing technical support for implementa-tion and coaching personnel in the new prac-tices will play an important role in the future.

Participants of the three-year eMedic consor-tium, which was run by the Turku University of Applied Sciences and funded through the EU’s Central Baltic INTERREG IV A, included the Turku University of Applied Sciences, the Intermunicipal Hospital District of Southwest Finland and Turku Science Park Ltd. as well as the Karolinska Sjukhuset in Stockholm, the Technical University of Tallinn, and the Paul Stradins University Hospital in Riga, Latvia. Turku Science Park Ltd. was in charge of project communication.

Teleconsultation and self-management as part of daily health care

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ICT Turku | 23

ICT TurkuThe Turku region has implemented national Centre of Expertise programmes, regional centre programmes and, later, cohesion and competitiveness programmes for as long as they have existed. 2013 marked the culmi-nation of the seven-year Centre of Expertise programme period. The ICT department of Turku Science Park Ltd. coordinated the planning of a new programme period to be implemented in 2014–2020 in the Turku region. The preparation included exceptionally many sectors and was an engaging process.

The preparation process, primarily conducted in 2013, is an indication of the region’s ability and willingness to prepare for matters in cooperation with a number of different parties. The Turku metropolitan area has sev-eral competence clusters with international appeal and extensive business potential. Five themes were selected as the national focus areas of innovative development in the summer. In the autumn, Turku’s participation in two of them was confirmed: ”Future health care” and ”Smart cities and industrial regeneration”.

The objectives of the Innovative Cities (INKA) programme to be launched in 2014 include creating open devel-opment environments and pioneer markets in order to develop the region’s business operations and highlight-ing the internationalisation of operations in a new way.

AIMING FOR MORE COMMUNITY-BASED START-UP ACTIVITIESTurku has tested and implemented several different models for start-up operations over the years. A tech-nology incubator was launched as early as in the 1980s, and the city has also been home to a separate incubator of the creative businesses for many years. The devel-opment of the start-up stage has also been success-fully carried out through Protomo and the student-run Boost Turku association. The operations also include numerous test and development environments aimed at different fields.

According to experience and surveys, the basis of the service structure in these environments is good, but the range of services is fragmented and the oper-ations are project-like. The plan for a new business development environment based on communality was launched in order to make use of the resources offered by the business development operations in Turku more

effective and to improve the results considerably. The ICT department was in charge of the planning, dubbed Ahjo (“a forge”). The new operations are expected to begin in 2014.

RAISING THE BETS IN THE GAMING INDUSTRYAt the beginning of 2013, Turku Science Park Ltd. launched a project to strengthen the operating condi-tions of the region’s gaming industry. The Pelinraken-taja (“Quarterback”) project started with mapping com-panies’ needs and with one-to-one discussions with approximately 15 key gaming industry companies in Turku, as well as by networking with the key local and national actors. The game scene in Turku also raised interest outside the region, as a subsidiary of a well-known Finnish gaming company and a subsidiary of an internationally significant gaming industry company were established in Turku.

The Pelinrakentaja project was officially introduced at the Turku Game Day event with Ernest Adams, the for-mer head developer at Electronic Arts and the founder of the international games development association IGDA, as the keynote speaker. The gaming industry guru sparred with several Turku-based game compa-nies in one-to-one discussions as well.

In the autumn, the project introduced the Game Turku brand, created to unify the gaming industry, and the related Internet portal. The launch took place at the Turku Science Fair, organised in connection with the Turku International Book Fair, and also gained plenty of national media interest. Numerous key influencers in the country visited the joint booth of Turku Science Park and Turku Game Lab, such as Eero Heinäluoma, Speaker of Parliament, Jari Koskinen, Minister, and Jenni Haukio, Programme Director of the Fair.

EUROPEAN NETWORKSTurku Science Park Ltd. actively participates in the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) which offers inter-nationalisation and technology transfer services. The EEN helps small and medium-sized enterprises in the different stages of EU’s internal markets, internation-alisation and technology transfer. It offers companies guidance related to EU matters as well as services for locating international co-operation partners. The net-work is co-funded by the European Commission and

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24 | ICT Turku

operates in approximately 50 countries. Its members include 660 organisations in Europe and elsewhere.

Last year, 40 new customers discovered the EEN ser-vice provided by Turku Science Park. The technology transfer project of the European Space Agency ESA and Finnish enterprises looks for solutions from product development taking place within ESA for the techno-logical needs of companies. In addition, it helps com-panies in the region introduce their own solutions for ESA’s projects to apply. The project is being carried out in co-operation with Tekes’ ESA activation project and the EEN. We found 20 new customer companies for the technology transfer service in 2013.

MOBILE AND WELL-BEING TECHNOLOGY PROJECTSThe development project for mobile competence in Southwest Finland (VARMO) has deepened co-operation between SMEs, institutes of higher education and devel-opment companies in order to create new mobile busi-ness and related jobs in Southwest Finland. Key areas of application include health and well-being technology,

teaching technology as well as game and entertainment applications. The operations include co-operation with companies and public actors for finding new activities to accelerate growth and development in the mobile business in Southwest Finland.

The project has used methods such as theme semi-nars, coding events, contests and workshops as well as one-to-one guidance events to promote the utilisation of business opportunities based on research at univer-sities, student-centred entrepreneurship, start-up entre-preneurship, co-operation between Turku and Salo as well as sharing good practices. Overall, these events and services drew 1,000 participants in 2013.

The international three-year long eMedic project focused on piloting well-being technology to be tested and pro-cesses promoting its utilisation during the period under review. The pilots in the project which mainly focuses on diabetes management develop the utilisation of tele-consultation in treating diabetic foot ulcers as well as new technological applications facilitating the self-man-agement of diabetes. The project gained good media visibility, and its results will be extensively used in the participating countries after the project. The electronic health platform for cardiac patients (eTerveysalusta) developed in the Pumppu project was piloted in the health care services of the City of Turku. The func-tioning and impact of the service will be mapped next.

TURKU ICT WEEK BROUGHT TOGETHER TALENTSICT sector actors in Southwest Finland joined forces for the second time in the organisation of the Turku ICT Week in the spring of 2013. Nearly 1,000 visi-tors attended the various events during the week. The themes of the week included entrepreneurship, the gaming industry, health and well-being technologies, co-operation between the marine and ICT sectors, technology projects by institutes of higher education, start-up entrepreneurship, and networking between experts in the sectors.

The strength of the Turku ICT Week event, which gained media visibility also through national news cov-erage, lies in its versatility. This is ensured by the large group of organisers, which in addition to Turku Science Park Ltd. includes Boost Turku ry, Varsinais-Suomen IT-yrittäjät ry (IT entrepreneurs of Southwest Finland), Varsinais-Suomen Tietojenkäsittely-yhdistys ry (Infor-mation Processing Association in Southwest Finland), the Turku Chamber of Commerce ICT Committee, Uni-versity of Turku, Turku University of Applied Sciences, Åbo Akademi University, Technology Research Center and Machine Technology Center Turku Ltd.

Further information:Turku Science Park Ltd. / ICT TurkuDirector Marko PuhtilaTel. +358 40 550 9560

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ICT Turku | 25

Kovilta Ltd., a three-man Salo-based company, participates in space technology and augmented reality projects. The projects, launched with the assistance of Turku Science Park Ltd., have expanded the use of Kovilta’s industrial applications to new sectors.

CASE

The company, established in 2011 by the trio of microelectronics researchers, carried out product development for the first few years, which resulted in a commercially applicable, integrated circuit platform and an embedded camera system.

The original business idea of the company, which commercialises parallel computing technology and designs camera systems, was industrial solutions. Kovilta’s technology is easy to expand to other sectors as well.

“We are a small company still searching for our direction and main line of business. Understanding the content of an image using image analysis systems is our thing,” says Managing Director Jonne Poikonen.

PROJECTS FROM SPACEKovilta, which received its initial boost into business life from Protomo in Salo, has also used Turku Science Park Ltd.’s services. Turku Science Park is the Finnish con-tact organisation of the European Space Agency ESA.

These connections sparked the opportu-nity to collaborate with Turku-based Aboa Space Research Oy (ASRO). ASRO is a pri-vate company specialised in space tech-nology, which works in close collaboration

with the space research operations of the University of Turku.

Kovilta has now also gained a foothold in space projects. The projects in progress include StreakDet funded by ESA and the AgiSpacES space research project at the University of Turku, funded by Tekes.

“Space technology comes with challenges that we can address.”

MAKING SPACE DEBRIS VISIBLEThe StreakDet project studies advanced algo-rithms for the processing of optical obser-vations of satellites and space debris. The goal is to build prototype software for ESA.

The results of the project will help map the growing amount of orbital debris and inves-tigate the threat caused by the debris to society. The primary actor in the Streak-Det project is the Finnish Geodetic Insti-tute. In addition to Kovilta and Aboa Space Research, the project participants also include the University of Helsinki.

“StreakDet concentrates on image process-ing. We aim to detect signs of space debris in pictures taken from space. The human eye cannot always detect it, and the volume of material is so high that no human could go

through all of it,” Poikonen says.

AgiSpacES develops the use of agile and iterative product development methods in the design of space technology. The proj-ect includes several Finnish space tech-nology teams.

“We are one of the corporate partners, and hopefully the development of the methods will give us a boost to implement new space projects.”

IMAGES FROM THE MARINE INDUSTRYThe MARIN project funded by Tekes devel-ops augmented reality technology in which physical images are overlaid with virtual images. The objective is to provide the marine industry with tools for the management of, for example, work blueprints at worksites.

“Kovilta’s sensor and camera technology can offer more effective methods for synchronis-ing an actual environment with virtual data,” Poikonen envisions.

One of the challenges of entrepreneurship is funding product development investments.

“Despite that, being an entrepreneur is moti-vating. You get to do what is interesting.”

Multipurpose sensor technology

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26 | Business Development

Business Development

Turku Science Park Ltd.’s Business Development builds growth companies based on expertise and technology. Start-up and young technology companies are the pri-mary customer groups. In addition, we carry out devel-opment projects for more advanced-growth companies. In 2013, Business Development mainly provided ser-vices and implemented projects familiar from previous years, but in 2014, Turku Science Park will reform its incubator and Business Development services.

SIX COMPANIES STARTED IN THE INCUBATOR, NINE SPREAD THEIR WINGSOur incubator services include the assessment of new business ideas, a pre-incubator service preparing for the launch of operations, as well as the actual incuba-tor period in the start-up stages of the company. The service package also contained the incubator facilities and reception services in two units: Bio Incubator and DIO Business Centre.

An important characteristic of the incubator operations is the close collaboration with the other actors in the region. Our experts participated in the assessment of approximately 150 new ideas during the year. The major-ity of these assessments were carried out in co-opera-tion with partners, for example in the Tuoteväylä (“Prod-uct path”) service of the Finnish inventions foundation Keksintösäätiö. An example of close co-operation with universities is our participation as experts in the Univer-sity of Turku business development lab, in which stu-dents compiled business plans for new business ideas.

Fifty-six new business ideas were submitted for assess-ment in the actual incubator process, and 24 of them advanced to the pre-incubator. Six new incubator com-panies were founded: four ICT companies, one biotech-nology company and one company representing other sectors. The incubator stage ended for nine companies during the year. A total of nearly 800 people partici-pated in the department’s guidance and other events.

As usual, the focus of business development was on developing the business idea, marketing and funding. Plenty of positive feedback and publicity was gained from the new functions: SRI International’s (Stanford Research Institute) business presentation workshop

and two pitching events that we organised in co-oper-ation with other local actors in business development and FiBAN (Finnish Business Angel Network). We also joined FiBAN as a supporting corporate member.

TOWARDS A NEW TURKU-BASED START-UP COMMUNITYDuring the year, preparations began to replace the tra-ditional incubator operations with a new development environment for start-up companies. The plan is to start these operations in 2014. Related to these develop-ments, a decision was made to give up the DIO Busi-ness Centre facilities.

Our customers received numerous recognitions during the year. Hibox Systems Oy and Vaadin Oy were again included in the growth company lists by Deloitte, and TicBits Oy was ranked in Deloitte’s Rising Stars list. MetGen Oy was ranked in the Global Cleantech 100 list, and Anders Inno Oy was selected as one of the award recipients in the Born Global series of the EDE day. Additionally, at the very beginning of the year, Ken-neth Ekman of CrisolteQ Oy, as the first start-up entre-preneur of the year, was selected as the 2013 technol-ogy CTO of the Year by Technology Academy Finland.

During its 24 years of operation, Turku Science Park’s business incubator has assessed thousands of busi-ness ideas, of which several hundreds have advanced to further processing and become new companies. Of these, 209 companies were established in the actual incubator stage. The most significant result of the incu-bator companies is the creation of more than 1,300 jobs in the region, with combined sales of more than EUR 80 million. More than 50 companies have received capital investments, and more than 20 companies have con-tinued their operations as part of a larger company as a result of mergers. The article series published in the TS Talous economic supplement of the Turun Sanomat newspaper introduced a few success stories.

Further information:Turku Science Park Ltd. / Business DevelopmentDevelopment Director Erik LehtonenTel. +358 40 546 0563

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Turku Science Park Vuosikatsaus 2013 | 27

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28 | Business Development

The business name Tapp Commerce is a metaphor. In the old days, the village water tap was the place where locals met each other and where they even did business. Economic growth is shifting towards Asia and its growing markets, which is where Turku-based Tapp Commerce also wants to take its new mobile payment system.

CASE

“We strive to promote trade. The Western countries have consumer goods that con-sumers in third countries would buy if they only had payment instruments for it,” says Warren Sample, Tapp Commerce’s Deputy Managing Director in charge of products and strategy.

The business idea is simple: international trade is increased by creating a platform for uploading cash to a smart phone. The major-ity of people in the world live without credit cards or bank accounts. And yet, they have smart phones, so a mobile payment service system would allow them, too, to access the market dominated by Western countries.

“We are creating a system in which com-modities are paid for in cash using a smart phone. Increasing trade is bound to increase well-being in third countries as well,” Sam-ple continues.

GROWTH IS IN THE EASTThe world’s economic growth is increasingly shifting to Asia, which is where Tapp Com-merce is also heading. In February 2013, it launched the first mobile payment system in

Indonesia, which is the world’s 15th largest country measured by GDP.

“In Indonesia, consumer society is growing like crazy, the population is young, and 84 per cent of people have a mobile device. On the other hand, the banking sector’s penetra-tion into the market is minimal,” says Sample enthusiastically.

With the Tapp Commerce platform, people in Indonesia can purchase music and games first. Exchange rate differences are not an issue, since the system always operates in the local currency.

“The application platform brings businesses and customers together. The application is free of charge for businesses, since we believe that the more users there are, the larger the volume of sales will be. This is a win-win situation.”

NO NEED FOR THIRD PARTIES The people at Tapp Commerce have an unwavering belief that before long banking operations as we know them and credit card companies will cease to exist because of the

enormous speed of technical development and new forms of trade, such as the mobile payment system.

“Why should we pay some third party for our purchases? Besides, using credit cards for payment has become unsecure with the hacking of files,” Sample points out.

In January 2013, a group of former Nokia employees generated the business idea behind Tapp Commerce. The company was established and it started its operations in the Turku Science Park business incubator in October 2013.

Currently, the company targeting interna-tional markets employs five people, two of whom are Finns.

“Our registered office is still in Turku, since this region offers not only advanced mobile technology and resources but also people with integrity and lots of engineers,” smirks Sample, who himself is a California transplant through marriage to a Finn.

From tap to world trade

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Business Development | 29

Big data opens up completely new opportunities for creating business oper-ations, and there are vast markets for making use of it. Bigdatapump Oy, a company based on expertise in the sector, got off to a swift start in the Turku Science Park business incubator in 2013.

CASE

Bigdatapump Oy is a company established by Teemu Birkstedt and Martti Reilander, long-time colleagues at Nokia. The company focuses on utilising big data, or the digital foot-print. It launched its operations in April 2013 and clearly hit the right market niche in which demand was developing but supply was lack-ing. The first, partial year of operation clearly exceeded targets, and considerable growth is already being budgeted for next year.

“The Bridge financing provided by Nokia played a decisive role and gave us the cour-age to hire our first two employees, even though we did not have any work lined up for them. However, we are very grateful to Nokia for the support we received and the trust the company placed on us. Soon enough, work started coming in, and at the beginning of 2014, we already had about a dozen employees. Some of them we found through projects at the University of Applied Sciences and the University, since we also wanted to hire young blood to complement our old Nokia folks,” Birkstedt says.

SUPPORT FOR DEVELOPING BUSINESSAs its name implies, the company focuses on using big data, or services which monitor

and analyse digital information generated from customer’s actions and behaviour. This data can be used to support new operat-ing methods and even the creation of com-pletely new business operations. The main focus is on consumers, but big data can also be used, among other things, to monitor the energy consumption of electrical equipment or the room temperature of a building and to develop related services. Knowledge con-cerning the core data of consumer devices is continuously growing, and retail is inter-ested in reaching consumers who are likely to congregate in a certain area at a certain time, among other things.

Their Nokia background provided the entre-preneurs with ground-breaking expertise in applying big data and a wealth of experience in the deployment of international customer management, which enabled them to con-vince their first customers. Practical experi-ence and high customer satisfaction keep bringing in new customer projects.

“The utilisation of big data is still quite minimal, but it comes with huge possibilities. Because we are approximately six months ahead of what the market offers, we don’t have direct competition. Our first customers are all among

Finland’s 25 largest companies and operate internationally. One of our references is the Sanoma Group. We will also be targeting large, international companies in the future, since we have the experience needed for large-scale operations and understand how added value is generated for these custom-ers,” Birkstedt says.

HOME IN TURKU, CUSTOMERS AROUND THE WORLDBigdatapump has productised its service into six-week projects, and the customers receive partial project deliveries at one week intervals. The company already has interna-tional operations in the Netherlands and USA, but its domicile is Turku.

“The Turku region is where all our work hap-pens and were we want to live. Connections to other countries are mainly digital, and, of course, every once in a while we travel to meet customers. Our goal is to stay agile, and we want to keep the company easy to manage. A staff of approximately 20 people would be ideal. By understanding the custom-er’s needs and retaining the best talent in the sector we can exceed customers’ expecta-tions and maintain high customer satisfaction in the future as well,” Teemu Birkstedt says.

Bigdatapump following digital footsteps

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Centre of Expertise | 31

Centre of ExpertiseThe national Centre of Expertise programme (OSKE) ended at the close of 2013, exactly 20 years after its inception. Throughout the programme period, the objective was to promote business operations and investments based on high-quality expertise building on regional strengths. At the beginning of the programme period, the focus was on identifying and developing the regions’ strengths by means of co-operation between the public sector, companies as well as educational and research institutes. During the last programme period, the competence clusters brought together expertise spread across different parts of Finland, and in that way launched co-operation between urban regions.

EXPERTISE FROM SOUTHWEST FINLAND IN SIX CLUSTERSThe national Centre of Expertise programme consisted of 13 clusters, of which Southwest Finland coordinated HealthBIO, that is, the biocluster programme for health, and the Maritime cluster. In addition, our province par-ticipated in the Food Development, Ubiquitous Com-puting, Nanotechnology as well as the Tourism and Experience Management cluster programmes.

The Centre of Expertise programme played a central role in defining the region’s innovation strategy and focus areas based on its own strengths. The OSKE programme encouraged participants to make choices and to focus on sectors which provided opportunities for success, also on an international level. In addition to reinforcing the national synergy between regions, the clusters crossed sector and technology borders and discovered new opportunities by combining expertise. OSKE’s primary cornerstones included long-term co-op-eration between companies, institutes of higher educa-tion, funding parties and development organisations.

The operations of the Centre of Expertise were busi-ness-centred and, in particular, supported the growth and internationalisation of SMEs. Creating open devel-opment platforms and operating models for innovation activities was a natural way for OSKE to support the generation of new business operations and renewal in sectors undergoing structural change.

DOZENS OF COMPANIES, HUNDREDS OF NEW JOBSDuring the last programme period 2007–2013, the Southwest Finland Centre of Expertise programme car-ried out 210 projects. They brought in EUR 42.7 million in funding to the region, generated 52 new companies and generated 485 new jobs.

In Finland, the public sector procurement amounts to approximately EUR 27 million annually. By making use of innovations, the public sector can provide citizens with better services at lower costs. In order to promote innovations in public procurement, procurement must be defined in collaboration with suppliers, buyers and end users so that a need to develop new solutions is created in the market. This may entail setting challeng-ing objectives or defining the remit of the procurement needs in a new way. This was the goal of the “Innovative and responsible public procurement” project which will be completed in the spring of 2014. In the project, the Southwest Finland Food Development cluster sought different operating models through three real-life pro-curement events.

The new act on biobanks, effective from 1 Septem-ber 2013, made it possible to launch biobank opera-tions in Finland. The HealthBIO cluster of the Centre of Expertise programme participated in the planning of Auria Biobank, Finland’s first biobank. A biobank is a collection of human-derived samples including health information about the donors. The samples may be, for example, tissue, blood or DNA extracted from cells. Auria Biobank’s permit application has been submit-ted to Valvira, and the operations will start during the first half of 2014.

The Expert Village offers companies in the well-be-ing and health technology sector an authentic testing environment and specialist assistance which promotes user-centred development of new products and ser-vices. It supports the creation and development of a new kind of business, based on high expertise. The testing environment designed in the Ubiquitous Com-puting cluster was implemented in co-operation with the senior citizen services of Salo. The extensive net-work of care personnel, senior residents and their next-of-kin provided diverse opportunities to receive feed-back and also to work long-term in order to ensure that the products functioned in practice. By carrying out development work together, it is believed that new, user-centred products and service concepts as well as successful business operations will be created in the well-being sector.

Further information:Turku Science Park Ltd.Development Director Erik LehtonenTel. +358 40 546 0563

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32 | Centre of Expertise

The culmination of the national Centre of Expertise programme was the Team Finland Road Show. Dozens of Finnish companies seized the opportunity to accelerate their advancement on the Chinese and Russian markets.

CASE

Turku Science Park Ltd., which coordinated the HealthBIO cluster nationally, was respon-sible for coordinating the Team Finland Road Show, which covered all clusters of the Cen-tre of Expertise programme. The export pro-motion trips taken in the autumn of 2013 tar-geted Shanghai and Moscow. The expertise of the Team Finland actors from the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and of the OSKE clusters was made use of in the preparation and implementa-tion of the trips. The local Finnish Embassies also provided support in the arrangements. In Shanghai, the participants of the opening event included Minister Paula Risikko.

MORE THAN 40 CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS IN SHANGHAI...Right from the start, the arrangements aimed at gaining diverse visibility in ways that would provide the best possible benefits for the participants. Brochures and media kits were prepared for the Road Show, relevant local authorities and organisations were con-tacted well in advance and the seminars and stakeholder events organised as part of the programmes were customised to attract the target groups of the Finnish com-panies. The events were free of charge for

the participants, with the exception of travel expenses and any additional activities they wished to undertake.

The Shanghai Road Show took place at the end of September. The participants came from companies in the biotechnology and well-being, food industry, energy and con-struction as well as nanotechnology sectors. Among the over 40 participants were also seven companies from Turku. The largest actors included, for example, HKScan which attended in order to promote the export of its meat products, and smaller enterprises included pharmaceuticals and diagnostics companies, such as Montisera, Labmaster and ArcDia.

Aleksi Soini, ArcDia’s Managing Director, says his company came to Shanghai to seek momentum for its instrument for diag-nosing respiratory infections. The company had found a distributor in China before the trip, but even this would not guarantee sales. In order to obtain marketing authorisation, negotiations are needed with the local author-ities. This is also one of the reasons why Arc-Dia organised the seminar series focusing on diagnostics during the trip.

...AND 33 BUSINESSES IN MOSCOWTeam Finland headed to Moscow with 33 corporate participants at the turn of Octo-ber—November. Among the participants, companies based completely or partly in Turku were Biovian, Crown CRO, Felix Abba and Orion Pharma. Some of the compa-nies, such as Labmaster and Montisera, participated in both Shanghai and Moscow events. After the main event of 30 October, the Finnish participants had the opportunity to attend, based on their own interest, cus-tomised company visits and the Moscow Innovations Forum, for which Finland was a partner last year.

The events in both China and Russia also attracted local participants. In Shanghai, the event attracted approximately 250 Chi-nese visitors, and in Moscow, the event drew about 170 Russian participants. Nearly all participating Finnish companies were able to create new, valuable contacts with local actors. Success was supported by pre-scheduled partner meetings: in the main event in Shanghai, companies had an aver-age of four pre-scheduled company meet-ings, and in Moscow the number of such meetings per company averaged six.

OSKE period culminates Team Finland Road Show

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Centre of Expertise | 33

The City of Kaarina started renewing its procurement methods and making them more entrepreneur-friendly as part of the “Innovative and responsible public procurement” project. The message of the participating buyers and entrepreneurs was clear: more dialogue is needed in the procurement process.

CASE

The procurement teams from the City of Kaarina, the Intermunicipal Hospital District of Southwest Finland and Turku University of Applied Sciences developed their procure-ment practices as part of the “Innovative and responsible public procurement” project. One of the objectives of the project, generated by the Southwest Finland Food Develop-ment Centre of Expertise, was to promote the opportunities of SMEs to participate in public competitive bidding.

The participating buyers and entrepreneurs unanimously acknowledged the increased need for open dialogue in procurement pro-cesses. According to Jukka Haroma, a trans-portation entrepreneur, the biggest problem in public procurement is the fact that compa-nies are not consulted before the invitations to tender are issued.

“I have often talked about how competitive bidding should be increasingly prepared together,” Haroma says.

EXPERTISE AND PERSPECTIVE FROM COMPANIES Lead by Owal Group Oy, the coaching for procurement teams focused particularly on defining the procurement target and condi-tions. Representatives from companies also

participated in and offered their perspective and expertise for the preparation process.

“Dialogue with the tenderers is very import-ant. Already during the coaching event, entre-preneurs brought up legal aspects which we had not necessarily even been aware of,” says Heidi Paju, the Food Services Manager of the City of Kaarina.

Before publishing the final invitation to tender, a discussion event was organised in Kaarina in which both entrepreneurs and end users could discuss the preliminary invitation to tender.

“Invitations to tender always contain a lot of information, but the most important piece of information, that is, what is transported, when and where, is often a bit vague. The shipping company does not necessarily know what the volume of transports really is,” Haroma says.

“It was good that so many companies par-ticipated in the open forum. Based on the entrepreneurs’ comments, we were able to make concrete changes in the invitation to tender,” Paju says.

MORE OPEN DISCUSSION“I said at the outset that I want this compet-itive bidding process to be perfect, so that

nobody has any complaints. Our starting point was that both sides should be happy,” Paju says.

Kaarina’s team was satisfied with the out-come. Active dialogue helped avoid unnec-essary misunderstandings and formulate a better invitation to tender and, eventually, resulted in more economical procurement.

“We were very happy with this experience and will certainly organise similar events in the future. The project boosted our confidence and assured us that there will be eager ten-derers,” Paju says.

The coaching sessions will be compiled into teaching material which will be published for the parties in charge of public procure-ment to use when developing their procure-ment practices. The primary implementing party of the project was the Food Develop-ment Centre of Expertise of the University of Turku Functional Foods Forum, and the project was carried out in co-operation with the Turku University of Applied Sciences. Project implementation began in the early 2013 and will continue until May 2014. The project is funded by the Regional Council of Southwest Finland.

Better procurement through dialogue

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34 | Turku Science Park Vuosikatsaus 2013

Marketing and communication are increasingly critical factors in building the success of both small start-ups and large and globally operating companies. Turku Sci-ence Park Ltd.’s Marketing and Communication Depart-ment plays a role in meeting our company’s promise to Innovate to Accelerate. Turku Science Park Ltd. also has an important role in creating an image of Turku as a hub of high technology and expertise.

The Turku Science Park Ltd. Marketing and Commu-nication Department plans, consults, co-ordinates and implements marketing communication services and assesses and measures the functioning of marketing communication. Media relations, online communica-tion and marketing and communication materials sup-porting the region and the main sectors are among our most important tools.

COMMUNICATION PROCESSINGCommunication processing was started in order to make communication more effective. Project opera-tions were defined as the most important area requir-ing processing. Project proposals followed the NABC model, and the internal coordination and implementation of the projects, ranging from the application stage to end reporting, were developed by means of the project manual completed at the end of the year. The objective is to develop the quality of Turku Science Park Ltd.’s

project work by streamlining and harmonising internal processes.

A decision was made to prepare project cards to facili-tate the presentation of our project activities. The cards provide a concise description of the objectives of the project and the activities from Turku Science Park Ltd.’s perspective. The first projects to receive their project cards were Pelinrakentaja, RESU, eMedic and Sensi-LAB. Attention was also paid to personnel’s commu-nication skills. Training was organised in both oral and written communication in order to deliver messages which were grammatically improved and highlighted the company’s core messages.

Communication and marketing expertise was utilised in the implementation of several projects during the year. Communication input was used the most in the interna-tional eMedic project – which focuses on the self-man-agement of diabetes and teleconsultation in diabetes care – as our company is in charge of all communica-tion in this project.

PRESS RELEASES AND ONLINE COMMUNICATIONIn 2013, Turku Science Park Ltd.’s Marketing and Communication Department sent nearly 20 press releases or invitations to the media. Co-operation

Marketing and Communication

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Turku Science Park Vuosikatsaus 2013 | 35

launched in the previous year with the TS Talous eco-nomic supplement of the Turun Sanomat newspaper continued. During the year, the Talous supplement pub-lished an article series about companies which origi-nally started their operations in the business incubator.

Turku Science Park Ltd.’s website consists of two sep-arate entities. The first entity introduces the company, its departments and services as well as the projects that several services are based on. The other entity, the Spark News, contains local news mainly about the Turku Science Park area and the company’s main sec-tors. In 2013, the Spark website published nearly 130 Finnish-language and approximately 30 English-lan-guage pieces of news or articles. The majority of them were journalistically produced by the company itself. In addition, the events calendar on the website published information on approximately 70 events related to our focus sectors during the year.

The most important news is compiled into the monthly eSPARK newsletter which is sent via e-mail to our stake-holders and the media. At the beginning of the year, a new service was launched which combined the distri-bution of both the newsletter and press releases and media monitoring under the same portal.

STEPPING INTO SOCIAL MEDIAIn the spring of 2013, Turku Science Park Ltd. joined the rapidly growing group of organisations making use of social media. The first services to be used were Face-book, Twitter, SlideShare and YouTube. The Pelinrak-entaja project, launched at the beginning of the year, also joined social media. In addition to the gameturku.com website, it makes its operations known through Facebook.

As is now customary, we published our 40-page Annual Review in the spring. It was sent by post to an exten-sive group of recipients and talked about the opera-tions of our company and focus sectors in the previous year in both Finnish and English copies. Marketing and communication materials intended for more limited tar-get groups were produced for the BioTurku®- and ICT Turku clusters, among others. The BioTurku brochures focusing on cancer, infectious diseases, central ner-vous system expertise and PET imaging were updated in co-operation with actors in the region.

Further information:Turku Science Park Ltd.Communications Officer Riku NäsänenTel. +358 40 540 9135

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36 | Marketing and Communication

Turku Science Park events

The theme of the Turku Science Fair in the autumn was games and education. Game Turku, the game consortium founded by Turku Science Park Ltd., “takes games seriously”, in other words promotes the insightful use of games. Project Manager Patrik Uhinki interviewed by Yle Turku.

The national Centre of Expertise programme ended in 2013. Turku Science Park Ltd. coordinated the HealthBIO cluster. The last annual HealthBIO seminar was held in Turku in August. The event gathered a large and active group of participants in the Mauno Koivisto Centre.

In June, Turku Science Park Ltd. and Turku-based universities made an agreement on co-operation with the Skolkovo science and technology hub being constructed near Moscow. The agreement was signed on behalf of Turku Science Park Ltd. by Managing Director Rikumatti Levomäki at Forum Marinum.

Auria Biobank, characterised as the missing piece of Turku-based pharmaceuticals development, was introduced to the actors in the sector and the media in September. As cameras flashed, Kalervo Väänänen, Rector of the University of Turku and member of Turku Science Park Ltd.’s Board of Directors, made a deposit in the biobank.

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Marketing and Communication | 37

The preparations for the Team Finland Road Show trips in the autumn were meticulous. One of the speakers at the August coaching event was Pekka Hildén who is in charge of business development at HyTest. He talked about HyTest’s experiences in China, where the company has had an office since 2011.

Taltioni Codefest, an event aiming to develop applications utilising health information reserves, was organised as part of Turku Science Park Ltd.’s VARMO project in late October and early November. The award for best technical features in the brainstorming event went to the application focusing on the development of self-management of asthma. The application enables a person with asthma to store his or her measurement data in the Taltioni service and receive feedback on the values and reminders supporting self-management.

In March, the Turku ICT Week was organised for the second time. Probably the most awaited speech at the Turku Game Day was delivered by Ernest W. Adams, an international gaming industry pioneer with a related Ph.D. degree. He believes that by 2050, all people of all ages everywhere in the world will play games.

The year 2013 marked the 25th anniversary of the founding of Turku Science Park Ltd. The company’s name, strategies and even also management have changed, but one thing has remained the same: the company’s mission has always been to promote business based on high technology in the Turku region. The personnel celebrated the anniversary in the spirit of the 1920s in Parainen in the end of August.

The Turku Pitch events organised in April and October brought together interesting start-up companies and investors interested in business angel activities. Seppo Ruotsalainen, coordinator of the Vigo programme, gave a speech at the event.

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38 | Marketing and Communication

Turku Science Parkin the headlinesOne in ten new European drugs are developed in Turku | 9 December 2013

Abacus Diagnostica to add a pneumococcal infection test in its product range | 5 December 2013

BonAlive's bone replacement introduced to the market | 26 November 2013

The Turku Biomaterial Day gathered attendees from different parts of Finland | 21 November 2013

Co-operation agreement signed by Turku Science Park and Russian Venture Capital | 12 November 2013

MetGen selected in the Global Cleantech 100 list | 14 October 2013

Turku to be a partner in two INKA theme programmes | 4 October 2013

Chemical industry swimming against the current – with Turku region a strong driver | 2 October 2013

Game Turku making the most out of games | 1 October 2013

Turku Science Park 25 years | 3 September 2013

Team Finland Road Show opens doors for Southwest Finland SMEs in China and Russia | 23 August 2013

Turku Science Park Ltd. and Turku-based science communities to launch co-operation with the Skolkovo technology hub | 26 June 2013

New pharmaceuticals development company Forendo Pharma provides treatment for endometriosis and low testosterone levels | 25 June 2013

The Swiss Emerald Technology to invest in MetGen Oy | 6 June 2013

The leading Swedish supplier of patient information systems to open an office at Turku Science Park | 27 May 2013

Turku Science Park Ltd. to launch co-operation with an American business incubator | 15 May 2013

The first biobank professorship established in Turku | 13 May 2013

Turku Pitch brought together entrepreneurs and business angels | 26 April 2013

SensiLAB refines product development in industrial SMEs in Southwest Finland | 9 April 2013

Turku ICT Week drew nearly 1,000 participants | 11 March 2013

Biotie's Selincro receives marketing authorisation in the European Union | 1 March 2013

Pharmatest Services Oy to open a sales office in Cambridge in the US | 15 February 2013

BioTurku's breakfast event filled with diverse activities and a can-do attitude | 1 February 2013

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over 300 companies and organisations

www.turkusciencepark.com

Turku Science ParkTWO SCIENTIFIC UNIVERSITIES

University of Turku Åbo Akademi University

Turku University of Applied Sciences

Diaconia University of Applied Sciences

Novia University of Applied Sciences

Turku University Hospital Tyks

MAIN SECTORS biotechnology ICT

17 500 employees

30 500 students

400 professors

• Along the Helsinki motorway• Next to the Kupittaa railway

station• Within walking distance from

the city centre• Less than a 30-minute drive

to the international airport

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