Campus Incubators programme

Lead-in paragraph

The Campus Incubators programme aims to increase the number of start-ups, support RDI-based entrepreneurship and improve the growth potential of the resulting companies. The City of Helsinki aims to strengthen the development of the local university campuses into hubs of innovation and new business creation, and to create campus-based incubator programmes in cooperation with universities.

Participants of the incubator programmes learn the basics of entrepreneurship and how to start a business. The programme focuses on developing business activities, building a team around the business idea, understanding customer needs, sales, and marketing, among other topics. To support this work, the participants have open access to workspaces, tools, and events which gather people interested about entrepreneurship.

The City of Helsinki’s role focuses on developing the cooperation between campus-based incubator programmes and innovation ecosystem. On a practical level, this means identifying common goals and topics to work on and strengthening the connections of the incubators with relevant partners. We aim to strengthen the existing incubator activities in the region and to clarify the service pathways for accelerating companies and boosting entrepreneurship.

The Campus Incubators programme is implemented in cooperation with Aalto University, University of Helsinki and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. The incubators carry out complementary roles and organise joint events, for example. The incubator programmes are primarily for students, researchers and university alumni. However, applying to an incubator programme does not require you to be enrolled at any specific university.

Aalto University’s pre-incubator programme is open to creative industry students, researchers and practitioners. Aalto Creatives seeks to strengthen innovation and entrepreneurship in the creative industries by supporting the development of early-stage business ideas into startups.

Offering incubation services to all sectors of the creative industries, Aalto University aims at growing an entrepreneurial pathway based on creativity and intangible capital alongside its established technology-focused incubation and acceleration activities.

Aalto University’s strength lies in opening up its startup ecosystem services and digital media research infrastructure to programme’s participants and the wider Campus Incubators network.

The programme is coordinated by Aalto Startup Center and Aalto Studios.

Find out more! (Link leads to external service)
Contact: creatives@aalto.fi(Link opens default mail program)

The University of Helsinki aims to strengthen positive cultural change and in particular to create new competences, entrepreneurial skills and research-based companies. Its strengths include world-class infrastructure, the integration of different research disciplines and perspectives, and the building of interesting interdisciplinary clusters.

Helsinki Incubators programme(Link leads to external service) is for empowering bold thinkers to create their own entrepreneurial path. Programmes are designed to give the know-how and support needed to bring ideas to life. Entrepreneurship programmes are for students, researchers, alumni and the broader community.

Nexus is a 6-month incubator programme in Deep Tech, AI, & Sustainability. Programme is for developing crystallised ideas into scalable, fundable born-global startups.

Contact person: Andres Archila, andres.archila@helsinki.fi(Link opens default mail program)

Tremor is a 6-month incubator programme in Social Impact . Tremor is the place to cause shockwaves by taking well-defined solutions and work on turning them into entrepreneurial reality with support and mentoring tailored to change-making needs. Programme is for transforming ideas into meaningful ventures

Contact person: Pete Karumo, pete.karumo@helsinki.fi(Link opens default mail program)

Biosphere is a 6-month incubator programme in Bio and Circular Economy, forestry, and agriculture. Programme is for taking solutions and creating sustainable impact through startups.

Contact person: Pedro Gensini, pedro.gensinimotoa@helsinki.fi(Link opens default mail program)

Pathways is a two-month entrepreneurship programme. Regardless of what theme the problem you're looking to solve or idea you're aiming to develop falls under, Pathways will teach you step-by-step how to turn that vision into a promising business project.

Contact person: Santeri Tuovila santeri.tuovila@helsinki.fi(Link opens default mail program)

Metropolia also aims to increase the entrepreneurial skills of its staff and to create new entrepreneurial study paths in degree programmes. In the future, Metropolia will strengthen the commercialisation and effective further exploitation of the results of RDI activities as new business activity. In the Campus Incubators programme, Metropolia University of Applied Sciences focuses on strengthening early-stage services for companies and teams and on developing new pre-incubator activities.

Turbiini, Metropolia's campus incubator, has been operating since 2015. Turbiini specialises in the first stage of entrepreneurship. Metropolia students and alumni can participate in Turbiini's activities either with a business idea or with an existing business. The pre-incubator programme has been integrated into the offering of courses (10 credits) as part of the optional entrepreneurship studies. Turbiini operates on three different campuses: Arabia's creative sectors, Myllypuro's social and health services and real estate and construction sectors, and Myyrmäki's business and technology sectors.

Find out more!(Link leads to external service)
Contact person: Hannes Jesar ( hannes.jesar@metropolia.fi(Link opens default mail program) )