Two years after first opening for business in Riihimäki to link up people across the Finnish Defence Forces, companies in defence and security, and research institutes, Defence Innovation Network Finland (DEFINE) is making a big move to scale. The project, backed by the EU, has now added six more Finnish cities to its defence and security network, which aims to advance the Finnish defence industry by focusing on collaboration over competition.
Riihimäki’s DEFINE specialisation has been AI and autonomous systems, and each new city will be bringing its own focus to the programme.
Espoo’s will be deep technology innovations, Forssa ESG impact and competence, Metropolia University of Applied Sciences autonomous defence solutions and physical AI, Häme University of Applied Sciences the development of local AI solutions and training to support the defence sector, Hämeenlinna security of supply and resilience, Joensuu digital border security solutions, and Oulu radio technologies and 6G development, a reminder of Finland’s foundational contribution to wireless communications years back through Nokia.
But mainly, the selection of cities was based on those coming to the project with “will and passion,” said Teemu Seppälä, technology and innovation Director at City of Riihimäki who helped set up DEFINE there and will be overseeing the wider network.
“We are making history in Finland,” he said. “From a defence business side we will be able to provide meaningful solutions for the end users, for defence forces, and now with a bigger portfolio of startup companies we can start selling for different countries.”
And this week, Finland-backed Sitra Fund announced that it will help fund the project, which is expected to need around €2 million to establish business accelerators, hackathons, technical demonstrations and the creation of innovation hubs across the six new locations.
The move signals an important evolution in the defence technology ecosystem in Finland, said Seppälä: developers working in different centres and projects, sometimes in competition with each other, are starting to see more opportunities by working together.
“I’m extremely happy to do something together with other cities who we have mostly been competing with, which is totally insane, he said. “We are a small country, and all these different locations in Finland have very specific strengths – very unique skills.”
Sitra Fund did not disclose the specific amount it will invest, but it confirmed to Resilience Media that it will contribute “a significant figure” through its grant resources that will amount to “under 50% of the total amount of the project’s funding.” DEFINE partners will be responsible for funding individual projects, so that will lead to a fillip of fundraising activity across the cities.
And, hopefully, business activity.
“Our mission is to promote sustainable economic growth in Finland, and of course there’s also the aspect of security,” said Heikki Aura, senior lead at Sitra Fund. “We know well that, for unfortunate reasons, the defence sector is something that is growing very rapidly [with] billions being invested by Europe, by Finland, by everybody, into this domain. We want to make sure that Finnish companies, or companies that want to be based in Finland and working in the Finnish ecosystem, will be able to capture as much of that as possible.”
With the addition of the new cities to DEFINE, Riihimäki will remain the main hub of the initiative, focusing on cooperation with the Finnish Defence Forces.
“Our goal is to build DEFINE into an internationally significant defence innovation ecosystem that brings together top expertise from Finland and around the world,” says Jouni Eho, the mayor of Riihimäki.
