Wärtsilä is building a Smart Technology Hub, a new centre of research, product development and manufacturing, in Vaasa, Finland, by the end of 2020. At the same time, a flexible smart marine and smart energy platform called Smart Partner Campus is being built inside the Smart Technology Hub. The Smart Partner Campus will focus on doing research and product development together with companies, start-ups and researchers within the industry, as well as with Wärtsilä’s partners, customers and suppliers.
The Smart Partner Campus is now looking for its first cooperation partners in order to develop an operating model and a campus within the Smart Technology Hub.
“In this model we invite partners from the industry and the academia to participate in the process of product development, research and manufacturing together with Wärtsilä,” says Jaakko Eskola, President and CEO of Wärtsilä.
“The Smart Partner Campus gives access for customers, suppliers and start-ups to ambitious cooperation with Wärtsilä. It will gather the best and most diverse masterminds around the same table, and in that way enhance innovation and the discovery of something new.”
The Smart Partner Campus is not only an incubator. The idea is to build a new ecosystem and operating model in which cooperation brings new innovations to the market.
“Besides physical innovation and testing facilities, techniques and tools, Wärtsilä offers its Smart Partner Campus partners new models for business that enables the productisation of the innovations,” says Vesa Riihimäki, Managing Director of Wärtsilä Finland.
“We are not inviting academia, suppliers or start-ups to innovate on behalf of us – We invite them to innovate together with us, and after that also to share the results.”
The ones interested in the Smart Partner Campus can contact Wärtsilä through our innovation tool www.wartsila.com/spark.
More information:
Vesa Riihimäki
Managing Director
Wärtsilä Finland Oy
+358 10 709 2964
vesa.riihimaki@wartsila.com
Hanna-Mari Soini
Communications Director
Wärtsilä Finland Oy
+358 10 709 5095
hanna-mari.soini@wartsila.com
Wärtsilä in brief:
Wärtsilä is a global leader in smart technologies and complete lifecycle solutions for the marine and energy markets. By emphasising sustainable innovation, total efficiency and data analytics, Wärtsilä maximises the environmental and economic performance of the vessels and power plants of its customers. In 2017, Wärtsilä’s net sales totalled EUR 4.9 billion with approximately 18,000 employees. The company has operations in over 200 locations in more than 80 countries around the world. Wärtsilä is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki.
www.wartsila.com