Introduction

Forum Virium Helsinki develops new digital services in collaboration with companies, the City of Helsinki and other public sector organizations. Helsinki residents participate in the development and testing of the services. The aim is to create better services and new business, plus to open up contacts for international markets. Forum Virium Center, a meeting point for companies who develop digital services, is planned for central Pasila.

The Forum Virium Helsinki cluster was founded in 2005. Its anchor companies are Elisa, Nokia, TeliaSonera, Tieto and YLE Finnish Broadcasting Company. Partner companies are IBM, Digita, Logica, Siemens, Sponda and SOK. Public sector partners are the City of Helsinki, Finnvera, Sitra, Tekes, Tieke and VTT. Furthermore, a large number of other cooperation partners from the metropolitan area take part in development projects.

Forum Virium Helsinki’s core activity is to manage development projects. The projects are divided into the following Project Areas: Wellbeing, Media, Learning and Education and Smart City. Innovation communities support all of these by developing user-based innovation processes, tools and methods, such as Living Labs.