Projects

AI Summarized topics & timeline 

Individual projects and their focus:

Ongoing projects:

TEKU (ERDF, 11/2025 - 06/2027, participant, 137 923 €) [FIN] - The goal of the TEKU project is to develop various solutions for improving maintenance operations, for example, in process industries and power plants, to enhance the competitiveness of companies in the North Ostrobothnia region. The aim is also to improve the region's green transition through new expertise and to implement actions that are energy-efficient and emission-free, thereby increasing the region's security of supply. The objective is to produce new knowledge and solutions for the development and renewal of maintenance operations of companies in North Ostrobothnia, as well as to improve the region's expertise and innovation capacity. The goal is also to achieve visible improvements in the competitiveness of companies in North Ostrobothnia through close cooperation, which will also facilitate the creation of new jobs in the region. 

As a result of the project, information will be obtained on the possibilities of utilizing artificial intelligence in various maintenance operations, and a modern learning environment for teaching maintenance, including the use of digital tools in education. In the long term, the project will strengthen the competitiveness of the industry in the North Ostrobothnia region through the utilization of new maintenance methods, thereby supporting the renewal and competitiveness of companies in the region to meet the challenges and opportunities of the green transition. Companies' ability to develop their own maintenance operations using new methods will be facilitated. As a long-term result of the project, the skills of students graduating from the implementing organizations related to maintenance tasks will better meet the needs of working life.

UUPO-hanke (ERDF, 01/2024 - 03/2027, participant, 135 942 €) [ENG][FIN] - To replace fossil fuels, Finland aims to increase the share of renewable energy to 51% of the total energy production. The plan is to at least halve the use of peat as an energy source by 2030. Companies and employees in the peat industry need new jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities. When renewable energy production increases in North Ostrobothnia, there is a need for more installers, maintainers, designers, site managers, and experts. The educational paths developed in the project aim to solve the problems mentioned earlier by offering new training and entrepreneurship opportunities to those who remain unemployed or without employment in the peat sector. Centria, JEDU, and the University of Oulu lack a training pathway related to renewable energy to meet the educational needs. The training pathway developed in this project will constitute a comprehensive educational program that addresses the aforementioned issues by providing new training and entrepreneurial opportunities for those who become unemployed in the peat industry or cannot secure employment in that field. Without external funding, detaching trainers for skills acquisition, building learning environments, and conducting pilot projects would not be possible. The implemented training opportunities are designed to be as flexible as possible, allowing for distance learning to support regional educational equality. In addition to remote learning, on-site instruction will be piloted for practical aspects requiring a hands-on approach, such as in survival training.

OPTIONAL (ERDF, 08/2025 - 03/2027, participant, 124 050 €) [ENG][FIN] - Innovations in the metal sector are important for the development of the region's business life, and the From Idea to Prototype project provides a way to refine product ideas into prototypes. Small businesses and individuals in the region can contribute their own ideas to the project, where the University of Oulu and Centria promote innovation, design and evaluation of prototypes, and JEDU promotes their implementation in practice. The project aims to support regional employment, especially those at risk of exclusion, by offering them entrepreneurship training and a concrete opportunity to transition to the metal sector as entrepreneurs. Without external support, expertise and funding, the design and manufacture of prototypes would not be possible. The project is implemented in cooperation with local educational institutions, other organisations and companies, and will help develop new job and entrepreneurship opportunities in the region.
The project supports innovative entrepreneurship and retraining in just transition regions. The development of metal prototypes increases regional resilience and strengthens the growth potential of local companies, while helping people at risk of exclusion to integrate into the labour market and increasing their capacity to act as entrepreneurs.
The project aims to reduce structural unemployment and to utilise the region's existing metal expertise, while also providing opportunities for innovative product development. JTF funding can enable a new educational path that combines creativity, technology and entrepreneurship - supporting the economic renewal of the region and offering new business opportunities for those at risk of exclusion.
In addition, the project supports long-term skills development and the creation of infrastructure that enable regional growth even after the end of the project. The project will create a cooperation network and a sustainable development model that can continue in the future as a collaboration between local educational institutions, companies and other organisations.

LIKKE (ERDF, 09/2025 - 05/2028, participant, 133 216 €) [ENG][FIN] - Currently, there is no training available in Finland for heavy mobile machinery maintenance, nor is there an appropriate qualification module in national eRequirements. There is a significant need for such training in business. LiKKe - Developing Maintenance Expertice and Training for Heavy mobile machinery project

brings new opportunities to improve employment and enhance people's skills and education in North Ostrobothnia. The target groups of the project are companies engaged in the aftersales of construction, mining, and forestry machinery, as well as operators in the commercial vehicle superstructure sector, such as manufacturers of timber cranes and swap body systems. The project will map the skills needs of these companies and determine what additional skills their personnel require. During the pilot phase, the companies' equipment and possibly their facilities will be used to support the training. Additionally, the target group includes individuals with basic skills in the field and those who wish to enter the field, further trainees, and those acquiring new skills based on the principle of continuous learning, such as those already working in the field who need additional training. The training pilot will be particularly targeted at the unemployed and those considering a career change or needing professional development to remain in the workforce. The target group will be reached through company cooperation and employment area actors. It also includes graduates from OSAO and Oamk who wish to deepen their professional skills.

Biomassat Kiertoon Koillismaalla (RUTTO) (ERDF, 09/2023 - 03/2026, participant, 200 750 €) [ENG][Lauri Kunnari M.Sc. thesis FIN] - The purpose of the project Biomasses into Circulation in the Koillismaa Region is to explore extensively the opportunities for biogas production in Koillismaa, northeast Finland, and the possibilities of utilizing various community biomasses. Enhancement of self-sufficiency and material cycles plays a significant role in solving the problem of profitability in primary production, as well as in the observance of the principles of sustainable development. The principal actor of the project is Naturpolis Ltd and the subordinate actors are Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), ProAgria Oulu, and University of Oulu. Through the collaboration of subordinate actors, and surveys and studies complementary to each other, a plan will be produced for an efficient chain of harvesting, logistics and production, in which community biomasses are efficiently utilized and the nutrient cycle of farms is enhanced, taking into account the environmental effects. Activating companies and associations in taking part in the research and development phase will increase awareness of the possibilities of utilizing community biomasses, and it may also create jobs in rural areas. The outcome of the project will be a report on the opportunities for agricultural biogas plants and community biomass utilization in the Koillismaa region. The most significant benefit of the project is that the biomass resulting from environmental measures can be processed into energy or fertilizers and pesticides. Environmental care can become a profitable business.

Ended projects

NO DAMAGE (BF, 08/2022 - 12/2024, coordinator, 542 000 €) [ENG][FIN] - The electrification of vehicles and work machines is progressing strongly. The drivers for change are green transition and customer requirements. Nationally, there are several high-tech players in this field. Frequently manufactured equipment and machines are suitable for special applications and are thus designed for specific conditions or needs. In electrification, the challenge is to make new products economically viable and configure them to meet customer needs. In the manufacture of electronic devices and machines, the number of solutions is an order of magnitude higher than in traditional mechanical solutions. However, electronic solutions enable new features and energy efficiency improvements, so there are measurable benefits. The NO DAMAGE project investigates electric axle solutions for vehicle and implement applications. The research focuses on system-level modeling and its identification of the characteristics of different solution options. These are expected to support the selection of electronic solutions for companies, the sizing of products and the organization of the organization so that they effectively meet customer needs and are cost- effective.

UUPO-investointi (ERDF, 01/2024 - 31/2025, participant, 84 000 €) [ENG][FIN] - In the real-time simulator acquired for the University of Oulu, it is possible to visualize and quantify, for example, the energy use of a physics-based simulation and to study the user's experiences in the behavior of the new device, which is still in the design phase, in the desired use situation. With the help of the simulator, the design requirements are determined more precisely, thereby improving the cost and energy efficiency of wind turbines, biogas plants, and solar power plants. With the help of the real-time simulator, the University of Oulu can train professionals for future renewable energy expert and researcher positions.

SANTTU (BF, 03/2022-03/2024, participant, 312 900 €) [ENG][FIN] - The SANTTU project focuses on the development of systems for operators of work machines and heavy industrial machines. The aim is to simplify the control and operation of the machines with semi- autonomous operator assistance systems. This can be used to reduce the cognitive stress on the operator as well as the stress on the machine, thus extending machine life, availability, and productivity. By combining physics-based (real-time) simulation, digital twins and artificial intelligence technologies – semi-automated systems can be created.

RESCUE (Submitted, To be decided) (BF, 08/2026 - 07/2029) - As requirements from markets, sustainable development and shareholders rapidly evolve, Finnish manufacturers of long lifecycle and low volume products turn to services to fuel growth and accelerate the transfer of R&D results to the market. A key area of service is in modernizing, upgrading and retrofitting customer equipment. RESCUE will equip manufacturing companies with a complete set of data-based approaches, technologies and tools to proactively manage customer equipment updates and retrofits and overcome typical customer barriers to upgrading equipment. RESCUE will develop real-time data acquisition capabilities and integrate cross-functional data to enable monitoring, analyzing and predictions on the individual equipment and customer level. These developed data and analysis capabilities are leveraged to provide data-based answers which equipment should be upgraded, at which time and, with what outcome that enablesmanufacturers to proactively provide their customers with customized retrofit and upgrade offerings that align with their operational and business needs. Effective updates across the existing installed base enable rapid growth in service business and strengthen a technology-driven competitive edge. Timely upgrades and usage-based adaptation also support sustainability goals and corporate environmental responsibility.