At a Glance
| Item | Information |
|---|---|
| Country | Finland |
| Innovation Valley | Österbotten |
| Innovation Nexus | Nordic Innovation Nexus |
| Lead organisation | Regional Council of Ostrobothnia |
| Regional VIVA partner | Merinova |
| Sister region | Central Transdanubia, Hungary |
| Sister-region focus | Industrial symbiosis and renewable energy technologies |
| Flagship area | Net-zero technologies and industrial symbiosis |
| Smart Specialisation | Energy technology and System-level Solutions for Renewable Energy, advanced production methods and robotics, dData, data-driven value creation and AI, circular economy |
| Key technologies and approaches | Renewable energy; hydrogen; battery technologies; offshore wind; carbon capture and utilisation; energy-system optimisation; sector coupling; digital energy management; industrial symbiosis; shared industrial infrastructure |
| Contact person | Johanna Dahl, johanna.dahl@obotnia.fi |
Regional Overview
The region of Ostrobothnia, with the largest number of companies per capita on the mainland of Finland, is the most industry-dominated region in Finland, and holds the highest manufacturing value added per capita.
Ostrobothnia is a region with a large impact on decarbonizing industries. The region is a leading producer of renewable energy, fostering net-zero industries. Hosting the EnergyVaasa cluster, it also excels in technologies for smart grids, marine solutions, sustainable energy production and energy efficiency. Key to its mission is exporting innovative technologies to support global decarbonization worldwide. Ostrobothnia stands for 30% of Finland’s energy technology export and 90% of Finland’s R&D work within electricity and automation.
Within VIVA, Österbotten leads the regional focus on technology solutions for renewable-energy integration, net-zero industrial development and industrial symbiosis.
Regional Strengths
Österbotten brings an established energy technology cluster consisting of 180 companies and vast experiences of tools developed for governing the EDP process within smart specialisation and creating transition-oriented partnerships involving industry, academia, regional and local governance. The region is engaged in initiatives such as the Bothnia Hydrogen Valley showcasing ecosystem orchestration towards the establishment of a regional hydrogen economy.
Within the theme of renewable energy, the region brings leading R&D on technologies, such as smart electrical solutions, sustainable energy, flexible power generation and digitalisation enabling the energy transition.
Its industrial areas and planned green investments provide concrete settings for applying VIVA’s methodology to emerging net-zero value chains.
Innovation Specialisation
Renewable-energy systems and industrial symbiosis
Österbotten’s specialisation focuses on energy technologies and system solutions for renewable-energy production and integration. It combines energy-system optimisation with sector coupling and industrial symbiosis.
Flagship Pilot
Renewable integration, management and optimisation
The flagship builds on Ostrobothnia’s ambition to become a net-zero industrial valley. The Ostrobothnia’s flagship will work across industrial areas and with R&D initiatives related to net-zero technology development and manufacturing. It’s focus is on planned industrial investments related to:
- data centres;
- hydrogen, carbon capture and utilisation, and related derivatives;
- low-carbon aluminium;
- offshore wind, operations and maintenance, and port logistics.
The pilot will identify site-specific innovation activities and examine how joint services can support investment and cooperation across a network of industrial areas. This network is intended to create stronger foundations for circular and net-zero industrial processes.
Collaboration within VIVA
Österbotten is part of the Nordic Innovation Nexus with Østfold and Västra Götaland. It provides the energy-system dimension of the Nexus.
Ostrobothnia’s expertise can enable building inter-regional collaboration spearheads around net-zero technology development and deployment within the Nordic Innovation Nexus. Moreover, the region’s expertise on clean tech manufacturing links to renewing industrial processes through robotics, advanced manufacturing, circular processes and new materials. Given Ostrobothnia’s strong manufacturing base, the region can draw on its Nordic partners’ expertise in automation, AI, and circular production. The Nexus also supports coordinated funding strategies, shared infrastructure access and talent mobility.
Sister-Region Partnership
Österbotten and Central Transdanubia
Österbotten is paired with Central Transdanubia through a partnership connecting renewable-energy systems and industrial symbiosis with digital and sustainable agri-food production.
The partnership creates opportunities to examine how clean energy, resource optimisation and industrial cooperation can support agriculture and food manufacturing. Central Transdanubia contributes agri-food applications, sensor-based optimisation and production environments, while Österbotten contributes energy technology, net-zero planning and industrial-system expertise.
Opportunities
Potential opportunities include:
- access to and testing of new innovation scaling methods
- cross-regional technology development projects on circular economy solutions, human-centric robotics development, renewable energy system optimization and digital transformation
- innovation ecosystem building actions supporting planned net-zero industrial investments
- testing of energy-management and optimisation technologies
- conducting market validation activities for TRL 6-8 technologies
- access to open calls, research infrastructures, test-beds, knowledge-exchange and innovation-support activities within the VIVA consortium
The regional ecosystem may be particularly relevant to companies, research and technology organizations, higher education institutions developing technologies and RDI initiatives requiring integrated industrial systems to operate, energy system-level know-how, modelling and validations, and multidisciplinary approaches
Expected Contribution
Österbotten is expected to demonstrate how multiple industrial areas and emerging net-zero value chains can cooperate and function as one valley.
Its contribution will strengthen VIVA’s understanding of system-level energy and sector coupling solutions at regional scale and provide practical learning for other European regions planning renewable-energy and net-zero industrial transformation.
