Jyväskylä is known for its four strong pillars of sport, health, wellbeing and cyber security. Due to many international networking events organised by the City of Jyväskylä, for example, Business Rally event first contacts with Bilbao were established years ago. In August visitors from Athletic Club visited Jyväskylä and met with key stakeholders like the Football Association of Finland, the Olympic Committee, the Finnish Institute of High Performance Sport KIHU and the University of Jyväskylä.
University of Jyväskylä's strong research expertise had been noticed in Bilbao. Common interests between the University of Jyväskylä and the Athletic Club is a high-performance model with a focus on game performance, injury prevention as well as utilizing artificial intelligence to asses and improve performance.
- However, travel was not possible due to the pandemic, so initially we started to identify research needs relevant to the Club through online meetings, says Nina Rautiainen. 
Photo: Athletic Club representatives Eider Bikandi (right) and Aitor Ugarte (not in the photo) visited Jyväskylä this August.
Now the partnership is deepening and expanding. The first data collection has executed during the last week of July and the Erasmus+ Sport project is starting in fall.
Over time, Jyväskylä's reputation as the Capital of Sport in Finland has contributed to national level collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.
- Sport Finland network is funded by the ministry, and Jyväskylä is leading the network together with the cities of Kuopio and Lahti. But there is still huge growth potential and we hope to attract other players and cities to join us. Now more than ever, the importance of sport for well-being is being given unprecedented prominence in the social and working life debate, says Nina.
-This is precisely our role and goal: to create innovation through value networks between the different key stakeholders. We bring together researchers, companies, sport sector and investors and our scope is international. We are looking for such partnerships as with Athletic Club. This is one of the key missions of the ecosystem, Nina sums up.
Read the story of the Jyväskylä delegation's visit to Bilbao last November.
Cooperation also creates great opportunities for businesses and local football clubs
At the turn of the year, the cooperation expanded from football to include more innovation and business cooperation between the regions of Biscay and Jyväskylä. The idea behind the Innovation Bridge is to provide market expansion opportunities for interested companies in both directions, and the next business delegation from Biscay is coming to visit the Jyväskylä as early as September.
Photo: Nina Rautiainen visited Biscay at the beginning of 2023.
Read more about the innovation programme between Biscay and Jyväskylä
The network is also broadly open to companies aiming for international growth and go-to-market in Europe. The current focus is on health technology, performance data collection and analysis and optimising performance. Regarding data, also expertise in data and cyber security has attracted a lot of interest from Bilbao.
- The aim is to enable soft landing in both Jyväskylä and Bilbao region for as many actors as possible, regardless of industry, as cooperation expands over time, says Nina.
The next step for football is the launch of a new project funded by the Erasmus+ Sport programme, in partnership with JJK, Athletic Club and the University of Jyväskylä. The project is related to coaching themes and the development of coaching skills.
- I am sure that coaches will also be able to join the cooperation. There is a particular interest in women's football and the social impact of football in society, for instance, obesity and equality, sums up Nina.
Read more about the Erasmus+ Sport project here
This interview was made by our intern Petteri Itäranta with the aim to collect the whole picture of the football-related collaboration done between Jyväskylä, Athletic Club and the Spanish LALIGA. All articles were collected for a football-related ecosystem newsletter in collaboration with the University of Jyväskylä.
More information
Nina Rautiainen
nina.rautiainen@jyvaskyla.fi
