The national Sport Finland network strengthens the innovation activities of the Finnish exercise, sports and well-being sector in a business-oriented manner. The aim is to increase the amount of exercise of ordinary people in particular, but also to support competitive and world-class sports. As Project Manager Santtu Pirskanen from the City of Kuopio says, the same innovations are usually suitable for both purposes.
Exercise and physical activity can be increased through sports facility services, the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders and encouraging people to exercise, for example through gamification.
“Work life and well-being at work is one essential area where physical activity and its prerequisites can be increased and improved,” says Project Manager Alisa Heikkinen from Jyväskylä.
" Cities are good drivers of innovation "
Sport Finland is also an InnoCities lead project that supports national expertise and activities under the leadership of the sport cities of Jyväskylä, Kuopio and Lahti. The network has participants from all over Finland.
Sport Finland has organised InnoLab workshops on well-being at work and gamification for the network. There will be a workshop on the use of data in sports facilities and another on internationalisation in the autumn.
“The workshops have been found to be a good way of bringing operators together with new collaborations in mind. In addition to companies, there are researchers and project implementers as well as cities’ business and sports facility services,” says Santtu Pirskanen.
Project Manager Juha-Matti Haapsaari from the City of Lahti points out that networks cannot be bought for money.
“It’s a benefit that needs to be found. The monetary value itself comes into the business world with a delay.”
According to the project managers, cities are good drivers of innovation activities because the work is carried out impartially. It is also beneficial for the vitality of cities that companies make progress in achieving their goals.
Support for international growth – football can offer business opportunities in unexpected places
In addition to workshops, the Sport Finland project aims to create strong connections for companies to the international market.
“Through the network, companies receive support from other operators for their idea to enter the international market. We want to support the idea that this is possible for them,” says Haapsaari.
A new innovative solution does not have to come directly from one’s own industry.
“Football, for example, is a major global phenomenon, and Finnish companies may have expertise in the sport that has not been thought of before. Business related to world-class sports is universal and it may also be possible to replicate the same solutions for many different sports,” Pirskanen says.
Football has a huge market. In the spring, Sport Finland organised a trip for a company delegation to Madrid. In the same week of April, the City of Jyväskylä’s business support services also brought people to Bilbao to experience the peak conditions of the sport.
“The trip offered the opportunity to talk with many parties. We received good feedback and added momentum to our plans for the autumn,” Heikkinen says.
The workshop on internationalisation at the beginning of September is intended for those who want to join the World Football Summit in Seville, Spain, from 18–19 September 2024.
Sport Finland has also cooperated with the University of Jyväskylä’s Master’s Degree Programme of Responsible Management and Business of Sport (RESPO).
“The network’s companies received development assistance from students and the students were able to engage in dialogue with the companies. This kind of thing is still relatively new in the academic sports sector. Both parties were satisfied with the opportunity,” Heikkinen says.
There is a need for a permanent Sport Finland network
The project managers of the Sport Finland project from the three cities have worked closely together. The best conceivable outcome would be that people will be more physically active in the future, but according to Pirskanen, this will take longer than an individual project. What will change with the project?
“Cooperation between different operators will deepen. On a larger scale, between other companies and across city borders. We aim to make such a mindset more common, that not all problems need to be solved alone,” says Pirskanen.
The project managers hope that the Sport Finland network’s work will become more extensive and permanent.
“Here is a functional model to actively export abroad under the brand. There is a demand for this type of activity. The parties might not necessarily think to contact each other without such opportunities,” Pirskanen says.
In addition to systematic innovation and innovation ideation, the aim is to offer companies clear services so that they know where to get support.
“There are still gaps between different services,” Heikkinen says.
According to Haapsaari, it would also help sport governing bodies for world-class sports to operate under the Sport Finland brand. Instead of competition, finding different strengths and combining expertise are important.
“Everything has been thought of, but you still need to be able to refine activities.”
Heikkinen is pleased with how quickly they have made an impact.
“This is an endurance run, as building trust takes time and many decisions need to be made. We have succeeded in many of the things we have done.”
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The Sport Finland network, focusing on innovation in sports, health, and wellbeing, is based on a joint leadership project by the cities of Jyväskylä, Lahti, and Kuopio, implemented between April 1, 2023–December 31, 2024. The purpose of the network operating in the context of promoting wellbeing is to facilitate knowledge-increasing co-development innovation processes between different sectors of society and internal cooperation related to research, development, and innovation (RDI). With societal impact and whose outputs have business relevance.The foundation of the project lies in ecosystem agreements between the state and Innocity cities, i.e., university and university centre cities, with funding provided by the Pirkanmaa Regional Council, which grants support for lead responsibility projects from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), according to the objectives and specific goals outlined in the Innovation and Skills in Finland Finland 2021–2027 program.
