KAMU - From crisis to growth opportunities and renewal

KAMU project promotes strengthening of the business of Satakunta companies through applying RDI knowledge to foster innovations and business renewal, and thus increase the degree of digitalization of the companies. The project will map and study the RDI examples offered to companies in the region. As a result, a new operating model and a smart business evaluation platform will be created for companies to use freely (KAMU application). Companies will be provided with concrete, relevant and easy-to-adopt examples of business renewal and opportunities that support growth.

The growth and relapse of Finland's economy and adaptation to exceptional situations require more robust new innovations. Small and medium-sized enterprises in particular would need help in designing and getting new products and services to market.

There are huge quantities of new technologies and competency building material important to RDI and the ability to regenerate business, but due to the flood of information and lack of time, useful knowledge remains undiscovered and unexploited in enterprises.

The aim of the project is to create methods and policies to facilitate the identification and exploitation of usable information.

The tasks of the project include mapping the needs of enterprises and the challenges they experience, designing the operating structure of the business assessment system and processing of RCI examples, building a collection of examples, and piloting and testing the application with companies. The project draws on the results of previous projects as well as the knowledge of the project partner (Prizztech) on the development needs of businesses in the region. Information and marketing of the content of the project are also included in the tasks of the project.

With the KAMU application resulting from the project, the solutions available will be better aligned with the needs of businesses than they are today. The application offers a novel and significantly faster way to find and take advantage of the research and development knowledge that is often very awkwardly available. The application enables companies to conduct a systematic situation assessment of the various means of developing their business, and can find RDI examples suitable for their needs of verified solutions.

The primary target group of the project is companies. The actual focus groups also include research and education organizations, municipalities and municipal groups. In addition, the focus groups include actors appropriate for the purposes of the project and registered associations and foundations engaged in business in the third sector.

The Kamu project brings to Satakunta's business life an open digital innovation environment that supports business renewal and product development, enabling companies and business developers to freely leverage existing research and product development knowledge in the past in a significantly easier way. The Kamu project is a digital main opening for the implementation of research results and proven and practically-tried solutions to meet the needs of the Satakunta RDI ecosystem.

The project will be financed through a grant from the REACT-EU programme as part of the European Union's actions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and by the University of Tampere and Prizztech Oy together with the municipalities of the Satakunta region.

The project is carried out by the SEINTS, research group from Pori unit of Tampere university, together with a project partner, Prizztech Oy. Jussi Kuusiniemi (jussi.kuusiniemi(at)prizz.fi) acts as a Project Manager for Prizztech Oy. Prizztech project page (FI only):
https://www.prizz.fi/kehittamisteemat/liiketoiminnan-kasvu-ja-kehittaminen/kamu-kriisista-kasvun-mahdollisuuksiin.html