Kampusareena – Rethinking Industry Collaboration

Circus

We identify ourselves through physical environment; spaces and buildings. Sometimes buildings create feelings of security or relaxation; encourage us to create, enable us to meet. Sometimes a building is more than just a building. It exceeds to be part of brand and a symbol of something more than its function.

In the middle of Tampere University of Technology campus stands a one-year-old construction that is more than a building. Kampusareena is a manifestation for the university’s continuous engagement with the industry. The new development brought companies to the center of university life, transforming the image of campus – and university. In addition to housing companies, the building acts as the platform for industry collaboration and the living lounge for the entire university community.

Kampusareena doesn’t just provide space. It gathers together university services directed for industry collaboration. It houses external service providers who benefit from university presence. Thus it creates an active innovation ecosystem where different functions support each other’s. Moreover, it acts as a doorway to the university and helps the university to communicate to business life; we’re open for collaboration, come.

In this session the Kampusareena concept is opened up. It tells a story of a university rethinking its relation to industry, strengthening the services at the time of cut backs and building trust to the future for the region at the time of economical downturn.

 

Speaker: Ilkka Virtanen
International Relations Manager, Tampere University of Technology

Ilkka Virtanen is currently working as International Relations Manager at Tampere University of Technology. His task is to create and manage university’s strategic research partnerships and networks and to facilitate the creation of new active research collaboration.

Prior to his current post he headed seven years’ university’s Research and Innovation Services, where he gained in-depth experience of research funding, agreements and intellectual property rights. His unit also supported commercializing research results and the creation of new businesses and entrepreneurship.

Virtanen has over 15 years’ experience of diverse research collaboration and research funding and of the support of prominent research groups. Previously he has also worked in support of business information management, medicine and bio sciences

 

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