What and where?

Demola - A platform for open, multidisciplinary and agile innovation. Combines ideas of students with needs and support from project partners to demo products and services. It allows real life prototyping with SMEs and corporate experts. - Running in Tampere as part of New Factory innovation platform.

How and for whom?

- Idea for a project comes from industry or partner. Demola forms multidisciplinary student team from universities to work on the idea for 6 months. - Students get academic credit and get to work in real-world innovation assignment.

results
- Students own IPR generated in project. Partner buys license and/or rewards from successful work. - 2009-9/2011: 170 projects, 93 % of completed projects licensed by partner, new startups, 700 k rewards for students from licensing fees. - Demola produces modern innovation skills, entrepreneurial attitudes and activates SMEs to university collaboration. Demola also utilises ideas and underutilised IP created in companies and public sector. - Results not published. At the moment 10 startups housed in Venture Garage.

misc. notes
- Demola provides partners, database & online system for matching projects with right skills in the student team, IPR structure, project facilitation and inspiring working environment.

Aalto Venture Garage

- Co-working space and seed accelerator for start-ups and hackers in the Nordics and Baltics. - Part of Aalto University in Espoo, Finland.

Programs: - Startup Sauna is a program for promising entrepreneurs around Baltic Rim. Coaching, training and in the end a Demo Day. Best teams to Silicon Valley. See below. - Summer of Startups, 10 week program to students and researchers - Enternship - students interning in startups - Exchange intern program to Silicon Valley - For students, teachers, researchers and industry partners to interact under the same roof - Open-ended research initiatives challenging the industry status quo - Workshops, coaching, courses, projects and research collaboration

More entrepreneurial than Design Factory. Also houses Aalto Entrepreneurship Society which is a student organisation.

Design Factory

- Part of Aalto University in Espoo, Finland. - Symbiosis of the state-of-the-art conceptual thinking and cross-disciplinary hands-on doing - Hosts visitors from all parties, who are interested in practical applications of problem-based learning philosophy and hands-on activities that support theoretical studies. - A non-profit seed accelerator that is designed to kick start the region by coaching the selected startups from Northern Europe (down to Poland) and Russia.

- Design Factory seems to be a designed to be a support platform for students, researchers and entrepreneurs, and they have not published any statistics of results. There are numerous academic articles, prototypes and projects, and startups housed in Design Factory.

Design Factory also has Electroshop, Machineshop and Vinyl Cutting and Printing workshop for building prototypes and visualising concepts. They also loan equipment.

Startup Sauna

- During the Startup Sauna, the selected teams work intensively to develop their business model, technology & its applications, and early market entry. The teams graduating will be prepared to seek for initial investments and first customers.

- Around 15 startups have been created through the program. - Based on three success factors: Gathering the best startups to work and live together. Coaching from serial entrepreneurs, investors and other professionals. Pushing the startups to run faster than their competition.

- Startup Sauna is funded by Aalto University, Aalto Center for Entrepreneurship and Finnish Funding agency for technology and innovation.