Travel letter: Learnings from Aalto University’s Innovation Ecosystem
Earlier this month, a small delegation from VIS travelled to Espoo, Finland to visit Aalto University and explore how one of the Nordic region’s most mature university innovation ecosystems works in practice.
Representing the TILT academic entrepreneurship initiative, VIS’ technology transfer office, and the ocean incubator 70Blå, we were warmly welcomed to Aalto’s Otaniemi campus for two packed days of learning, reflection, and connection.
Our shared goal: to learn how Aalto has built a high-functioning pipeline for research-based innovation, and to gather ideas and inspiration for how we can strengthen the next generation of academic startups and spinouts in Norway.
Aalto Startup Center: Supporting early-stage and research-based ventures
Day one began in Aalto Startup Center, located in the vibrant A Grid building – a co-working space and community that houses over 70 startups and growth companies. The atmosphere immediately struck us: open, energetic, and grounded in practice. We were introduced to the model by Marc Gavaldà, who shared how the Startup Center operates as a hybrid accelerator, supporting both pre-startup teams still developing their business case and IP, as well as incorporated startups ready for acceleration and growth.
Startups enter the "Business Generator" program, which offers structured coaching, workshops, investor connections and thematic tracks like ESA BIC (space tech) and Urban Tech Helsinki (smart cities). What stood out to us was how closely integrated the Startup Center is with the rest of Aalto – and how international and practice-oriented the entire environment feels. Over 50% of Aalto’s students are international, and the startup programs reflect that diversity.
One of the cornerstones of Aalto’s innovation pipeline is Finland’s national Research to Business (R2B) funding program, administered by Business Finland. The program is designed to help public research organisations commercialise their research results through structured, pre-incorporation projects that combine applied research with early market validation.
Each R2B project can receive up to €700,000 over 12 to 24 months, with at least 40% of the budget dedicated to commercialisation activities. These include validating customer needs, assessing intellectual property, exploring market fit, and developing business models. The remaining budget supports applied research that strengthens the innovation’s technical viability.
A particularly noteworthy feature is the role of the commercial champion – someone with business or entrepreneurial experience who joins the team to lead the commercial aspects of the project. During the application phase, research teams can access a €2,500 Business Finland voucher to bring in a commercial expert for support in shaping the proposal. If the grant is awarded, this person often continues as a key team member, helping to translate the research into a viable business opportunity.
For many of Aalto’s future spinouts, this R2B phase is where the groundwork is laid, both in terms of product and team. It’s also where the collaboration between Aalto’s TTO and Startup Center typically begins, ensuring a smooth handoff from research to venture.
Aalto Innovation Services (TTO): A well-aligned partner
Later that morning, we were joined by Kim Aalto from Aalto Innovation Services, the university's tech transfer office (TTO). The role of the TTO at Aalto is to support research commercialization through a structured, researcher-friendly process that clearly outlines expectations and timelines.
Kim introduced us to the Finnish model for research-based innovation, where commercialization projects often follow a three-stage process:
Asset development – identifying and protecting intellectual property (IP), often through patenting.
Solution development – building a prototype or proof-of-concept to demonstrate viability.
Business development – validating the market, forming the team, and creating a sustainable spinout.
This framework aligns closely with the (R2B) funding scheme, which allows teams to receive substantial national support before incorporation. Importantly, Aalto's TTO is not just about managing IP – it plays an active role in helping teams develop commercialization strategies, navigate early business development, and connect with potential partners and investors.
We were particularly interested in Aalto's equity model for spinouts. Instead of charging high upfront license fees, the university takes a 10–20% equity stake in new companies, typically landing around 12–13%. This structure is designed to align incentives, reduce early financial burdens on startups, and ensure a transparent, fast-moving process. Once a team is ready and the necessary agreements are in place, the actual incorporation and tech transfer can be completed within a month.
Kim also emphasized the tight collaboration between the TTO and Aalto Startup Center, describing how many R2B-funded teams naturally flow from TTO support into the Startup Center's Business Generator program. If they don’t get funded in the first round, the Startup Center helps them improve and reapply. This creates continuity and structure in the transition from research to company. It was clear to us that the hand-offs are not siloed, but rather embedded in a joint strategy.
This integration between early IP development and post-incorporation acceleration reflects a system that has matured over years yet still maintains flexibility. It’s a model that sparked discussion among our delegation, especially as VIS continues to explore how to adapt and evolve our own commercialization tools and processes through the TILT program.
Aalto Design Factory: Passion, prototyping and serendipity
In the afternoon, we visited Aalto Design Factory (ADF), hosted by Klaus Castrén. Established in 2008, ADF is an interdisciplinary innovation and learning environment that brings together students, researchers, faculty, and industry partners to co-create solutions to real-world problems through hands-on product development.
What makes ADF special is that it is not just a building, but a philosophy – a new type of learning culture grounded in passion, experimentation, co-creation, and yes – serendipity. Klaus shared that ADF began as a research project to explore the ideal physical and mental environment for product development. Today, it's one of Aalto's flagship projects, and a physical manifestation of the university's mission to encourage collaboration across disciplinary boundaries.
ADF deliberately contrasts traditional education. During our visit, we saw how they dismantle the old classroom model in favour of project-based learning driven by real challenges. Students from diverse fields form interdisciplinary teams and work with external partners to design, build and test solutions. As Klaus put it, "You can't learn product development only from a computer screen or from a book. There are so many hard-to-define aspects that require an open way of thinking."
The space itself is informal and flexible – a carefully designed ecosystem of prototype labs, workshops, project rooms, and social areas, all arranged to promote collaboration, creativity and spontaneous interaction. The physical environment reinforces the mindset: anything is possible, and everyone is invited to contribute.
One cornerstone of ADF is its strong connection to industry. Through courses like the Product Development Project (PDP), student teams work directly with industrial partners on real challenges. This provides students with valuable experience and gives companies fresh insight and potentially transformative ideas.
Perhaps most impressive is how ADF has gone global. Since Tongji University in Shanghai launched the first international Design Factory in 2010, the Design Factory Global Network (DFGN) has expanded to 37 centres in 25 countries across five continents. This network is united by shared values: interdisciplinarity, user focus, experimentation, and practice-based learning. Every year, the network gathers for International Design Factory Week, a forum for exchanging experiences and strengthening the global community.
Klaus spoke with pride about the international boot camps they run to onboard new partners, and the global student projects that emerge through cross-factory collaboration. As visitors, we got the sense that ADF is not just a Finnish innovation success story, but a model for revitalising higher education worldwide.
With its emphasis on passion-driven, real-world innovation, ADF showed us what can happen when boundaries are removed and learners are empowered. It left us asking:
Could Bergen become the 38th Design Factory?
Startup Sauna & Aaltoes: For students, by students
Right next door to the Factory is Startup Sauna, the spiritual home of Aaltoes – the Aalto Entrepreneurship Society. Here we met with Vaneeza Maqsood, a student board member currently on leave from her studies to help run the society.
Startup Sauna is more than just a co-working space – it's a platform for co-creation. It's designed to bring together students who are curious, driven, and creative – not necessarily those who already have a startup idea, but those who want to build something. In the early stages, many simply identify as creators rather than entrepreneurs. The space fosters exactly that: experimentation without pressure.
The ground floor is filled with open seating where students from all disciplines can meet, collaborate, and work on personal or collective projects. Upstairs, more established student organizations like Junction (Europe’s largest hackathon) and Silta (building bridges to Silicon Valley) have semi-permanent desks. The mix of early curiosity and focused ambition is palpable.
We were also impressed by the scale of the events Aaltoes runs from this space. From casual idea jams to full-scale conferences and hackathons, they routinely host hundreds of participants. The demand has grown so significantly that Startup Sauna is now preparing to move into a larger venue to accommodate even more ambitious programming and community engagement.
What impressed us most was the structure behind the spontaneity. Each year, a new student board sets the direction. If they want to focus on hardware or sustainability, that becomes the theme. The society is volunteer driven but taken seriously. It’s a lesson in trust, ownership and culture-building.
Impact Innovators: Embedding sustainability into early-stage ventures
Day two brought a deeper dive into sustainability and impact. We visited Studio Impact Innovators, and were warmly welcomed by Timo Rossi, Tiina Kossila, Taina Koskinen, and Joel Takala; a senior team building a new model for embedding impact into early-stage ventures.
They presented their framework, Sustainability by Design, which combines:
Workshops (e.g. business modelling, SDG prioritisation)
1:1 mentoring
AI-based tools to assess impact, align with EU Taxonomy and ESRS standards, and generate reporting outputs for founders
What sets their approach apart is how practical and modular it is – designed for real startup settings, not policy reports. This makes it highly relevant for incubators and TTOs who want to offer structured ESG or impact support without requiring every spinout to become a social enterprise. It also meets the growing expectations from investors, especially those governed by SFDR Article 8 and 9, who need startups to demonstrate impact-readiness and transparency.
We had a rich discussion about the challenges many startups face when approaching impact, and how we as ecosystem actors can support them better. The consensus: impact must be embedded in strategy from day one, not bolted on later. Startups need to clearly link sustainability to their business model and value creation. The tools and methods presented by the Impact Innovators team offer a simple and usable structure to help startups adopt this mindset without adding unnecessary overhead. Instead of more work, it's a more focused path to meeting expectations from investors, customers, and regulators.
For VIS and TILT, this conversation confirmed an important shift: impact-readiness is becoming a new layer of venture-readiness. It's no longer just about IP and product–market fit, but about positioning the company for a world shaped by sustainability-driven capital and regulation.
The session opened several shared perspectives and tangible ideas for collaboration going forward.
After a productive morning, we wrapped up our visit with lunch at a lively street food festival in the sun – before heading back home to Bergen.
Reflections and next steps
Our time at Aalto left us with valuable insights:
Aalto demonstrates how academic innovation thrives when infrastructure, incentives and culture align.
The combination of clear processes (top-down) and student empowerment (bottom-up) is key.
Prototyping and passion-based learning work – and can scale.
Impact needs to be integrated early, not added late.
We left with concrete ideas for collaboration, from joint events to knowledge exchange. Most of all, we returned reminded of what’s possible when people are trusted to build, explore, and lead.
A huge thank you to our generous and inspiring hosts: Marc Gavaldà, Kim Aalto, Klaus Castrén, Vaneeza Maqsood, Joel Takala, Timo Rossi, Tiina Kossila and Taina Koskinen.
Kiitos lämpimästi vieraanvaraisuudesta!
Renate, Espen, Susanne, Lars, & Claus
On behalf of TILT, VIS TTO and 70Blå
