Finland pledges to launch autonomous technology research cluster in 2020

Finland plans to launch next year a research cluster which the government hopes will put the country at the forefront of developments in autonomous technology. The RAAS (Research Alliance for Autonomous Systems) ‘innovation ecosystem’ is designed to bring together research organisations and other stakeholders to develop “new, cross-sector solutions”, with an emphasis on those containing a high level of automation. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has put up grant money, with research or
February 4, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
Finland plans to launch next year a research cluster which the government hopes will put the country at the forefront of developments in autonomous technology.


The RAAS (Research Alliance for Autonomous Systems) ‘innovation ecosystem’ is designed to bring together research organisations and other stakeholders to develop “new, cross-sector solutions”, with an emphasis on those containing a high level of automation.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has put up grant money, with research organisations also funding “a portion of the operation’s costs”.

The RAAS launch partners are 814 VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland along with half a dozen academic institutions, including the University of Helsinki and Turku University of Applied Sciences. Five other universities are expected to join after launch. VTT says the cluster element is significant because “up to 96% of innovations are created in ecosystems”.

“There are technical, operational issues and business challenges to overcome in the development of autonomous systems, but we also need to resolve a number of questions related to legislation, regulations and social acceptance,” says RAAS coordinator Hannu Karvonen. “An innovation ecosystem like RAAS will let us tackle broad, systemic challenges.”

VTT co-creation manager Ismo Vessonen says: “The initiative for RAAS came from the industry. The availability of a one-stop-shop innovation ecosystem will help companies find solutions to concrete challenges more efficiently. It also gives companies a great opportunity to influence the direction of research in the field.”

Networking & Communication Systems

Related Content

  • August 15, 2019
    IBTTA Summit: satellite tolling is the future
    IBTTA members met in Florida to consider the technological changes that will impact their businesses – including satellite tolling. Colin Sowman reports from Orlando Over decades, the technology employed in toll collection has been honed to near perfection – automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are easily within a couple of per cent of infallibility even at highway speeds. However, technical innovations beyond the confines of the toll road cannot b
    Read More
  • June 27, 2018
    An innovation lab – not a burden
    Travellers want to be able to book multimodal journeys easily – and to be informed of problems and alternatives as they go. Adam Roark might just be able to help, finds Ben Spencer. The global shift in transportation towards members of the public wanting access to multimodal journeys is rapidly changing how people pay and plan ahead. Buying tickets from a machine and dealing with the frustration of discovering your train is cancelled is a scenario commuters want to avoid through technology’s ability to
    Read More
  • November 15, 2017
    Dutch strike public/private balance to introduce C-ITS services
    Connected-ITS applications are due to appear on a nation-wide scale this summer, through the Netherlands’ Talking Traffic Partnership – if all goes to plan. Jon Masters reports. The Netherlands’ Talking Traffic Partnership (TTP) looks almost too good to be true: an artificial market set up and supported by national, regional and local government to accelerate deployment of Connected ITS (C-ITS) applications. If it does have any serious flaws, these are going to become apparent quite soon, because the first
    Read More
  • March 13, 2012
    ITS America focuses on the environment
    ITS America's appointment of a Director of Environmental Affairs signals a major new focus
    Read More

Highlighted Content