We welcome our newest and first European member to the New Ways of Working Network: VTT Technical Research of Finland. With 2700 employees and 45 research centers, VTT is the biggest contract research organization in Northern Europe. VTT provides research, development, testing and information services for the public sector as well as for international organizations. Describing itself as an impartial expert organization, its objective is to develop new technologies, create new innovations and add value to existing technologies and applications.
Jyrki Kalavainen, Senior Vice President of the Real Estate Company and Dr. Abdul Samad (Sami) Kazi, senior research scientist along with another yet-to-be-named researcher will be representing VTT. Jyrki and his colleagues are eager “to begin a discussion of their research with the New Ways of Working community.” Topics of interest are knowledge management, collaboration and group technologies for virtual organizations. They will have a formidable research organization backing them up..
Its research is organized around seven knowledge clusters:
- Digital information systems
- Telecommunications
- Microtechnologies and sensors
- Materials and building (including performance-based building)
- Industrial systems
- Biotechnology
- Energy and pulp & paper
Tracing its history back over 50 years, VTT has been responsible for 1100 plus patents. Currently, the organization is engaged in over 500 projects. The VTT database (searchable and freely available) provides information on 8,500 research projects launched since the 1970s.
