"This international recognition is very important for Metropolia. As the largest university of applied sciences in Finland, it is important for us to enable cooperation between students from different fields and cultures and our partners in working life through multidisciplinary innovation projects, or MINNOs.
We will do our best to strengthen our students' skills for the changing world of work and also to strengthen the network of our international talents. MINNO acts as a bridge between Metropolia and the working life. It focuses on the real challenges of working life and together we seek new solutions.
MINNO projects enable our partners to develop their activities in an innovative way," says Metropolia's President, CEO Riitta Konkola."
Innovation projects are a significant part of Metropolia’s activities and one of the main ways we cooperate with the world of work. Through multidisciplinary innovation projects carried out in collaboration with working‑life partners, we respond to regional development challenges and integrate research and development into teaching. Innovation projects can take many different forms and be very diverse, including international projects. What all innovation projects have in common is the renewal and development of services, ways of working, methods or products together with our partners.
“When an electrical engineer meets an occupational therapist, when a film director meets a building services expert, when a laboratory analyst meets a designer, something completely new and unique is created.”
Welcome to join us as a partner in building the Finland of the future. Carry out your project together with our students!
Companies and other organizations in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area have the opportunity to utilise Metropolia’s student expertise in various projects and initiatives that serve working life. Innovation projects focus on developing solutions to real‑life challenges.
In the Metropolia Minno® concept, students first learn in the Metropolia Minno® 1 and 2 courses skills such as psychological safety, innovation, the design thinking process, sustainability transition skills (IDG), futures literacy and foresight, as well as team practices, roles and leadership, systems thinking and reflection. With these capabilities in place, Metropolia Minno® 3 innovation projects with working‑life partners run smoothly and produce high‑quality solutions.
“The innovation process with Metropolia students and teachers was truly energising.”
– Mobile Sensei, Planner Peter Green, Mobile Sensing Ltd.
Metropolia Minno®️ -project means a collaborative team project that solves authentic problems by innovating a novel, practical and concrete solution.
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Entrepreneurship is important, but before it is advisable to start a business, you need a distinguishable service, product or a new way of doing something. This is why we have chosen innovation processes as the learning platform – to help our students find new opportunities proactively through cooperation.
Innovation is not only important in technical fields, but also in wellbeing, culture, business and healthcare. Social innovations are nowadays important. To develop, society needs smart solutions and new kinds of processes. Intrapreneurship is also important: organisations need proactive, independent, cooperative and enthusiastic developers in all organizational levels to solve today’s difficult problems. This is why Metropolia decided in 2007 that all students should participate in an innovation project.
Energize your company by partnering with Metropolia. We are looking for partners for our students all the time! If your company has a challenge that needs solving, we are interested in partnering with you.
As a working life partner you:
Metropolia Minno® - Join us in a fascinating journey to the intersection: a place where ideas and concepts from diverse industries, cultures, departments and disciplines collide, ultimately igniting an explosion of ideas leading to extraordinary innovations. Breakthroughs often occur when we bring concepts from one field into new, unfamiliar territory.
”Metropolia’s students brought new ideas and viewpoints to the challenge we gave them. We would have never ourselves come up with such fresh solutions and interpretations. I warmly recommend companies to give their challenges to be solved by Metropolia’s students. This kind of cooperation is very useful and we learned a lot.”
– Innovation Manager Juha Lappalainen, AbbVie Oy
“We used innovation projects to find new services and concepts. It is important to think how operating practices could be changed to create added value. Good technical quality is not enough, you also need encounters and interaction. Our cooperation has been excellent and of a new type in a multidisciplinary innovation project.”
– Director of Social and Health Services Juha Metso, City of Espoo
”The innovation process with Metropolia students and teachers was truly energising.”
– Mobile Sensei, Planner Peter Green, Mobile Sensing Ltd.
”Innovation projects can, at their best, lead to very useful and practical results. We experienced that with students who created a concept for us for our first blood donor mobile app. The idea was then developed with our professional partner to launch a real product.”
– Director, Communications and Human Resources, Willy Toiviainen Finnish Red Cross Blood Service
”Our challenge for Metropolia was to prepare some short videos about our solutions. The team handled the tight schedule and produced videos that we are proud of.”
– Product Manager Harri Taskinen, Anygraaf Oy
”The multidisciplinary groups had great ideas, I was impressed that people specialising in culture, wellbeing and technology were able to come up with solutions together efficiently although they had never met before. The teachers really knew how to facilitate innovation.”
– Technical Evangelist Mikko Kasanen, Microsoft.
“The students took the needs of our daycare centre into account very well, and cooperation was very smooth. It has been great to see how fantastic and innovative ideas are created when you combine enthusiasm with expertise from various fields. It was rewarding to work with you. Great synergy!”
– Head of daycare centre Arabianhelmi Marjukka Nieminen Sisupäiväkodit Oy
“Tutoring multidisciplinary teams has been really energizing! It is a joint learning process to all stakeholders. Discovering novel solutions offers a versatile learning environment like no other in universities.”
– Senior Lecturer Laura-Maija Hero, Cultural Management, Metropolia UAS
“The innovation project was extremely rewarding, with good team spirit playing an important role. The innovation project provided us with concrete results, which may well lead into a real game. Will Rehaboo! by the Helsinki Hooligans eventually be seen at the new Children’s Hospital? Did we inadvertently enter the gaming business? Who knows?”
– Cultural Management Student Sonja Linkoneva, Metropolia UAS
“I found the innovation project much more positive than I originally anticipated. The extent and potential of the project did not become clear to me until during the project. This project will also provide the topic for my final project, and I can continue to work as a member of a fantastic team!”
– Social Services Student Jukka Naskali, Metropolia UAS
An innovation is a novel solution to a real problem. It has been made concrete, tested and piloted or created into a marketable product or service – or otherwise for the benefit of the society and people – to create value. An idea is not an innovation, it has to be made real.
Yes, it is. We have professional innovation teachers to facilitate the process.
The end result is of course important, but the focus is on the learning process. Learning is the primary goal. The process and learning are assessed, not only the end results. It is important that the students understand the elements of an innovation process, as this will improve their innovation competence, making them capable of innovating in their future working life.
Innovation process has proved to be an ideal learning platform. The process is facilitated so that innovation competence is given a chance to develop. During the process one can learn new knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviour in an authentic context that requires learning orientation, efficient team work, networking, research and development methods, project management and digital communications skills. Further innovation competencies, such as futures thinking, creativity, social and cognitive competencies are crucial as we do not know what the future will be like.
Most of the innovation projects are multidisciplinary: students from different disciplines team up, they find or are given an authentic problem from companies, public sector organisations or associations. Our innovation projects create new processes, products, services or events.
