At the core of cooperation: results are built on trust

The project is based on a successful coincidence and timing. Tampere University approached Lassila & Tikanoja at just the right moment, when the company saw the collaboration as an opportunity for business development. The consortium includes several companies that also have mutual customer relationships and common themes, which has strengthened the depth of the collaboration. The consortium's workshops promote ecological sustainability and the services, products, and solutions offered to achieve it.

“Every workshop has featured interesting and enriching discussions, even though the companies are very different. Forming new perspectives usually requires a clash of ideas”, says Virve Viertiö, Development Manager, Biodiversity and Nature Restoration at L&T.

Lassila & Tikanoja is conducting a case study on quantifying the benefits of nature-based solutions and, at the same time, developing services whose effectiveness can be verified using this method. The study helps understand what type of value can or cannot be defined in numbers.

"Customers have expectations about the benefits that a solution will bring. Measurement data helps assess whether the solutions meet those expectations”, Viertiö continues.

"For the first time, we have a situation in which the market has already asked for a service that we have not yet understood or offered. The model is now being developed in this project”, says Ari-Pekka Heikkilä, Business Director at L&T.

Trust leads to the root of the problem 

At the core of research-business cooperation is continuous dialogue and a desire to understand each other – even in difficult situations. The consortium's workshops have generated enriching discussions, but the bilateral discussions between researchers and companies have been particularly valuable.

A thesis completed in the spring is a concrete example of the results of this cooperation. It provided Lassila & Tikanoja research data and structures to support their decision-making. 

“Researchers at Tampere University have skillfully facilitated the project from the outset. We have very quickly identified common challenges, as the research group members have discussed with each consortium member individually. Through these discussions, they have brought issues to the table and into the workshops for discussion”, says Viertiö. 

Associate Professor Tuomas Korhonen emphasises that the university's role is to delve deeply into the real challenges of business.

"When we have sought models and understanding together, it has significantly accelerated progress. This has required building strong trust, not only legally through agreements but also in terms of the atmosphere, so that people dare to talk about things. Trust is essential for achieving concrete results, and for that, we owe a big thank you to everyone involved”.

Although the pace of academia and science may seem slow compared to the business world, the EBITDA project has generated value from the outset.

“We have even been a little surprised by this. The research work is not yet complete, but knowledge and benefits are constantly being generated, and we can structure our thinking through phenomena and theoretical frameworks. Through research data and the convergence of many scientific disciplines, I have come to understand different ways of defining value and what different themes of value definition can exist in general”, says Viertiö. 

The involvement of companies in university-led projects is considered significant in terms of research data.

“With the help of companies, we are constantly gaining a better understanding also from an academic perspective, which reinforces the idea that the world does not function like a machine. For example, transforming business operations into a circular economy model is not exactly easy. Since we don't know everything that will ultimately come out of the project, it's best to take a risk and try to figure out the difficult issues that lie ahead and learn more. The journey is just as important as the destination”, Korhonen says.

The three-year EBITDA research project is part of Valmet’s Beyond Circularity research and development programme, which has been selected by Business Finland as a Leading Company project. The total budget for the EBITDA project is approximately €2.5 million, with Tampere University’s research budget amounting to about €1.3 million. This funding is distributed across the Industrial Engineering and Management unit, the Information and Knowledge Management unit and the Aerosol Emissions and Air Quality group at Tampere University. The key consortium partners include Valmet, Lassila & Tikanoja, Kemira, ImpactOS and Solita.