Data, mobility, smart governance, clean energy transition, built environment, and health & wellbeing; these are the focus areas of the FinEst Twins open call, the mini-piloting programme. Challenges are provided by a variety of organizations engaged in supporting the operations during the piloting period. The second round of innovative pilots uses Helsinki as an urban laboratory, or a testbed, for the solutions.

A maximum of seven selected solutions will get the grant from this call and these will be implemented in the Helsinki region or in some cases potentially in Estonia during 2025. The total budget of the tender is a maximum of 70,000 euros (VAT 0%). The maximum cost of one pilot and the number of chosen pilots under each of the six focus areas depends on the challenge. The call is open until March 17, 2025 at 16:00 (EET).

FinEst Twins is a project funded by the European Union’s research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020. The project is expected to contribute to the development of smart, sustainable, and resilient cities by enhancing the cross-border collaboration between Finland and Estonia and establishing a world-class Smart City Centre of Excellence in Tallinn, Estonia. 

What kind of innovations we are looking for?

The challenges will target themes in data, clean energy transition, built environment, health & wellbeing, smart governance and mobility. They will cover following topics:

• Resilient data sharing in a cross-border manner driven by the uncertain geopolitical environment 
  
• Strengthening the stakeholder collaboration to ensure implementation of large-scale clean energy projects

   

• Reducing CO2-emissions in the built environment by optimizing building performance and educating residents about their impact

   

• Testing innovative technologies at the New Children’s Hospital to enhance pediatric care of children

   

• Identifying the touchpoints between the residents and the Helsinki Youth Unit to improve the customer experience and overall impact of public services

   

• Gathering the emission data from sub-contracted services of the city of Helsinki to aid the transition from conventional fleet to sustainable vehicles thus meeting the carbon neutral Helsinki 2030 goals

   

Organisations supporting the FinEst Twins pilot program are Business Finland, Helsinki Partners, Helsinki University Hospital and The New Children’s Hospital Foundation, The City of Helsinki Culture and Leisure Division (KUVA) and Helsinki Youth Unit, KIRAHub, The City of Helsinki Urban Environment Division (KYMP) and Stara Logistics Services, The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, Finnish AI Region EDIH (FAIR) and AI & Robotics Estonia EDIH (AIRE). 

An information session about the mini-pilot program will be held on March 5, 2025. 

More information about the call can be found on the website of the open call – apply now!