FORUM RESULT S SUMMARY 1. PUBLISAHBLE SUMMARY OF THE B.F. The first Finnish Build Nova Business Forum was arranged in co-ordination with a Finnish research project Virtual Building Environments 2 (VBE 2) on the 15 th of May in Helsinki. The Business Forum was a diverse combination of research results and state of the art in the area of BIM-based building processes and discussion and information about the future, what kind of funding possibilities there are to go on from the point we are now. Especially direct funding for companies was emphasised to the audience. Problems and weaknesses were stated about the current state but also solutions offered. The key points made can be summarised to networking, need for knowledge transfer and the importance of the business orientation all the way of the research and development. The funding agencies presenting themselves and their funding programs were The Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (Tekes), The Academy of Finland, and The Finnish Innovation Fund (Sitra). The Forum reached 41 attendees from 22 companies and institutions. The companies are quite familiar with Tekes funding possibilities, but we believe that a good amount of new information especially about the operation and funding services of Sitra and The Academy of Finland was spread among the construction sector companies. The first Build Nova Business Forum proved by its informational output and activity of the attendees that more of these events are worth arranging. A great deal of networking could be seen to happen already at the seminar, between companies, between companies and funding bodies and there even were some hints from the attendees to the funding agencies to have more coordination. 2. INTRODUCTION History of why and how the Business Forum was prepared The seminar was held in co-ordination with a Finnish research project Virtual Building Environments 2 (VBE 2). We had good complementary interests: inform the industry about the latest research results and to activate the companies to have their own research and development projects and inform the industry about different funding possibilities for their development efforts. VBE 2 project has a scope of building information modelling (BIM) technology and interoperability and construction process and business development enabled by the new technology. That was also the context of future development visions and funding needs because the audience was mainly comprised of design, construction and software companies somehow related to BIM. However, much of the outputs of the day are general. The companies invited were partners that were engaged in the VBE 2 project or otherwise collaborated with VTT recently. The prepared date was coinciding with an annual architecture, construction and industrial design event ARMI so the Business Forum was organised inside the ARMI event and also open to all ARMI visitors.
3. COLLABORATORS Which other organisations, projects, networks, etc were involved in the organisation of the Business Forum Technical Research Centre of Finland, VTT Virtual Building Environments 2 (VBE 2) project Tampere University of Technology, TUT The Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, Tekes The Academy of Finland The Finnish Innovation Fund, Sitra 4. TARGET GROUP OF THE FORUM (specify approximate number) Finnish construction companies, construction software companies and technology development and innovation financiers. In particular invited were companies participating to VBE 2 project or otherwise collaborated with VTT recently. The seminar was open also to all visitors of ARMI, an annual event for architecture, construction and industrial design. All together we counted 41 attendees from 22 companies and institutions. 5. Agenda of the Business Forum (leaflets, posters.) The agenda was focused around the construction process and business change introduced by the use of building information modelling (BIM). Next the program translated into English. Below attached the original seminar invitation/leaflet. 12.00 networking and conversation, coffee served 13.00 Opening of the seminar Arto Kiviniemi, VTT 13.20 Key results of VBE 2 work packages, Work package leaders 14.15 BIM technology, state of the art. Where are we now? What should be done next? Where are the bottlenecks? Jiri Hietanen, TUT 14.45 Business benefits of VBE technologies Stephen Fox, VTT 15.00 Panel discussion: Funding possibilities and financing innovation Virpi Mikkonen, Tekes Maunu Häyrynen, The Academy of Finland Risto Kalske, Sitra ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Participative Methodology Used Panel discussion along with questions from the audience. Open discussion. 7. Results of the Business Forum
What happened? Networking between researchers and companies and between companies. New information to the construction companies and research institutes about funding possibilities. Review of problems and available means for solving them, in technology bottlenecks, business development and creation of innovations. 8. Companies and Institutions that attended the Business Forum Technical Research Centre of Finland, VTT Virtual Building Environments 2 (VBE 2) project Tampere University of Technology, TUT The Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, Tekes The Academy of Finland The Finnish Innovation Fund, Sitra Rautaruukki Oyj, Senaatti-kiinteistöt, Lemcon Oy, Olof Granlund Oy, Tekla, A & S Virtual Systems Oy, Proveka Oy, Kone Industrial, Arkkitehdit Ali-Kovero Oy, MTT, Evata Finland Oy, Instakon Oy, NCC Rakennus Oy, M.A.D. Oy, Skanska, Helsinki University of technology/ Simlab 9. Outputs of the Business Forum List of projects, proposals, agreements for future actions, etc The following summary was made according to discussions and funding panel in the forum: Knowledge transfer and researcher mobility It has become clear that one major problem in technology transfer and innovation is that the knowledge and new information and ideas created in research communities is not transferred effectively to the industry because there is not enough interaction between researchers and industry members. The researchers stay in the universities and research institutes and industry people are busy doing their core business and not concentrating so much to research and development. Several funding opportunities aiming to improvement of above mentioned state were presented. Tekes called in their presentation for own initiative from the companies. So far Tekes funding has been mainly for research consortiums where one or two research institutes are in a major role and a bunch of companies are as supporting actors. Now the focus should be shifted more to projects where a company is the leading actor applying funding for it s own research and development and the proposal can (and is welcome to) include subcontracts with research institutes. Proposals are not only expected from large companies. Also SME s are encouraged to create their own research and development projects. Networking is also a criterion when the proposals are evaluated in Tekes. The proposals should describe the intended networking and collaboration with any national or international bodies. International collaboration is highly appreciated. The Academy of Finland has two (new?) programs for funding efforts helping knowledge
transfer and researcher mobility. The Academy of Finland supports post graduate studies of persons from the industry by a monthly salary. In practise then the person either attends courses at a university or carries out a research project at a university or a research institute. The other funding is for post doctoral persons from either research institutes or industry going for a given time to work in the industry (research persons) or research institute (industry persons). This way for example a company can hire a researcher to work for it in the expense of The Academy of Finland. The person leaving his current post does not loose or cut his contract with the current employer. Bringing the experts of technology and business together A general problem is that not all the great inventions or technological break throughs become a commercial success. Either the technology development did not have a realistic scope in the first place or the development team does not have skills nor interest to start commercialising efforts. Risto Kalske of Sitra cited a study were researchers were first asked whether they would like to start a (spin off) company to sell their research results. Many times the answer was no. When they were asked whether they would like to go for a company if they had the business and managing people who could do it for them or with them. Then the answer was yes. Sitra has services for bringing business people and technology experts together. Sitra has a large number of so called business angels listed who want to give besides the funding their expertise in doing business to the use of new promising start up companies. Sitra has services where they match these people with people who have an idea or an interesting research topic needing funding. Sitra also has services for taking care of the juridical matters. In the panel discussion it was stated that it should be emphasised that the research would right from the start have some kind of a vision of the commercial aspects of the topic not to develop technology just for technology s sake. There also was discussion that Tekes and Sitra should have more co-operation. Tekes is funding collaborated research projects with research institutes and companies. There is supposed to be potential results for commercial use. It was suggested that maybe there should be some direct link between Tekes and Sitra to pass projects and people on to Sitra s programs when they are at the stage of moving from research to business. 10. ANNEXES: Pictures, Minutes, leaflet, Poster. Minutes of the forum: For the first hour the companies and people got to know each other and discussed various topics around the agenda. At 13 o clock research professor Arto Kiviniemi (VTT) opened the presentation part of the seminar and the work package leaders presented the key results gained in research project VBE 2. Researcher Jiri Hietanen (TUT) gave a presentation about the state of the art in development and implementation of interoperable IFC data model and suggested some future focus areas of development work. Senior research scientist Stephen Fox (VTT) gave a presentation about the importance of innovation. Long lasting competitional advantages can
be gained only by radical new thinking (Pictures 1 & 2). 1 2 The lasting benefits can only be gained through innovation. Example presented: left a regular plastic bucket price about 1 Euro. In the right a garbage basket, basically the same item, handle reduced price maybe 3 Euros. In the middle the innovation: basically the same item but called a tummy tub, a special bathtub for babies price 24 Euros. From innovations the focus was shifted to the most important topic of the forum: how to finance the efforts to create new services and methods enabled by the new technology and to commercialise them to become the success of the company, the industry and the society. First the funding agencies presented there funding programs they saw relevant to the audience. Virpi Mikkonen (Picture 3) from Tekes presented also some grounds and priorities that are considered when the proposals are evaluated in Tekes.
3 Maunu Häyrynen presented funding possibilities of The Academy of Finland and gave some statistics about how well the companies have used these opportunities. Not a single construction sector company had so far made an application, so there are wasted possibilities to grab to. 4
5 Risto Kalske presented Sitra s services and funding possibilities and emphasised the role of business knowledge and skills (Picture 6). The lack of money always in the end follows from lack of business skills, he pointed out. And he also mentioned that the money automatically follows appealing innovations and potential growth. 6
7 The panelists discussing prblems and solutions of successfull innovation and it s funding mechanisms. After the 3 short presentations a panel discussion along with questions from the audience took place. The audience actively took part in the discussion and some interesting points were made (Chapter 9).