Future-proofing Finland’s Strategic Competitiveness and Innovation System for a New Geopolitical Era is a project that focuses on researching the current geopolitical situation from the perspective of the Finnish innovation environment. The aim of the project is to help future-proof the Finnish Operating and Innovation Environment (FOIE) through geopolitical scenario analysis, impact analysis, and preparation of a policy playbook. The multi-disciplinary project offers a new and proactive approach towards future-proofing competitiveness and innovation. The project is carried out together with VTT and it is funded by Business Finland.
The world economy is currently undergoing a paradigmatic shift from a liberal free-market capitalism towards ‘strategic capitalism’. The emergence of strategic capitalism marks the beginning of a new era where economic interdependencies are increasingly seen as vulnerabilities requiring active state intervention via economic and industrial policies. The evolving international landscape is commonly seen to present a challenge for a small open economy like Finland. This research project studies which geopolitical changes impact the Finnish Operating and Innovation Environment, Finnish businesses, and markets relevant to Finnish businesses. The project also assesses the risks that these changes pose to strategic competition. In addition, the project aims to find out how national policy and aligned business strategies can build geopolitical resilience.
The project employs an optimistic view on strategic competitiveness and future-proofing innovation. It maps out new future-oriented insights by;
1) constructing nuanced scenarios of the evolving operating environment
2) systematically mapping and evaluating the risk and opportunity landscape
3) producing a constantly updated policy playbook for a whole-of-FOIE response
4) delivering a collaborative digital tool for monitoring, assessing, and enabling resilient policies and commercial strategies.
The project generates academic publications and analyses, a scenario analysis, an impact analysis, and a policy playbook.
The project is carried out by the Finnish Institute of International Affairs and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. The project is led by FIIA Project Director Mikael Wigell. Other FIIA researchers in the project are Leading Researcher Sinikukka Saari and Senior Research Fellow Edward Hunter Christie. The project began in September 2024, and it will end in 2026.