Industrial Nexus invites to build the industry of the future
Valmet’s new Industrial Nexus program brings together companies, research organizations, and other partners to tackle the challenges facing the future of industry. In the program, a people-centered approach, skills development, and digital solutions go hand in hand.
Industrial work is changing, and the industry of the future will require new kinds of expertise. The sector is simultaneously facing the retirement of experienced experts, a shortage of skilled workers, and the need to transfer tacit knowledge to new employees and systems.
The Industrial Nexus program seeks answers to these changes. Valmet’s five-year research and development program is transforming industrial practices through digital solutions and strengthening the sector’s appeal in collaboration with ecosystem partners.
“We want to focus first on people and the necessary skills, and then on technology,” says Virpi Puhakka, Ecosystem Director at Valmet.
Business Finland has granted the program 15 million euros in funding, and an additional 40 million euros has been allocated for projects within the ecosystem built around the program.
Ecosystem speeds up transformation
The ecosystem built around Industrial Nexus seeks solutions to the transformation of industrial work and to strengthening Finland’s competitiveness. Ecosystem-based collaboration helps uncover new perspectives and speeds up development. Valmet has already gained valuable experience in ecosystems through its Beyond Circularity program.
For partners, the ecosystem offers new networks, opportunities to develop expertise, and the chance to participate in joint research and development projects.
“Valmet has strong networks in the process industry, but Industrial Nexus requires new perspectives. In addition to traditional industrial partners, the program seeks expertise in areas such as learning, pedagogy, user experience, service design, artificial intelligence, and digital solutions,” says Puhakka.
People in the center of transition
A key feature of the Industrial Nexus project is its people-centered approach. Alongside technological development, the program examines how people learn, use new solutions, and work in the industrial environments of the future.
“We want to develop solutions that support people in their work and help them utilize their skills as effectively as possible,” says Marke Kallio, R&D Programs Director at Valmet.
The program seeks solutions for areas such as skills development, continuous learning, user experience, and human-technology collaboration.
Industrial Nexus operates through two streams, which are divided into several substreams.
We want to focus first on people and the necessary skills, and then on technology.
- A five-year program led by Valmet, developing the industry of the future in collaboration with an ecosystem consisting of companies, startups, research organizations, and other partners.
- The program focuses on people, expertise, and technology, as well as solutions for the transformation of industrial work.
- Connected and self-operating mills and plants and Self-learning processes and full lifecycle
- Business Finland has granted the program 15 million euros in funding. 40 million euros have been allocated to ecosystem projects.
- The program’s estimated global export potential is 6.5 billion euros by 2035.
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