Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council helps boost the region’s food innovation ecosystem
The Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Programme and the roadmap for a carbon neutral Helsinki-Uusimaa 2030 identify a need to transform the region’s food system to become more sustainable. Helsinki-Uusimaa aims to reach carbon neutrality by 2030, and making the region’s food system more sustainable and low-carbon plays a key role in achieving this climate target.
To support this goal, strategic development work on the Helsinki-Uusimaa food system was launched in 2023 in close cooperation with key stakeholders across the region. The work built on the activities of the Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council’s We Make Transition and Circular Economy Hub(You are transferring to another service) projects, including interviews and workshops with food system actors across the region. In 2024 and 2025, building on this strategic groundwork, efforts shifted towards shaping a regenerative food system for Helsinki-Uusimaa in collaboration with stakeholders.
Helsinki-Uusimaa, a region of food innovations
Helsinki-Uusimaa is a diverse region, offering everything from the urban pulse of the capital area to beautiful archipelago landscapes and the calm of the countryside.
– Helsinki-Uusimaa’s strengths lie in the primary processing of locally produced agricultural products, in the food sector, and in food innovation. In a regenerative food system, innovations across the entire value chain play an essential role, says Senior Adviser Ida Honkanen.
Helsinki-Uusimaa aims to be a region of food innovation that produces not only food, but above all the innovations, expertise and technologies needed for a more sustainable and regenerative food system.
– Our ambition is to make food production innovations a new export product for both Finland and Helsinki-Uusimaa. We are also actively communicating to the EU that food-sector innovations can help strengthen the sustainability, safety and resilience of the entire food system in Europe, says Innovation Manager Venla Virkamäki.
Developing new innovations requires broad, cross-sectoral cooperation and investment in research, development and innovation (RDI). A regenerative food system has therefore been identified as one of the five priority areas for RDI activities in the upcoming Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Programme for 2026–2029.
Towards a regenerative food system in Helsinki-Uusimaa
The vision for a regenerative food system in Helsinki-Uusimaa is to strengthen food security, self-sufficiency and the competitiveness of the entire food value chain through new innovations, while also supporting climate mitigation, biodiversity and good water quality.
– Our objective is to create a food system in Helsinki-Uusimaa that provides sufficient nutrition for everyone, is ecologically sustainable, applies circular economy principles and nutrient cycling, creates jobs and livelihoods, and encourages new innovations throughout the entire food chain, says Honkanen.
The development of a regenerative food system in Helsinki-Uusimaa consists of 11 measures. These include improving nutrient cycling and the use of side streams, promoting soil carbon sequestration, supporting the shift towards a more plant- and fish-based food system, and reducing both food waste and the amount of natural materials used in packaging in the region. A cross-cutting theme across all areas of action is the support and development of new food system innovations, an area in which Helsinki-Uusimaa has particularly strong potential.
After-work event inspired the development of the innovation ecosystem
At the food innovation after-work event held on Wednesday 5 November, Helsinki-Uusimaa’s food sector actors discussed the food system innovations emerging in the region, how the creation of new food innovations could be accelerated, and how the innovation ecosystem in Helsinki-Uusimaa should be developed in relation to food.
At the event, VTT Research Manager Emilia Nordlund highlighted that Helsinki-Uusimaa has exceptionally strong research, development and innovation clusters, and that long-term research is the foundation of all innovations. The Director of the Viikki Food Design Factory at the University of Helsinki, Laura Forsman, stressed that the creation of new food system innovations requires cross-sectoral cooperation, and that greater investment in this is needed in Helsinki-Uusimaa.
Lecturer Kaj Lindedahl, representing Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, emphasised that the international experts and students in Helsinki-Uusimaa are a huge, still largely untapped resource for developing food-sector innovations in the region. Panu Vuorimaa, Senior Specialist at the City of Vantaa, brought the municipal perspective to the discussion on developing new innovations and the regional ecosystem. Cities and municipalities can enable new innovations and business activities, for example by making unused premises available to companies.
The company presentations offered inspiring examples from Happy Plant Protein and Onego Bio, both born out of VTT’s (Technical Research Centre of Finland) research. These innovative food-sector companies have disrupted food production markets with their groundbreaking processes and products. They also serve as excellent examples of food innovations with strong export potential that have already made their way onto international markets. The perspective of a larger company bringing new food innovations to the market was presented by Fazer. Food-related after-work events organised by the Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council will continue with varying themes next year.
Region-wide development work on food-related themes in Helsinki-Uusimaa will continue in the coming years through the implementation of the new Regional Programme and its priority areas for RDI.
– The Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council aims to bring different actors together and to build a region-wide food innovation ecosystem that can accelerate sustainable development in the sector and support the creation of new innovations, concludes Innovation Manager Virkamäki.
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Would you like to get involved? Feel free to contact us!
Ida Honkanen
Senior Adviser
ida.honkanen@uudenmaanliitto.fi
Development of research, development, and innovation (RDI) activities in Helsinki-Uusimaa, RDI communications and promotion of interest, national and international RDI cooperation, Smart Specialisation Strategy
Venla Virkamäki
Innovation Manager
venla.virkamaki@uudenmaanliitto.fi
Development of R&I and international marketing, Strategy for smart specialisation, EU cooperation
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