National Land Survey with 27 partners and 20 other collaborators suggest the creation of a Location Innovation Hub in the restricted call for European Digital Innovation Hubs. European Digital Innovation Hubs are part of the EU’s new Digital Europe Programme. They function as service points that boost digital investment and in particular, the digitalisation of SMEs but also public sector. Finnish candidates were selected by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment last year and now European Commission will make their decision by the summer. It is expected that 4 hubs will be created in Finland.
The Location Innovation Hub (LIH) will unleash the vast potential of location data, services and technology to improve society. Its target is to create a world leading competence centre serving ecosystems on built environment, bioeconomy (agri-food, forestry), transportation and health & wellbeing.
Boosting location based innovations
As a strength, The Location Innovation Hub combines the public sector with companies and academia for co-operation.
“The combination of key players in Finland will create SMEs and the public sector a unique opportunity to create new innovations and solutions. This will help Finland to meet the goal set in the national spatial data policy “Finland has the most innovative and secure spatial data ecosystem in the world.”, says Deputy Director General Jarkko Koskinen from the National Land Survey.
“The Location Innovation networks will foster a strong European network to help the customers at the European and Global markets. We will also use these networks to seek further funding in building the Digital Twins needed by society and advancing our data spaces, We have a strong representation of Finnish location industry, academia and the public sector giving us an excellent basis to move ahead with our goals”, he adds.
Location data to tackle climate change and urbanisation
Geospatial data related innovations open up opportunities to both creating new business and meeting many needs of the society.
- Our long-term vision is to participate in establishing reference data spaces. These enable businesses to take the next steps in meeting the challenges of climate change and urbanisation. These reference data spaces are also crucial in developing European data spaces. Additionally, LIH’s extensive network of actors contribute to an ideal environment for live testing customer applications, tells Chief engineer Antti Jakobsson.
- We are delighted to get some of the key companies and networks from Finland to support the Location Innovation Hub and especially some European key associations and national mapping and cadastral agencies. With the European stakeholders we will create European Base Data Provider network working for implementing the reference data solution Europe-wide, adds Jakobsson.
See the full list of collaborators of Location Innovation Hub here. Choose Candidate European DIHs and then search LIH https://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu/digital-innovation-hubs-tool
More information
Deputy Director General Jarkko Koskinen, +358 50 337 2902, firstname.lastname@nls.fi
Chief Engineer Antti Jakobsson, +358 50 599 4123, firstname.lastname@nls.fi