• Greater Helsinki
  • A compact, green and healthy city
  • Highly educated professionals
  • Population and workforce
  • Strategic location between East and West
  • The economy of Greater Helsinki
• Finland
  • International accessibility
  • Population and workforce
  • The Finnish Economy
• Baltic Sea Region
  • Population and workforce
  • The economy of the Baltic Sea region
• The Economy
  • Driving force of the Finnish economy
  • Environmental Performance
• Costs
  • Additional costs
  • Salary costs and contributions
• Ecosystems
  • Demographics of business
  • Global corporate B2B brands in Finland
  • International business environment
  • Key ecosystems
    • Cleantech
    • Design & Creativity
    • ICT
    • KIBS, Knowledge Intensive Business Services
    • Life Sciences
    • Logistics
  • Venture Capital
• Workforce
  • Employment
  • Level of education
    • Skills
  • Productivity
• R&D&I (Research, Development & Innovation)
  • Benchmarking the Finnish innovation system
  • Independent research institutes located in Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa
  • Patents
    • Domestic companies with the highest number of patent applications filed in 2010
  • R&D expenditure
  • R&D&I support organizations in Greater Helsinki Region
  • Research institutions and communities of science
  • The basic science and innovation profile of Finland as a radar graph
  • The objectives of Finnish innovation policy and funding of R&D 2011-2015
  • Universities and universities of applied sciences
• Infrastructure
  • Business districts
  • Commuting times
  • Well developed and functioning infrastructure
• Taxes

Finland invests heavily in R&D. The unique infrastructure and support for research and development activities makes for a fruitful soil for innovation. Helsinki is Finland’s R&D&I catalyst – it is the leading region in terms of R&D&I investment, workforce, research institutions and universities. Helsinki’s citizens are the most educated and skilled workforce in Finland.

Research input in Finland is world class. In 2011 Finland invests about 7,3 billion Euros – about 4 percent of GDP – in R&D. This figure is the third highest in the world (after Sweden and Israel). Whilst this is led by the private (business) sector, Finland benefits from strong government support (public R&D investment is 1.2 percent of GDP) and an academic R&D framework which works closely with business. 

Businesses in the Helsinki region invest over 40 per cent of all investment in research and product development by Finnish companies. In 2009, there were almost 33 400 R&D personnel in Greater Helsinki region, of which 17 000 in the corporate sector, 10 400 in academia and 5 900 in the government sector.

Businesses and the institutions of higher education work closely together in R&D: 70 per cent of companies with R&D&I activities cooperate with universities and universities of applied sciences. In Helsinki, there are seven universities and seven universities of applied sciences with a total of 95 546 students and 13 848 graduates in 2009. In addition to the educational institutions there are several other key research and research support organizations and networks for the foreign investors to collaborate with. 

Strong research organizations in Greater Helsinki include the University of Helsinki and Aalto University in addition to the likes of VTT (Finnish technology research institute) and several sector specific research organizations. Significant volumes of scientific research are published by researchers in the Greater Helsinki Region – 147,865 publications between 2003 and 2008. Some of the main fields of publishing are computer and information systems, chemistry and materials research, physics, environmental- and geosciences and several fields of pharmaceutical and medical research.