Create a team and register.
Identify the challenge your team wants to solve.
Submit your competition entry for the assessment of the jury.
Wait for the jury's decision of the teams that will proceed to the accelerator program.
Participate to the accelerator program.
Develop your solution with mentors and partners.
Wait for the jury's decision of the finalists.
Test and develop your solution with customers and stakeholders.
Celebrate the winners.
The pre-qualification stage jury chose 20 semi-finalist teams for the Helsinki Challenge accelerator programme. The ideas had to be science-based, solution-oriented, impactful, novel and creative to proceed to the semi-finals. Read more »
The jury will select a maximum of 20 teams for the accelerator programme that will take place during 2017, where the teams’ ideas will be developed in cooperation with domestic and international mentors. The jury will evaluate competition entries based on the following criteria: how science-based and solution-oriented they are, and their impact, novelty and creativity. Read more »
Helsinki Challenge is a science-based idea competition and accelerator programme, where solutions for the great challenges of the world and future well-being are solved through collaboration between experts of the scientific community and society. The competition prize is 375,000 euros and it is meant for the implementation of the solution. Read more »
As urbanisation increases there are more and more problems to solve ranging from governance to security. With science we can reduce inequalities and create sustainable communities. Read more »
Every year the planet carries more and more people. We need new solutions and science can provide us with them. People in change is one of the three main themes of this year’s science based idea competition Helsinki Challenge. Read more »
The Citizen Mindscapes research project received research funding for three years from the Academy of Finland and the team is continuing what they started in Challenge, analysing data from the Suomi24 discussion forum and developing tools necessary for scanning information. The popular forum opens the door to the Finnish mindscape and its variations in a digital environment. National talking points, keywords and themes may arise from the massive amount of data and their connection to current societal phenomena can be analysed. “Challenge increased the demand and interest toward the research we have done and the tools we have developed. It opens up a lot of opportunities,” says Krista Lagus. Read more »
Team Biodiversity Now, led by professor Markku Ollikainen, won second place in the Helsinki Challenge competition. Now they are working hard on their idea – a habitat bank that protects nature’s biodiversity – to be implemented at the start of next year. They are developing the world’s first operational offset market mechanism, in order to prevent the reduction of the global biodiversity of nature. “Our solution has great societal significance, at the core of which is creating a functional market for nature conservation.” Read more »
The five finalists of Helsinki Challenge have been chosen! Meet SafePreg, a team who is creating a barcode-reading application for smartphones to detect which specific food products contain harmful substances for unborn babies. Read more »