ISEP1004 R&DI Entrepreneurship and Business (3 op)

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Opinnon taso:
Perusopinnot
Arviointiasteikko:
0-5
Suorituskieli:
englanti
Vastuuorganisaatio:
Informaatioteknologian tiedekunta
Opetussuunnitelmakaudet:
2026-2027, 2027-2028

Avainteksti

Introduces how universities, companies, startups, investors and governments collaborate in hightech ecosystems to build success in hightech industries.

Kuvaus

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the dynamics of research, development, and innovation (R&D&I) within Finnish and European hightechnology industries. Students will examine how modern hightech breakthroughs emerge from interconnected innovation ecosystems in which universities, research institutes, corporations, startups, investors, and government institutions operate as complementary partners rather than isolated actors.

A central theme of the course is that global competitiveness is increasingly built through collaboration. Students will explore how universities contribute by educating the talent, how industrial demand shapes technological directions, how corporations transform emerging technologies into scalable products and markets, and how startup firms and venture capital accelerate innovation through agility, rapid experimentation, and risktaking. The course also highlights the strategic role of governments and EU institutions in enabling earlystage research, addressing market failures in scaleup financing, ensuring technological sovereignty, and strengthening regional innovation capacity.

Publicprivate partnerships, consortia, and collaborative platforms are examined as vital mechanisms that connect scientific discovery with commercial application, enabling shared investment, reduced innovation risk, and faster movement from laboratory results to marketready solutions.

In more detail, the roles of main actors in creating global competitiveness in collaboration are

  • Businesses and Corporations: The Application and Market Engine
    • Technological direction is set through industrial demand.
    • Transform technologies into products, provide markets, infrastructure.
  • Startups and Venture Capital: The HighTech RiskTaking Layer
    • Venture capital funds highrisk ideas that corporates avoid -an essential catalyst for hightech entrepreneurship.
    • Accelerates product development and internationalization.
    • Provides market discipline through milestones and governance.
    • Startups build much of cuttingedge tech.
    • Agility, risktaking, experimentation, and rapid iteration.
  • Government and EU Institutions: The Strategic and Gap‑Filling Layer
    • Research and earlystage innovation funding.
    • Addressing market failures – targets gaps in late‑stage financing that private investors often avoid.
    • Strategic technology sovereignty such as clean tech, semiconductor resilience, and digital autonomy.
    • Support to underdeveloped regions.
  • Public‑Private Partnerships and Consortia: The Bridge Between Science and Markets especially when high‑tech challenges exceed the capacity of any single actor.
    • Co‑investment between industry and government,
    • shared risk,
    • faster movement from lab results to commercialization.
Through this ecosystem perspective, students gain the conceptual tools and analytical skills needed to understand and evaluate how diverse actors contribute to R&D&I performance, how innovation processes are organized in practice, and how collaborative strategies shape technological and economic outcomes in the hightech sector. 

Osaamistavoitteet

After completing the course, the student will be able to:

  1. Explain how hightechnology development emerges from collaboration among universities, corporations, governments, investors, and intermediaries, and why synergy across these actors is essential for competitiveness.
  2. Identify and describe the complementary roles of key ecosystem participants—including universities, governments, venture capital, corporations, and publicprivate partnerships—in driving innovation and bringing new technologies to market.
  3. Analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of different actors (companies, universities, research institutes, governments, and investors) in contributing to research, development, and innovation (RDI) within diverse technological ecosystems. 

Oppimateriaalit

  • European Data Portal (data.europa.eu),

  • CORDIS – EU Research Projects,

  • Research in Europe (researchineurope.org)

  • Tech & HighTech Industry Reports (such as tech.eu),

  • Invest Europe – VC & PE Reports,

  • annual reports, sustainability reports, and R&D updates of high-tech companies,

  • The OECD R&D Statistics (RDS) database

  • SITRA, Business Finland, and VTT reports

  • U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) – Global R&D & International Comparisons

  • The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual global R&D updates 

Suoritustavat

Tapa 1

Kuvaus:
Applied Case Analysis: Students analyse a Finnish and European hightech ecosystems like health tech, quantum, microelectronics, clean tech, AI, photonics, or space. They evaluate: Key actors (universities, corporations, startups, VCs, public agencies), collaboration mechanisms, funding logic, innovation challenges, success factors and bottlenecks.
Arviointiperusteet:
The applied case analysis is assessed on i) how clearly the student explains collaboration in hightech innovation, ii) describes the roles of key ecosystem actors, iii) analyses their effectiveness using relevant data, and iv) on the quality of the structured analysis that applies course concepts accurately. In addition, the constructive collaboration in the student group, and responsible use of AI tools supporting (but not replace) own thinking has an effect on the grading.
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Osallistuminen opetukseen (3 op)

Tyyppi:
Osallistuminen opetukseen
Arviointiasteikko:
0-5
Suorituskieli:
englanti
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