As IoT Forge’s operations will end during this year, it has decided to distribute its remaining capital, approximately three million euros, to Aalto University (one million euros), LUT university (one million euros) and Turku University of Applied Sciences (950,000 euros).

“We believe that our investment of nearly three million euros will strengthen domestic technology expertise both in the school curricula and in the business world, and at the same time it is a significant investment in Finland’s future competitiveness,” says IoT Forge’s CEO Matti Hellgrén.

Aalto University will establish a five-year Professor of Practice position at the School of Engineering. Part of the donation will be used to support new courses and research related to the Industrial Internet and digital twins.

LUT University will allocate the donation to two important fields related to the Internet of Things (IoT): electric transportation and AI. In addition, new innovation space is opened at LUT’s Lahti campus.

Turku University of Applied Sciences will use the donation to strengthen its expertise in embedded microelectronics and IoT, industrial IoT-based autonomous systems and the possibilities of connecting IoT and the industrial metaverse.

“In our discussions with Aalto, LUT and Turku University of Applied Sciences, it became very clear that students have a high demand for multi-year IoT training and research programs. We hope that the research and training programs being established now would also encourage companies and other foundations to join these multi-year projects or support the development of their own technology areas,”  Hellgrén states.

IoT Forge, a non-profit independent foundation, was established in 2017 to support and accelerate the development of IoT-based products and solutions in Finnish startup and SME companies. Establishment of the foundation was made possible through a one-time investment of USD 14 million by Microsoft, as part of its activities to celebrate Finland’s centenary year. During its seven years of operations, IoT Forge has supported close to 400 Finnish companies in the various stages of product development and has granted financial support of approximately three million euros to its clients.

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