New digital platform enables the hosting of innovation-related contests 

The Foundation for Finnish Inventions has developed an online innovation contest platform, in which people can organize self-funded contests. The goal is to stimulate innovation and the development of inventions, and to encourage the unveiling of early-stage ideas. 

The platform enables people and organizations to hold their own contests, invite innovators to participate in them, and bring in their own judges to evaluate the ideas submitted by the innovators. The platform enables the evaluation, encouragement, and development of multidisciplinary ideas to satisfy the needs of businesses and innovators. Organizing a contest on the platform is easy and effortless. 

One can log into the platform with strong authentication through the Signicat authentication service. Innovators, judges, and the organizers of a contest are all required to use strong authentication if they wish to utilize the platform. The personal information and the submitted ideas of the contestants are handled with strict confidentiality. 

The platform is currently in its testing phase, and it will undergo its preliminary trial in the innovation contest in Satakunta this September. The Kymenlaakso Ideakymi 2025 contest will also be held on the platform this fall. The feedback from these contests will be utilized in the further development of the platform. 

The platform and the feedback it receives will also create additional value for the development of the Foundation for Finnish Inventions’ Idearefinary^TM service. The Idearefinary^TM is a digital workspace, in which inventors, innovators, business developers, innovation advisers, and experts can confer with each other with total confidentiality. Confidentiality is one of the central aspects in the establishment of new business contacts.

Additional information on the innovation contest platform and the organizing of contests 

The innovation contest platform has been developed as part of the Satakunta Growth Platform – Towards New Careers and Innovations-project. The project promotes the growth of new businesses and the creation of new innovations. Along with the Foundation for Finnish Inventions, the Satakunta business development organization Prizztech and the Satakunta University of Applied Sciences contributed to the development of the project. The project is co-funded by the European Union.