Creating new tools for environmental monitoring

12 July 2010

Finnish consortium creates new tools for environmental monitoring

A program, developed and executed by a wide cross-functional consortium including the leading Finnish technology providers and research institutes, will create new tools, standards and methods for environmental measurement, monitoring and decision support.

The EUR50 million research program for five years was launched by the Strategic Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation for Energy and Environment, CLEEN Oy - established in 2008 to facilitate and coordinate world class industry driven research in the field of energy and environment.

Vaisala weather station maintenance work in Vantaa, Finland.

“Program objectives have been set in collaboration with the industry and research institutions enabling extensive cooperation and promoting breakthrough innovations in wide interfaces,” says Dr. Tommy Jacobson, CEO of CLEEN Oy.

“Companies, research institutes and universities working together through joint R&D programs will considerably facilitate the development of globally competitive technology ensuring world leading know-how.”

Improving energy and resource efficiency

The Measurement, Monitoring and Environmental Assessment (MMEA) program promotes new applications and services based on environmental data to improve the energy and material efficiency of infrastructures and industrial processes.

The program combines the development of new in-situ and remote sensing measurement technologies, data quality assurance methods, modeling and forecasting tools and information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure needed to create the integrated environmental observation networks and environmental decision support systems of the future.

An important part of the program is a Testbed, which will integrate data from several environmental measurement networks in a portal to be analyzed, modeled and used as raw material for the new environmental services. The Testbed will be developed in close cooperation with TIVIT Oy, the Strategic Centre for ICT.

The program is jointly funded by the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (Tekes) and the participating enterprises and research institutes.

Enterprises expand their international cooperation

The consortium is exceptionally large, consisting of 45 leading Finnish companies and research institutes in the area of environmental monitoring and services - with Vaisala Oyj as the largest industry contributor.

Vaisala is a global leader in environmental and industrial measurement. The company contributes to a better quality of life by providing a comprehensive range of innovative observation and measurement products and services for meteorology, weather critical operations and controlled environments.

“Within the program, enterprises can do piloting in a suitable reference group and expand their cooperation internationally, which is an important opportunity for the SMEs,” says Lauri Hietaniemi, Managing Director at Green Net Finland.

Participation to Strategic Centres are not only intended for large companies. Input from the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector is significant in the MMEA program. Eighteen out of 30 company members are SMEs, representing 50 percent of the whole industry contribution.

Sources:

CLEEN Oy
Vaisala
Green Net Finland