The aim of Centria’s research and development is to develop the expertise for the companies and organizations, in order to enhance their activities and competitiveness. The goal is to both provide and create new knowledge, skills and technologies for the local businesses and industries. R&D is closely linked to teaching activities, which allows Centria’s students to benefit from a learning environment based on the real working life.
Centria’s R&D has been identified as one of the institution’s strengths and its success has been recognized on the national scale. Centria’s strength is the unusually close links to the local working life. The local business and working life have been funding about one quarter of the research and development activities.
Centria University of Applied Sciences in the research and development department currently employs around 110 staff members. There are about 80 R&D projects ongoing each year. In 2017, Centria’s R&D’s total volume was 8,3 M€, of which outside funding accounted for 7,1 M€. The major public financiers for R&D projects are Tekes (the Finnish Funding for Innovation), the EU (ERDF, ESF, INTERREG and the Commission), regional councils as well as ELY centers (Finnish Centers for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment). The UAS was involved in 8 Business Finland projects, representing a financial input of 4,4 M€. There were 19 international projects underway in 2017, accounting for a total of 7,5 M€.
Marko ForsellR&D Director+358 40 808 5128marko.forsell@centria.fi
Marjo HeikkiläR&D Manager (Digitalisation)+358 44 449 2507 marjo.heikkila@centria.fi
Hanna-Kaisa KoponenR&D Manager (Chemistry and Bioeconomy)+358 44 725 0270hanna-kaisa.koponen@centria.fi
Johanna JanssonR&D Manager (Entrepreneurship and wellbeing)+358 40 480 7570johanna.jansson@centria.fi
Jorma Hintikka R&D Manager (Production Technology)+358 44 449 2637 jorma.hintikka@centria.fi
Jani RättyäService Manager+358 44 4492577jani.rattya@centria.fi
Paula Oja | Ylivieska Training Manager+358 44 449 2721 paula.oja@centria.fi
Kirsi Vuotila | KokkolaTraining Manager+358 40 632 4341kirsi.vuotila@centria.fi
10/9/2019
A major project PRIORITY will research, develop and trial critical communication solutions for authorities and remote businesses. A key target will be to complement existing mission critical voice and messaging services with broadband data capability, using commercial 4G and 5G wireless networks. Th...
6/27/2018
Centria’s R&D digitalisation team has collaborated with Kokkola’s Tourism office, Creamedia and the town of Kokkola to create a brand new app called TankAR Stories, that can be downloaded free of charge from application stores. This new TankAR Stories app all...
2/21/2018
Centria University of Applied Sciences has signed a cooperation agreement with the Wärtsilä Oyj concerning its SAP development. The development work is based on the SAP Next-Gen Lab environment located at Centria, which serves the students enrolled in the new Business Management, E...
3/17/2016
The project entitled TARGET is funded under the EU Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme (NPA). The partners are universities and other education/innovation providers across the NPA region. The structure of the project is to strengthen the capacity of the manufacturing sector, including the adop...
2/1/2016
The certificate is based on Kauppalehti's annual Achievers (Menestyjä) series comparing the financial success of Finnish companies. Obtaining the Achiever certificate requires that the company's financial performance is among the best in its industry and in Finland. Some 1.9 per cent of Finnish...
You are welcome to come to discover the possibilities of internet of things in business life. The themes of the event are the application possibilities of industrial internet and digitalization within Finnish businesses. Digitalization and the importance of networking in bringing added value to busi...
1/21/2016
The Get to Business will once again cause a stir in Kokkola tomorrow! The event will be held at Centria UAS' Talonpojankatu Campus and will gather close to 30 potential employers from different fields of work: Elisa, Boliden Kokkola, Freeport Cobalt, the town of Kokkola, KPO and Kiuru. A total of 2 ...
Educational Calendar
We offer both readymade further education packages as well as tailor-made training courses destined to companies or organisations.
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We offer a wide range of measurement, testing and simulation services destined to verify and develop production processes.
Our projects enable us to pursue applied research and develop new knowledge. Our R&D projects are both pragmatic an development-oriented.