seatec - Finnish marine technology review 1/2019 | Page 10

Finland’s first Maritime Accelerator programme had the final meeting as a side-event of SLUSH event in Helsinki.   Maritime Accelerator is an innovation platform for corporations and startups. It brings together large maritime corporations and smaller companies that are on a growth curve and have potential to join the Finnish maritime cluster. The aim is to strengthen the competitiveness of the Finnish companies in the industry. The accelerator programme culminated in December 2018 in the Helsinki Fair Centre as a side event of the major international startup event ’Slush’. I mplemented by Turku Business Region the maritime industry, together with inno- building companies were doing very well, in cooperation with Avanto Ventures, vative growth companies. so they were in need of more workforce, the Maritime Accelerator programme is a ”In the late summer of 2017, we as well as new cooperative partners in var- spearhead project that has the goal of ena- started to contemplate new schemes for ious fields of know-how and new technol- bling the development of new solutions for assisting the maritime industry. The ship- ogy,” says Mr. Jukka Laiterä, Senior Advisor 10 seatec 1/2019