“Can a university researcher collaborate with a company?” This question came up for us in early 2026, but we can reveal that it was not said by a researcher from LUT University. LUT is indeed a challenger university that does many things differently than others.
Crazy Town’s Mikko Korpela, Sini Mäkelä, and Toni Pienonen participated in the LUT Blossom 2026 event in Lahti. 1400 participants – companies, researchers, regional developers, and startups – gathered to discuss university-business collaboration.
The problem of collaboration is structural
In the opening panel, Sitra’s Atte Jääskeläinen stated that 50–75% of productivity growth comes from human capital, but the collaboration between universities and companies fails due to systemic issues. The primary issue is the incentives, which, as is well known, do not encourage universities or researchers to collaborate.
Change is needed if the issue is to be fixed on a large scale.
One problem with university-business collaboration in Finland is project-drivenness, which makes collaboration transactional – not based on trust or relationships.
LUT does things differently
At the same time, LUT University has s쳮ded in challenging the situation. This is evident from our own experience in practice, but also in the numbers. A significant portion of LUT’s funding comes from companies and industry.
A representative from Valio stated in the opening panel that Finland is too full of local projects and local activities. All development must be at least national and international. Big companies are not interested in regional or city-specific matters.
Growth does not come solely through large companies, but requires a combo:
- startups
- industrial companies
- higher education institutions
“The three different parties do not understand the markets or customer needs in the same way. This needs to be done more – sitting down together and identifying where things are going, what the trends and changes are. Through that, a common vision of the future is built,” the panel continued.
EriCa Reactor-type programs, where startups and university spinoffs are taken to market with the big players, received recognition at LUT Blossom. The core idea of the program implemented by Crazy Town and Kemira is that Kemira learns about market directions, trends, and opportunities in collaboration with growth companies while simultaneously opening up opportunities.
Projects do not build trust
Both the panel and later discussions also highlighted the softer side. There was much talk about a culture conducive to business collaboration and the need to create environments where people meet.
Different platforms can provide a more permanent environment where discussions take place and compel understanding of direction together. The rector of LUT University Juha-Matti Saksa explained how LUT and Kempower have built a model in Lahti where professors and researchers work 50% at the university and 50% for Kempower. Such collaboration is still quite rare in Finland, although much more common in Central Europe.
In addition, LUT and Kempower share facilities on the campuses in Lahti and Lappeenranta. People discuss by the coffee maker, not via email. The company gets solutions, researchers get ideas immediately.
The rector of LUT University and the rest of the staff emphasized the importance of curiosity. It is important to have the desire to understand questions and phenomena together.
Platforms make ideas a reality
LUT University also stands out with bold initiatives. “Something cool has to happen every week. Better to ask for forgiveness than permission,” described Juha-Matti Saksa’s attitude.
One example of this is the invitation of the well-known Jamie Hyneman from MythBusters as a professor of working life at the university.
How was he brought in? By asking.
Hyneman took action and built the J. Hyneman Center (JHC) environment at LUT University’s Lappeenranta campus, which serves as a social hub because concrete things are done there.
Toni and Hyneman managed to exchange thoughts in the morning before the program started. The discussion revealed that people have an inherent need to gather to do things together, to build something concrete. Many stop physical making at some point after the Lego phase, but the need does not disappear. It just changes form. And if nothing is built physically, something else is built, like software or a business.
Later in the day, in his presentation, Hyneman summarized the matter by saying that hubs like JHC (and also Crazy Town) make abstract things concrete. According to him, ideas do not work in a vacuum. Without space, they remain in the air. Hubs bring people together. Continuity and support are needed for ideas to become reality.
At the same time, such platforms help shift away from transactional thinking (what does this cost you?) towards a relationship-based culture (how can we help each other?).
And why do universities and companies need each other at all? According to Jamie Hyneman:
- Expertise without connections remains underutilized
- Research without application remains an invisible value
- Companies without research operate on limited understanding
For this reason, universities are involved in the activities of Crazy Town and projects in one way or another.
– Toni Pienonen
