The year demonstrated that our role as a bridge between the city, businesses, and the research community is a critical component of Helsinki’s capacity for innovation.
The year 2025 was a significant milestone for Forum Virium Helsinki. We operated at the onset of the City of Helsinki’s new strategic period, while simultaneously renewing our own operations to address the city’s future challenges even more effectively. The year demonstrated that our role as a bridge between the city, businesses, and the research community is a critical component of Helsinki’s capacity for innovation.
Partner Trust is at the Core of Our Operations
In 2025, our portfolio consisted of dozens of innovation projects, the success of which we measured rigorously. The results speak to high quality and deep trust: satisfaction among our project partners reached a peak level of 4.6 / 5. We are particularly proud of our Net Promoter Score; our partners gave Forum Virium a rating of 9.3 / 10 when asked if they would recommend us as a project partner.
We succeeded in reaching city experts and other stakeholders better than ever before. During the year, we organized 54 events, with the number of participants more than doubling from the previous year to a total of 2,254. It is especially gratifying to see the increased engagement from the city’s own personnel: the number of City of Helsinki officials participating in our events grew by 60 percent.
Our digital interaction has also broken records. Subscriptions to our newsletters saw strong growth, reaching City of Helsinki employees particularly well. This indicates that the knowledge we produce and the lessons learned from our innovation projects are relevant and find their way onto the desks of the very experts making decisions about the direction of Helsinki.
Impact Across the City: Successes in 2025
Forum Virium Helsinki does more than just run experiments; it serves as a strategic innovation partner that puts the City Strategy into practice. The year 2025 was packed with innovation, and we have influenced the city on multiple levels. In the PilotGreen project, we brought concrete greenery and cooling to dense urban environments through seven different trials, while the Regions4Climate project saw the development of a digital tool to help the city prepare for extreme weather events, such as floods and heatwaves.
In the field of mobility, we have accelerated Helsinki’s electrification and transition toward zero emissions. We have provided the city with essential guides and strategic support regarding electric charging networks for urban logistics and the integration of urban air mobility into city planning. For instance, the CITYAM project has raised Helsinki’s profile as a pioneer in smart aviation. Social sustainability has been equally central: the CommuniCity project has produced solutions to support the wellbeing of the elderly and the integration of immigrants, thereby preventing segregation and strengthening citizen participation.
Read more about our achievements in 2025 here.
Toward a Renewed Strategy
The City of Helsinki’s new 2025 strategy provides us with a clear direction, and Forum Virium Helsinki is currently renewing its own strategy to align with these goals. We act as a bridge between strategic guidelines and practical implementation, transforming city challenges into concrete solutions with the help of international funding. We have taken on innovation risks on behalf of the city and ensured that the lessons learned from our trials—such as the six extensive guides we published on topics ranging from sustainable food production to the utilization of satellite data—become a permanent part of the city’s operating models. Moving forward, we remain the indispensable partner that tests targeted solutions in real-world environments, ensuring that Helsinki stays the best place in the world to live and innovate.
Finally, it is a pleasure to share that our employee satisfaction in 2025 was also at an excellent level of 4.3 / 5. I wish to extend my warmest thanks to our skilled staff, the City of Helsinki, and all our partners for a magnificent and productive year.
Mika Malin CEO, Forum Virium Helsinki
Smart City news to your email – Subscribe to our Newsletter
Do you want to stay up-to-date on future smart city solutions and be the first to know about our open calls and innovation competitions? Subscribe to our newsletter!
Additional information
Mika Malin
Managing Director
+358 40 668 5599
mika.malin@forumvirium.fi
