Tell us about your organisation.

Oulu University of Applied Sciences (Oamk) is one of Finland’s largest universities of applied sciences with over 9,500 students, including 500 international degree and exchange students. We are based in the Oulu city, in Northern Finland, and we offer education at both Bachelor's and Master's level in Finnish and in English. (https://www.oamk.fi/en/)

We have strong expertise in many technological fields, e.g. energy technology, electricity and automation and HVAC, to mention a few.

Oamk’s other basic function besides education is research, development and innovation (RDI) activities.

Our RDI activities are guided by the focus areas defined in our strategy 2020–2030:

· Environmental knowledge

· Sustainable well-being

· Digital disruption

Oamk’s RDI activities aim to support the development of the Oulu region and Northern Finland. We co-operate closely with local enterprises to ensure high-quality education and constant development. 

Oamk’s RDI activities aim to support the development of the Oulu region and Northern Finland. We co-operate closely with local enterprises to ensure high-quality education and constant development. Our students get to practice and study in our brand new hybrid laboratory, a joint laboratory for electrical and automation engineering studies, HVAC engineering studies and energy technology studies. It combines a physical lab with virtual environment and digital possibilities. We have multiple energy sources there for energy production (bio oil heat only boiler, pellet burning boiler, heat storage, solar thermal collectors) and a small scale district heating network to study. It’s primary purpose is of course education, but it’s to be used as a platform and environment for business collaboration and RDI work as well.

Give us an overview of your region.

Finland is the happiest and the third most sparsely populated country in Europe, after Iceland and Norway. Population distribution is very uneven: the population is concentrated on the small southwestern coastal plain, northern and eastern Finland are sparsely populated containing vast wilderness areas with lots of forest, swamps and lakes.

Oulu is Finland’s 5th biggest city, with a bit over 200 000 citizens. Oulu combines Northern hospitality and nature and culture with modern technology and values values education, research and innovation. We are aiming to become the European Capital of Culture 2026!

Oulu is situated in the North Finland, by the Gulf of Bothnia, and is considered one of Europe's "living labs", where residents experiment with new technologies on a community-wide scale.

 Who are you working with in your organisation and region on the SMARTrenew project?

Other education organizations (mostly the northern ones), the city of Oulu and local enterprises are our most important stakeholders. Most recently we have been working together with Energy and Water Co-operative EVO in Kuusamo (https://kuusamonevo.fi/) in piloting a smart heat storage. We have collaborated with TA Companies (https://ta.fi/ta-companies) and City of Oulu Urban Services (https://www.ouka.fi/oulu/english) and more to source pilot cases for the project. We had a webinar with Fingrid (https://www.fingrid.fi/en/)  and Merus Power (https://www.meruspower.fi/).

Why is renewable energy important to your region and what can it gain from SMARTrenew pilots?

In Finland, like many places, we are looking to sustainable and CO2 neutral ways to produce energy. In bigger towns and cities the energy production is centralized, but energy is needed in smaller villages too, where there’s not necessarily a centralized system.

SMARTrenew gives opportunity to pilot and study cases and learn from other’s experiences on how to manage sustainable energy production, even in the more sparsely populated, arctic areas. The project leads to greater awareness and gives information that can be used to help make better local policies.

What would you like to achieve under SMARTrenew?

We would like to achieve a successful pilot, better regional collaboration and influence, shared learnings and knowledge transfer. Oamk wants to achieve the smart heat storage with EVO in Kuusamo. We also want to share and distribute information and experiences to create greater awareness within our stakeholder group.

Contact sanna.hiltunen@oamk.fi