The City of Turku, University of Turku, Åbo Akademi University, Turku University of Applied Sciences Ltd, Finnish University of Applied Sciences and Arts Ltd, Turun musiikinopetus Oy, and Turku Science Park Ltd have signed a collaboration agreement on launching the co-operation platform of Culture Campus Turku.
The agreement tightens the strategic co-operation between the educational institutions, companies, third sector, and the city. The objective of the platform is to increase the dynamism and impact of the culture sector and the collaboration between different actors. The emphasis of the project lies on developing education, research, business activities and communications and services, with working groups already having started developing these.
Culture Campus Turku will be functioning as a networking platform for different actors of the culture sector in a similar fashion to the way Health Campus Turku and TechCampus Turku already function in their own sectors. The platform will create a culture sector expertise cluster in Turku, giving birth to new culture sector jobs, increasing the funding, and improving the region’s ability to attract and retain experts.
– The wide-ranging supply of cultural field education in Turku creates good basis for educational institutions to develop opportunities for cross-institutional studying and new internationally recognised study programmes for students and experts already working in the field, says the Chair of the Culture Campus Management Group, Vice Rector responsible for education at the University of Turku Piia Björn.
The project boosts multidisciplinary co-operation between educational institutions and working life, represented by e.g. city development, the third sector, and companies. The collaboration in the operations of Culture Campus also improves joint coordination of research and deepens the interaction between research and the culture sector and businesses. The aim is to e.g. produce more of scientifically proven information to support decision-making and business activities.
One of the ambitions behind the activities of the Culture Campus platform is creating new business and profit-making models in the creative sector as well as innovations other sectors have demand for. The objectives line up with the recently published Road Map of the Ministry of Employment and the Economy which lists increasing the proportion of creative economy of the gross domestic product of Finland as one of its objectives.
The project is currently at the stage of compiling an action plan, and information about the next stages will be given in late January 2021.
More information:
Chair of Culture Campus Management Group, Vice Rector Piia Björn, University of Turku, piia.bjorn@utu.fi, +358 40 0247 425
Facilitator for the Management Group, Project Specialist Lotta Mujo, Turku Science Park Ltd, lotta.mujo@turkubusinessregion.com, +358 40 7767 803
