Vesihiili – Water+Carbon

This project investigates and demonstrates the production and use of biochar in water filtration and substrate applications. Technical and practical expertise is combined with analysis of the business environment to explore the possibilities for biochar-based business opportunities especially in the Northern Savo region. The measures will create the preconditions for the formation of new business activities related to the production and use of biochar, especially in a sparsely populated area. The project will also strengthen the know-how in the use of biochar in water filtration and growth substrate applications.

More information: Olli Torvinen, olli.torvinen@savonia.fi

Kuve – “From Kuopio’s water expertise to international visibility and business”

The aim of this project is to raise Savilahti’s water expertise innovation ecosystem to a new level by: A) aiming to be an internationally recognized pioneer (especially as an ecosystem developing digital solutions); B) strengthening the visibility and role of Kuopio’s water expertise and entrepreneurship in the pulp and paper industry; and C) increasing business-driven international activities to solve global water challenges based on Finnish water expertise.

More information: Tiina Haatainen, tiina.haatainen@savonia.fi

Veto – (Thematic Water expertise) project builds on The “Innovative Cities” initiative, which focuses on cities that aim to be pioneers by leveraging digitalization, new technologies, and carbon neutrality to drive sustainable urban development and economic renewal. The thematic water expertise project supports this by enhancing innovation collaboration between urban regions. It also promotes the use of digital tools in innovation activities and advances concrete steps toward internationalization. The project is structured into three work packages aligned with these goals. Overall, it strengthens regional cooperation and global competitiveness through water-related innovation.

More information: Jukka Hakola, jukka.hakola@savonia.fi

Global overconsumption of water threatens both communities and industries, especially in drought-prone regions, highlighting the need for increased water recycling. In Finland, industries—particularly mining—are focusing on improving internal water cycles to reduce clean water use and environmental impact. These efforts also enhance the social acceptability of mining operations. Effective water cycle management requires advanced treatment technologies, including membrane filtration, which faces challenges like clogging and reject water handling. The project develops solutions to prevent membrane clogging, concentrate and solidify reject waters, and monitor solid fractions for beneficial use. It also fosters international business opportunities and collaboration among participating SMEs.

More information: Jukka Hakola, jukka.hakola@savonia.fi

Vamos – Promoting biodiversity through watershed collaboration.

Waterfowl populations in Finland’s inland waters have declined significantly, especially in nutrient-rich lakes, due to deteriorating water quality from land use. Agricultural and forestry runoff causes eutrophication, turbidity, and darkening, which harm bird habitats and food sources. To address this, nature-based, water- and climate-friendly practices must be adopted, supported by targeted water protection structures and catchment cooperation. The project aims to plan and restore three key bird lakes in Northern Savonia, pilot new solutions, and assess their effectiveness. Communication and dissemination of results are essential for broader impact. Savonia will integrate the project into education, regional development, and RDI activities, producing materials and models for national use.

More information: Teija Rantala, teija.rantala@savonia.fi

The aim of the HIRAS project is to promote Finland’s national goals in the transition to a carbon-neutral society based on a circular economy. The project develops low-carbon construction products, the production of which utilises abundant Finnish side streams, such as surplus clay from construction, tailings from mines and biochar. The project has four objectives: 1) to increase the utilisation of large Finnish side streams as raw materials for construction products by developing analytics and guidelines related to the assessment of their functionality and environmental properties, 2) to develop composite materials based on side streams, such as concrete, and technology that can also bind carbon dioxide to products during manufacturing, 3) to verify the long-term sustainability of construction products based on side streams in Finnish climatic conditions, and develop related guidelines.

More information: Petri Juntunen, petri.juntunen@savonia.fi

Savonia’s first project funded by EU’s Interreg Aurora- fund.

This project focuses on developing autonomous robotic environmental monitoring. The development of these tools are done in Finnish and Swedish Lapland, in the catchment area of Tornio river.

Project coordinator is Luleå Technical University, project partners are, in addition to Savonia,  LUKE, Oulu University and Mitta AB.

The duration is three years, 02/2025- 01/2028.

More information from Project Manager: Rosa Sartjärvi, rosa.sartjarvi@savonia.fi

The ReNutriWater Project is Funded by Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme and co-funded by European Union. 

ReNutriWater project answers to the challenges specified in the Programme objective Water-smart societies, priority 2.1. Sustainable waters. 

The Programme supports actions that improve the state of water in the region and make its management more sustainable. 

These waters include the Baltic Sea, coastal waters and inland waters like rivers, lakes and groundwater. 

The SETELIT project investigates the utilization of mine tailings as a cement-free paste backfill material cured with carbon neutral method in the mining area, and outside the mine sites as a material substituting concrete. The project promotes the circular and energy economy and reduces the environmental risks and landscape impacts created by mining operations. Developed new products and methods can boost the business activities and competitiveness of companies. In addition to these, the project also promotes digitalization. The objectives of the project are (i) To develop a carbon-neutral, mine tailings based product similar to concrete, and to create guidelines for cancelling the end-of-waste status and productizing mine tailings-based products; (ii) To promote research services related to cement free paste backfill materials cured with carbon-neutral method and to enhance infrastructure needed to carry out high quality Flow Loop tests; (iii) To develop a digital recipe library for cement-free mine tailings-based products and paste backfill materials.

Read more: Setelit

The WInEco project aims to boost the growth and competitiveness of SMEs active in the water sector and critical infrastructures. In this project we are looking for the most efficient operation model including regional, national and international partners to strengthen the Savilahti Ecosystem capacity in supporting growth of SMEs. This project is aimed to workout cooperation model which include globally operating locomotive companies and their role in increasing internationalisation and growth of SMEs.

AWE – Arctic Water Excellence project brings together the water expertise of Eastern and Northern Finland to address challenges identified in the business sector.

The implementation of the three-year AWE group project, coordinated by Savonia University of Applied Sciences, has been launched during the autumn of 2023. The project aims to find new technological solutions especially for the use of water-intensive industry and the water supply sector. The aim is to promote the development of new technologies related to water treatment and management. These challenges will be addressed by testing and piloting alternative technologies both in laboratories and in real-world conditions, in cooperation with participating research institutes, SMEs, and industrial sites.

Read more: Arctic Water Excellence -hanke

AIQUSEC project aims at making considerable advances in raising the cybersecurity effectiveness, efficiency, scalability and automation of edge and access services, especially in critical infrastructure OT environments. The project aims for enhanced device and sensor security, security assurance and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based automation solutions. Enabling quantum-safety migration development is a clear goal to the project.

The project will develop a leading-edge security assurance and validation environment, with a supporting cybersecurity system integration reference model, with a focus on architectural choices and connection of networks from different vertical use cases. The platform and reference model will enable building, testing and validating joint cybersecurity capabilities. In addition to the above-mentioned environment, the project’s results will be demonstrated in water utility, smart energy and critical telecommunication scenarios.

AMBITIOUS stands for Advanced CoMputing Continuum Solutions for Boosting DigITalization acrOss EUropean RegionS. 

This EU funded project aims to find innovative digital solutions for climate change related environmental issues, urbanisation, energy production and occupational safety.

From Savonias point of view the challenges we will focus on are urban floods, storm water infrastucture updates, leakages in the pipelines, energy and water needs and how to predict and model all of the before mentioned using AI, 5G and IoT.

KIERTO – “Jätekeskuksen vesien ravinteiden talteenoton paikallinen symbioosi”

05/2023-12/2024

This project is aimed to increase the efficiency of closed water circulation on a land fill in Kuopio, Finland. The project is carried out by Savonia, Jätekukko (the local waste management company) and technological equipment providers.

The project focuses on nutrient re-uptake, especially nitrogen compounds and uses technologies such as MBBR (Moving bed bioreactor) and Electrocoagulation to test this process.

KIERTO- project is funded by Finland’s Ministry of the Environment.

Smart Water 2.0. project ran through 05/2021 – 08/2023 and concentrated on raising the technological level of water intensive industries, in co-operation with related companies and organizations. This project also improved the technological level of Savonias own WaterLAB facilities with new online-measurement devices for WaterLOOP and sensor devices for the SuperDMA (district monitoring) area.