Projects

The World Bank reports that 80 countries now have water shortages that threaten health and economies while 40 percent of the world have no access to clean water or sanitation. The World Health Organization states: “Globally, the problem is getting worse as cities and populations grow, and the needs for water increase in agriculture, industry and households.” In China, for example, 60 per of the countries 669 cities are already short of water. Furthermore, The World Economic Forum finds that this problem will be global and it will "soon tear into various parts of the global economic system" and "start to emerge as a headline geopolitical issue".  The UN’s World Water Development Report observes that shortages are already beginning to constrain economic growth in areas as diverse and California, China, Australia, India and Indonesia.

In light of the above dire observations and forecasts, the development and application of 'smart' solutions for water management in communities, businesses and buildings presents a rapidly expanding industrial opportunity. For example, Zpryme Consultants projects that the compound annual growth rate for smart water meter installations in the USA between 2010-2015 will exceed smart electric meter installations – i.e.,  24.7% vs. 16.5%.

Each FinNode country presents different sets of challenges with regard to water supply – e.g., sufficient clean water supply vs. ‘smart water grids’  - however, all of the countries should be able to be united under a common theme of ‘efficiency’.  Under this theme, a variety of information systems and/or physcial processing and efficiency applications may be presented as initial positive signals for Finnish companies and research organzations to pursue under a global Finnish 'smart water' umbrella .
 
Goal and strategic compliance

The main goal of this project is to Investigate the major water challenges facing each FinNode country, compiling a list of interesting case studies in each country, and presenting the findings at a future (signals) session aimed at a wide audience of stakeholders and other interested parties in the Finnish water sector for the purposes of shaping a second, more in-depth phase of the project that will develop international innovation and business networking opportunities for Finnish companies and other related organizations.

This project fits into the National innovation strategy and with the strategic objectives of FinNode partners.  The project team will coordinate their work with the Tekes Water Programme, Cleantech Finland, Finnish Water Forum and other relevant and/or interested stakeholders - e.g., VTT, CLEEN SHOK & OSKES..
 
Content

Project manager: Michael Lovejoy, project manager, Tekes team member to be determined & Finpro team: Tony Yao (Finpro China), Parikshit Shrivastava (Finpro India), Shriya Ramachandran (Finpro India), Dharmesh Sharan (Finpro India), Tanaka Koichi (Finpro Japan), and Helena Lähteenmäki (Finpro Russia)

Main tasks

•Indentify the major challenges faced in water resource supply & development in each fo the fi five FinNode countries.
•Develop a long list of significant case studies in each FinNode country for review by the senior project advisors.
•Formulate an initial estimate of needed inputs for planned projects and programs in each FinNode country, and describle potential market entry points for Finnish companies.

Schedule

•January to Mid-March: Research & Preparation of initial reporting documents
•Mid-March: Workshop with Senior Advisors for the purposes of refining the presentations and selecting key case studies (one per country) from a list of choices prepared by each FinNode country
•Mid-March to Mid-April: Refine presentation materials for Future Session
•Mid-April (around 19th to 23rd): Future Session

Deliverables

•Workshop Presentation package, noting key challenges in each FinNode Country and presenting a long list of significant case studies.
•Futures Session presentation package from each FinNode country that further refines the identification of key water supply challenges, an in-depth analysis of an important case study, and preliminary suggestions for innovation and business networking opportunities Finnish companies and other related organizations.
•A brief report in PPT format will be made available for distributions to the FinNode partners, the SHOKs and other relevant parties.

Cooperation

•Senior project advisors will be recruited from the Tekes Water Programme (Tuomas Lehtinen), Finnish Water Forum (Saija Vuola), Cleantech Finland (Santtu Hulkonen), Finpro Energy & Environment Industry Team (Janne Hietaniemi) & VTT (Mona Arnold)

Michael Lovejoy
Finpro Houston
+1 281 467 3961
michael.lovejoy@finpro.fi