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Forum Virium Helsinki — agile piloting in urban living labs
Finland · Helsinki · See the Finland profile · See the Helsinki profile
Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 1% 95/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice
Helsinki's city-owned innovation company co-creates smart-city, mobility and data solutions through agile pilots in real neighbourhoods (Smart Kalasatama, Jätkäsaari Mobility Lab).
Details
- Maturity
- Established
- Promoter
- Forum Virium Helsinki (City of Helsinki innovation company)
- Period
- 2006–present
- Region (NUTS)
FI1B- Keywords
- Smart city, mobility, data, living labs
Context
Forum Virium Helsinki is a non-profit innovation company owned by the City of Helsinki that co-creates smart-city, smart-mobility and data solutions in real urban settings through an 'agile piloting' approach: short, iterative experiments run with residents and companies in urban living labs.
Activities
Living labs include Smart Kalasatama (design sprints and autonomous delivery robots trialled in a shopping centre), the Jätkäsaari Smart Mobility Lab, and the IoT 'Gadget Lab'. The Helsinki Innovation Districts project extended this activity to four suburban districts plus the fast-growing Pasila area, and 2023-2024 last-mile logistics pilots tested autonomous delivery vehicles across three iterative sprints.
Results
The last-mile logistics pilots are described as cutting combustion-van kilometres, though no specific figures are given. The agile-piloting model is described as having become an established part of the toolkit used by major Finnish cities.
Conclusions
The approach is presented as a repeatable, low-risk method for cities to test innovations with multiple stakeholders before scaling, underpinned by a permanent municipal innovation vehicle rather than a one-off project.
Implementation
Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.
Commonly funded by
National / regional programmes European Urban Initiative Horizon Europe
Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.
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Data sources
Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.
- C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-06-17
- Forum Virium Helsinki (City of Helsinki innovation company) — accessed 2026-06-17
- ENoLL member profile — accessed 2026-06-17
- Helsinki Innovation Districts — accessed 2026-06-17
Attachments
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