Defence Innovation Network Finland – DEFINE – is a project led by the City of Riihimäki, whose purpose is to build an internationally high-level defence and security network. The aim is to bring together the best experts from the military and civilian sides to create new innovations that serve military needs and society as a whole at the same time.

The security and defence sector is growing strongly amid global turmoil. Boosted by NATO membership, Finland has excellent opportunities to accelerate the sector’s growth and diversify our country’s exports. Since the beginning of 2023, the City of Riihimäki has been building a unique innovation network bringing together soldiers and civilians.

“Some of the world’s most advanced inventions have been born out of joint development and innovation activities between companies, military organisations and research institutes. Positioning, radar technology and, say, the microwave oven found in every home are examples of things whose innovation development has been driven by military technology,” says Jouni Eho, Mayor of Riihimäki.

Eho believes that the defence sector has enormous international growth potential.

“A Finnish strength is the ability to build a low hierarchy between the private and public sectors. We are now making use of this strength as we build a security and defence innovation network in Finland. The aim is to accelerate the work of different actors and the business of companies, and ultimately also to strengthen Finland’s national defence capability and the comprehensive security of citizens.”

The security expertise of the Riihimäki region grows even stronger

DEFINE, or Defence Innovation Network Finland, got its start in spring 2023, when interesting actors in the field were brought together. Riihimäki hired Lieutenant General Ilkka Korkiamäki as the project’s coordinator and assembled a steering group for the network to guide its development.

In spring 2023, a round table discussion supporting the launch of the activities was held in Riihimäki, and at the end of the year a seminar focusing on defence innovations. One of DEFINE’s goals is to build in Riihimäki a business accelerator focusing on military–civilian dual-use technologies, which would at the same time be part of NATO’s DIANA network in Finland.

Riihimäki is a natural place for the network, as the city is already home to the Finnish Defence Forces’ competence cluster for cybersecurity, digitalisation and command and control systems, and the economic region has numerous defence and security companies. The region also trains new professionals for the sector, and Häme University of Applied Sciences intends to double its education offering in technical fields in the coming years.

“Riihimäki has a unique robotics education path: you can get to know robotics as early as in early childhood education and study the field at all levels of education, all the way up to a doctoral degree,” Eho says.

DEFINE will be visible to the public at next summer’s MaanpuolustusAreena event
Next June, the innovation network will organise MaanpuolustusAreena in connection with the Riihimäki International Hunting and Fishing Fair (Erämessut). The aim is to develop the event into one of Finland’s most significant annual defence and security events, focusing on accelerating technological development and innovation in the sector.

DEFINE (Defence Innovation Network Finland) is a project led by the City of Riihimäki, whose purpose is to build an internationally high-level defence and security network. The aim is to bring together the best experts from the military and civilian sides to create new innovations that serve military needs and society as a whole at the same time. DEFINE is a project co-funded by the Regional Council of Häme, receiving support from the ERDF programme.