Even the most modest of solutions can have a seismic effect on their surroundings. When turned into reality, they have the potential to disrupt existing inadequate structures, and help create more diverse, equal, inclusive and empathetic communities, big and small.
The City Centre-based TREMOR is an ambitious six-month incubator programme for those shaking up the societal status quo to bring their well-defined business idea and turn it into a sustainable & social entrepreneurial project.
We want to make sure that you'll have the best chances of creating real impact with your solution, so if selected, your team will benefit from over half a year of dedicated, tailored support & mentoring specifically geared towards sustainable & socially minded entrepreneurs and their needs. We'll work hard to empower and embolden you, and provide you with what you'll need to succeed.
Through lectures, workshops, and other events, our team, hand-picked mentors, and subject-matter experts will provide you with the toolkit, knowledge, and contacts to grow your career and take your solution & turn it into a successful enterprise. We'll also try to get you to meet as many potential partners, clients, and investors as possible during the programme to guarantee that you end up creating the most relevant and impactful product or service you can and make the necessary connections to bring it to the world.
Our hope is that by the end of the 6 months of TREMOR, you'll be ready to register your company, unveil your solution, apply for funding, or get in talks with investors, and carry onwards on your change-making journey in whatever way feels most relevant to you and your team, be it joining a hub like Maria01 or seeking further support from places like Business Helsinki.
TREMOR is proudly powered by the City of Helsinki.
The goal of TREMOR is to empower social entrepreneurs by nurturing ventures to create positive societal change. We want you to be able to create a wide social impact in the industry that you are focusing on, and we want you to successfully enter the international market. We pride ourselves being quite a unique programme in Finland: it is driven by seasoned mentors, experts and business angels from Finnish and international companies who will guide you every step of the way, helping you to gain the following outcomes.
By the end of the programme we expect every team to have, at the minimum:
At an individual level, we expect participants to have learned:
Your goal is to disrupt the market with your innovations. Ours is to make sure that you receive as much help as possible to succeed in this.
TREMOR is looking for teams with innovative ideas, innovations, research, technologies, services, solutions, products, and businesses in the following areas:
This is not an exhaustive list — we warmly welcome you to apply with any other Society, Education, Wellbeing, Community, or law-related solution, too!
Looking for inspiration? Check out the teams that took part in 1st & 2nd batches of TREMOR, or check out our TREMOR alumni stories at the link below!
From the very start of the programme, your team will be matched with 1-2 mentors from our pool of talented mentors. Specifically selected to meet your needs, the mentors will be at your service throughout your TREMOR journey via bi-monthly online sessions.
Your mentors will delve deep into the intricacies of your idea and tap into their own experiences, networks, and expertise to give you actionable insights and recommendations to help you in the process of developing and testing your innovation and propel your venture forward.
TREMOR will be held at various locations at the University of Helsinki's City Centre campus from 6 May to 11 December with a "summer break" from 28 June to 4 August. The programme will be both in-person and in English.
The programme will start with matchmaking between participants and mentors to make sure that the right people are collaborating. Then, over the course of the following months the programme's weekly Wednesday sessions will alternate every week between workshops covering entrepreneurial skills & participants working with their mentors, and sessions for co-working & addressing subjects which emerge from the needs of participants and observations of mentors.
The sessions on entrepreneurial skills will cover subjects such as Design thinking, Lean Canvas, Sales, Marketing, Financial management, Intellectual property rights, Legal advice, Prototyping, Pitching, Funding tools, and more. The exact subjects, dates, and visiting experts of the sessions will be filled in at a later date.
The sessions for co-working will be a great place for participants to spar with each other and help each other grow in a mutually beneficial and supportive environment. The co-working sessions will always be started with a reflective dialogue sessions to help support this.
Applications or the 3rd batch of TREMOR are now closed, but feel free to leave us an open application below to get information on future calls!
TREMOR is open to applications from teams and individuals with a well-defined societally impactful idea and solution they'd like to turn into a business. Applicants and teams can be University of Helsinki students, researchers, staff, or alumni, and/or enthusiastic and ambitious change-makers from the broader Helsinki Metropolitan Area. What matters to us isn't your affiliation, but the quality of your idea and your dedication to creating a better society.
We kindly ask you to remember prior to applying that we expect commitment from your team to the programme, and that in-person attendance at our weekly sessions will be required. As such, we sadly cannot accept applications from teams not based in Finland.
To apply, please fill in the form at the link below. We will review each application individually as they come in, and invite those teams who meet our criteria for an initial interview. During this interview, we will ask you the following:
Doctoral Researchers:
Participating in an incubator programme can be included in your transferable skills studies under the course code PHD-313 for a total of 8 ECTS. Please request a certificate of attendance upon completion of the pre-incubator programme, and contact uhds-office@helsinki.fi for credits registration.
Bachelor's or Master's Degree Students:
Participating in the programme can be registered in Sisu under the course code PHD-313 for a total of 8 ECTS. Please request a certificate of attendance upon the completion of the incubator programme, and contact uhds-office@helsinki.fi for the registration of the credits.
Students must then co-ordinate with their degree programme to include these credits into their degree. It is advised to check with the degree programme beforehand if the credits can be included into the degree, and under what section.
The Entrepreneurship & Innovation Services does not guarantee that credits can be included in all degrees.