Social Impact Pre-incubator SÄRÖ/FRACTURE Taking in Applications for its Third Round

Organised by the University of Helsinki, in collaboration with Helsinki Think Company and powered by the City of Helsinki, is a part of the City Centre campus’ services for promoting and empowering research-based entrepreneurship among university staff, researchers, students, alumni, and any interested residents of the Metropolitan area.

With a special focus on facilitating solutions in the fields of society, communities, education, law, and spirituality, SÄRÖ/FRACTURE offers a series of workshops and lectures aimed at supporting participants in their first steps in impactful entrepreneurship. Over the course of two months, participants will acquire the basic tools needed to transform their solution into something tangible and meaningful. Participants will get to rely on the support of a team of dedicated experts throughout the programme, in matters big and small. In addition, they’ll be surrounded by a community of likeminded peers, equally set on changing the world for the better.

SÄRÖ/FRACTURE has successfully functioned as the catalyst of many ventures, over two inspiring cohorts of participants already. Among our alumni is Christal Spel and Everest Obatitor, who came to the programme to work on their solution YEPP ry, a non-profit association that provides mentoring and support for young people of immigrant background. Before applying, the team wasn’t sure how to start working on their project: “We had the idea and passion, but no structures to make it sustainable,” Spel explains. Over the course of SÄRÖ/FRACTURE, Spel and Obatitor learned concrete tools to translate their theoretical knowledge into something with a genuine impact. After SÄRÖ/FRACTURE, YEPP ry went on to participate in the first round of the , where they’ve further worked on their project as to grow it into an even more impactful social enterprise.

Other alumni stories include Seurasauna and Team ClariSci. Katja Ojanen and Anna Talasniemi’s Seurasauna aims to create a new kind of sauna on the Seurasaari island, in which accessibility, gender identity, expression, and ecology are taken into consideration better than in common public saunas today. Their project is taking strides as they have recently secured a plot on the island from the City of Helsinki. 

The group behind the newly incorporated ClariSci—Chiara Facciotto, Giuliano Didio, Lea Urpa, and Rita Turpin—want to help specialists explain their ideas clearly and accurately to increase the impact of research and innovation. Recently, ClariSci has teamed up with with the aim of highlighting exciting and impactful research-based health sector teams and startups within the programme.