Viikki Food Design Factory opening event

Viikki Food Design Factory celebrated the opening of its community space and lab facilities in Viikki on 21.4.2022 together with food system transformation makers and innovation ecosystem builders: researchers, students, startups, companies and investors. Links to the videos of the talks (that did not contain confidential information) are posted on this website as soon as they become available.
About Viikki Food Design Factory

Viikki Food Design Factory makes food system transformation happen through nurturing, nourishing and nudging out sustainable innovations and innovators.

Viikki Food Design Factory is the home of a new type of food innovation activity on the Viikki Campus at the University of Helsinki. It brings together food and innovation experts and facilitates the creation of new sustainable solutions related to primary production, processing, distribution, consumption, recycling and all related research and teaching.
Videos of the seminar talks

Below are the videos of the seminar talks, except for two, which contained unpublished results. Accessibility subtitling coming in July.
Program

Date: 21.4.2021  

Place: EE-building, Agnes Sjöbergin katu 2, 00790 Helsinki, Finland

12.00-12.50 Registration   

Section 1 - Seminar on food system transformation 

13.00-13.10 Opening words - Ritva Toivonen (Dean, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki) 

13.10-13.25 Viikki Food Design Factory intro - Laura Forsman (Manager, Viikki Food Design Factory, University of Helsinki) 

13.25-13.45 Keynote:  Challenges and possibilities in the food system - Markku Ollikainen (Chair, Finnish Climate Change Panel) 

13.45-14.40 Transforming systems - Food for thought  

  • Nutrition and the food system: What if we replace animal proteins with plant proteins? - Maijaliisa Erkkola (Prof., University of Helsinki) 
  • Food production in the sustainable food system: What if we produce food indoors instead of fields? - Hanna Tuomisto (Associate Prof., University of Helsinki) 
  • Case Baltic Sea Ecosystem: What if we start fishing a new species in the Baltic Sea? - Dunja Jusufovski: (Postdoctoral Researcher, HELSUS, University of Helsinki) 
  • Case data-driven agrifood system: What if farmers’ primary production data would drive sustainable farming? - Liisa Pesonen (Senior Scientist, Luke Natural Resources Institute Finland) 

Coffee break  

15.00-15.20 Keynote: Radical technologies for the food system transformation - Risto Linturi (Futurologist) 

15.20-15.30 Highlights from doctoral research on food system  

  • New life for surplus bread - upcycling bakery side streams - Mikko Immonen (Doctoral researcher, University of Helsinki) 
  • The significance of chemesthesis in sustainable and innovative food systems - Sulo Roukka (Doctoral researcher, University of Helsinki) 

15.30-15.35 What else is cooking in innovations at Viikki – Harriet Gullstén (Viikki Innovation Platform, University of Helsinki) 
 

Section 2 - Activities, tastings & thematic networking   

15.35-16.50  Explore new facilities, tastings and demos from student projects and visit Viikki alumni startups’ and Germinator teams’ stands. Nettle Kombucha tasting by Nokkos Co!  

Viikki related company stands by:

Student stands:

  • Lingonberry-apple marmalade tastings by a group of students from the Advanced Sensory Science course from the Master’s program in Food Science at University of Helsinki. Stop by, taste and give them feedback! 
  • AI based Food Systems Research Engine (FoSyRE), a Master’s thesis project commissioned by VFDF, made by Elina Gundyreva, a Master's student in Data Science from the Department of Computer Science at University of Helsinki. Come and try it yourself! 

Germinator pre-incubator teams’ stands

  • Come to see, taste and talk about what OleoFlow, Mäsli, CompactGrowth and NATINREC have to offer after going through our first pre-incubator programme! They will also be around after the pitches to talk to.

​Our new facilities & Food System Map!

  • ​Have a look at our brand new VFDF community space and lab, in the community space you'll find also a Food System Map that you can contribute your ideas to!

Section 3 - Germinator Demos and Gala    

16.50-17.00 Introduction of the Germinator program and next call - Laura Forsman (Manager, Viikki Food Design Factory, University of Helsinki) 

17.00-17.40 Germinator 2021-2022 teams’ pitches: 

  • OleoFlow - Anton Nolvi
  • Mäsli - Pauliina Piuhola
  • NATINREC - Dmitry Gradov
  • CompactGrowth - Panu Miettinen

17.40-17.45 Closing words  

17.45-18.45 Refreshments and free networking 
Health & safety

We'll be following all current guidelines on covid-19 protection in force at the time of the event. Please only come healthy and if you have symptoms, please use the link in the registration confirmation email to cancel your participation.
How to get there

Parking space on the Viikki Campus is limited, so we recommend arriving by bus or bicycle, if possible. The nearest paid parking space to the EE-building is in front of the Forestry Science building (Latokartanonkaari 7). Below you can find a link to the campus maps showing the EE-building (number 12) and the nearest parking spaces.
Contact info

If you have any questions, please email viikkifooddesignfactory@helsinki.fi or call +358 50 3199 520 (Tiia)!