About Aalto University

Institution: Aalto University
  Espoo
Finland
 

About Aalto University and our innovation ecosystem

Aalto University innovation ecosystem has been rated as one of the most promising in the world: we are rated among top five rising ecosystems in the world by MIT, and 70-100 companies are founded yearly in our community. Technology developed at Aalto University is used by a number of global companies, and we strongly support and promote the commercialization of researchers and students’ inventions into commercial solutions. Our diverse ecosystem consists of both student-led and university-run entrepreneurial activities. For example, Europe’s leading startup event Slush, and Startup Sauna, the leading accelerator in Northern Europe and Russia, are born at Aalto’s student community Aaltoes. Our main campus in Otaniemi fosters building an innovative society with openness, experimenting and sharing of ideas. The campus is rapidly developing into a unique collaboration centre, uniting researchers, teachers and students and attracting partners from all around the world. All Aalto University core activities will be located in Otaniemi campus by 2021.

Aalto University is a community of bold thinkers where science and art meet technology and business. We are committed to identifying and solving grand societal challenges and building an innovative future. We have been ranked the 7th best young university in the world (Top 50 under 50, QS 2018) and one of the world’s top technology challenger universities (THE 2017), thinking outside the box on research collaboration, funding and innovation. Aalto has six schools with nearly 11 000 students and 4000 employees of which close to 400 are professors. Our campuses are located in Espoo and Helsinki, Finland. With 37% of our academic faculty coming from outside Finland, we are a highly international community with strong academic standing.

At Aalto, high-quality research, art, education and entrepreneurship are promoted hand in hand. Disciplinary excellence is combined with multidisciplinary activities, engaging both students and the local innovation ecosystem.

Aalto University was founded in 2010 as three leading Finnish universities, Helsinki University of Technology, the Helsinki School of Economics and the University of Art and Design Helsinki, were merged to strengthen Finland’s innovative capability.