Future proofing Finlands Strategic Competitiveness and Innovation System for a New Geopolitical Era

The global economy is currently undergoing a paradigmatic shift from a liberal free-market capitalism towards ‘strategic capitalism’. The emergence of strategic capitalism marks the beginning of a new era where economic interdependencies are increasingly seen as vulnerabilities requiring active state intervention via economic and industrial policies. The evolving international landscape is commonly seen to present a challenge fora small open economy like Finland. Instead of viewing the current situation simply as a threat to Finland, our research project offers a novel and a more pro-active approach towards the evolving operating environment. To enable resilient economic growth, we will map out opportunities for enhanced strategic competitiveness and economic security for the Finnish Operating and Innovation Environment (FOIE). We utilize the paradigm of strategic competitiveness which places national security alongside economic considerations thus prompting a reassessment of the logic behind the assessment of critical technology sectors, innovation policies and commercial strategies. Our project generates new future-oriented insights by 1) constructing nuanced scenarios of the evolving operating environment, 2) systematically mapping and evaluating the risk and opportunity landscape, 3) producing a constantly updated policy playbook for a whole-of-FOIE response, and by 4) delivering a collaborative digital tool for monitoring, assessing, and enabling resilient policies and commercial strategies.