The University of Turku opened the call for applications to the Pentti Malaska Futures Award on 27 January 2025. We are looking for bold, research-based, visionary, and boundary-crossing solutions supporting the building of a more sustainable global future.
The future is not just a place we are going to, we create it. The University of Turku opens a call for the Pentti Malaska Futures Award for the fifth time. We are looking for bold, research-based innovations that can help in building a more sustainable global future.
The Pentti Malaska Futures Award is €30,000. The application period is 27 January – 28 April 2025. The main criteria for the innovations participating in the competition are:
• sustainable development
• visionary thinking
• academia–business collaboration
• boundary-crossing approach to research and society
The competition is open to Nordic actors and teams with a future-oriented and multidisciplinary research approach. The new and innovative solutions we are looking for should be based on academic research or be in some other way closely linked to the academic world. To be eligible, the solution has to be already developed – a prototype, tested or patented – or the solution’s innovation potential has to be proven in some other way. Solutions that are only at the idea stage cannot be entered into the competition.
Award honours remarkable lifework of a pioneer in futures research
The Award honours Professor Pentti Malaska’s (1934–2012) lifework in futures research. Pentti Malaska was a professor of business mathematics and statistics at Turku School of Economics. He established the Finland Futures Research Centre in 1992. Malaska was a radical, visionary thinker whose research interests crossed a wide range of academic disciplines from mathematics and electrical engineering to philosophy, ecology, and strategic management. His work boldly crossed sectoral boundaries between the academic world, business world and societal influencing.
The Award was established in 2017 with a donation from Medical Counsellor Sakari Alhopuro. Alhopuro is an alum of the University of Turku, an Honorary Doctor of Turku School of Economics, and a major supporter of entrepreneurship education, research and education in medical technology and health economics, and biodiversity research.
The members of the panel deciding the winner are: Markus Granlund (Dean, Turku School of Economics, University of Turku), Laura Höijer (Research Director, Ministry of the Environment of Finland), Laura Ihanainen (Senior Sustainability Manager at Kesko and Professor of Practice, Department of Marketing, Hanken School of Economics), Miia Martinsuo (Professor, Industrial Engineering and Management, Faculty of Technology, University of Turku), Soili Mäkinen (SVP Sustainable Business Development, Cargotec, Cargotec Oyj), and Juha Kaskinen (Director, Finland Futures Research Centre, University of Turku).
See the full details of the competition at: www.utu.fi/futures-award
The previous winners of the Futures Awards include TM System Finland Oy (2023) for their industrial scale re-circulation Zero-Ex® emission capture technology, Woodio Ltd (2021) that develops ecological waterproof solid wood composite, and Solar Foods Ltd (2019) that developed a new kind of nutritious protein by utilising air and electricity. The first Award was granted to EnviRate in 2017 for developing a mobile application for assessing the state of the environment.
The Finland Futures Research Centre of the University of Turku founded in 1992 is a multidisciplinary research, education, and development organisation. The Centre produces insightful futures knowledge to promote the transformation towards more ecologically balanced, economically sustainable, and socially and culturally equal futures. The Centre also aims to give tools for responsible decision-making and inspire public debate.
