General details
EDIHs involved
Challenges
There is a need to facilitate the growth of open data, technology and application innovations around Finnish location data and technology research expertise and strengthen Finnish geospatial competence and innovation ecosystem through cross-fertilization of research, innovation, business and sustainable development expertise around digital location data and technologies.
The sector of health and well-being would benefit greatly from new and innovative location data and technology solutions, since there are urgent needs related for example:
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insufficiency in the provision of public health care services due to lack of financial resources and long geographical distances to some of the service
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in diminishing geographical health and well-being disparities
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tackling with impacts of infectious diseases
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in ensuring healthy living styles for people at different ages.
For the past decade Finland has struggled with re-organisation of public health care services to secure geographically, socially and economically viable and just health care provision for all residents. At the same time, our nation is trying to recover from the damages of COVID-19 to well-being of young generation, who struggle with mental problems.
These are just few examples of a broad sector of health and well-being, where location technology can make a difference not only to our knowledge base but also in managing these challenges and come up with life-quality improvements. Finland is rich with open-access location specific data to assess health resource needs and to model their potential allocation.
Solutions
The Geospatial Challenge Camp (GCC) is a 10-week challenge-based event, as well as a course that provides young researchers and students from universities and the public and business sector actors the opportunity to tackle relevant real-world hurdles. The main focus of GCC is on co-creation of geospatial data and digital technology solutions, which have potential sustainability impacts for the users of the solution and for the society at large.
The GCC concept and work model was co-created between the University of Turku, Aalto University, National Land Survey and Finland and CSC. The GCC was organised for the first time in 2023.
The thematic focus of the GCC 2023 was in Health and Well-being, where several sustainability challenges are confronted and where novel solutions are needed. The Finnish well-being service counties, for example are quite new actors in the field, and they have a lot of difficulties to solve to secure equal access to residents to health care services while sustaining service costs at tolerable levels.
In GCC 2023, multidisciplinary teams worked in the ideation of new solutions to several health and well-being challenges using geospatial data and technology. The challenges were provided by the health and well-being sector organisations, both public and private.
Examples of our partners needs:
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VARHA, the Well-being services county of Southwest Finland exposed GCC researcher with a hurdle related to the climate friendliness of the regions’ health care services.
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The City of Turku needed teams to come up with smart location data solutions to assess urban climate risks based on EU taxonomy.
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Citynomadi was looking for innovations to their health service wayfinding maps and visualisations.
All these needs exemplify a increased desire to make more sustainable solutions economically, environmentally and socially.
Results and Benefits
The 18 researchers and students with diverse backgrounds were divided into four groups. Over the course of ten weeks, four solution prototypes were developed to address needs of the health and well-being industry, public sector actors and residents.
Partners of the EDIH Location Innovation Hub worked together, mentoring the groups and providing tools (test environments, data, etc.) to the groups.
The groups' prototypes showed that location data can be used to identify gaps in the service network, what services are needed in the area and how they can be delivered cost-effectively. Any proposals made by the working groups could be of benefit to the wellbeing service counties, municipalities and companies, which they are cooperating with.
The prototypes could be used as a basis for further planning to improve the wellbeing of people in the regions. Many health and wellbeing professionals are unfamiliar with geospatial applications and data, so it takes work to get people to take these things into account in their planning work. Events like Challenge Camp help professionals to find viable and realistic solutions together with researchers.
GCC is a low-investment opportunity for the customers, as it allows innovating and testing potential solutions without yet investing on their actual development. This reduces financial risks related to investments of new data and technology solutions. At the same time time GCC provides researchers and students a real-world environment to enhance their professional and soft skills and thus improved their future employment in the sector of location industry.
Perceived social/economic impact
For students and researchers, working for GCC can empower individuals with relevant skills for the digital economy, enhancing their employability and contributing to economic growth.
This collaborative approach can lead to innovative solutions by involving diverse stakeholders in innovative processes. These processes are giving the participants valuable lessons about co-creation, new thinking skills and ability to work together in multidisciplinary teams.
The Challenge Camp can serve as a catalyst for innovation and entrepreneurship in the geospatial sector. By providing a platform for researchers and students to work with geospatial data and develop solutions for specific problems, it can nurture a culture of innovation and support the growth of startups and SMEs working in this field.
From the partner viewpoint this data-driven approach to decision-making can lead to more informed policies and strategies, ultimately contributing to social and economic development.
Key figures:
- 18 participating researchers/students in 4 multi-skilled teams
- 10 mentors from the academia, public sector and private sector
- 4 final clients and solutions prototypes related to the health and wellbeing challenges
- > 10 collaborating institutions and organisations
- 3 physical face-to-face sessions, 8 online mentoring sessions
Lessons learned
The Challenge Camp is a hands-on way to learn how to tackle complex societal problems through collaboration and new learning. For the researchers and students involved, the experience was valuable in terms of developing their professional skills and work-life connections.
The main challenges of the working groups included tight timeframes for prototyping, balancing with full-time jobs, a knowledge gap in certain areas, and the urgency to obtain real-time data. However, effective collaboration and communication skills, along with weekly mentoring sessions, enabled the diverse team to successfully create prototypes, meet deadlines, and achieve their goals.
This type of work requires a lot of preparation time, up to a year in advance. It is also important to ensure that the theme is clear to partners and teams. Partners need to be engaged in time to provide teams with appropriate and limited defiances.
It is also important to think about the follow-up, as it would be good to keep an eye on what happens to the prototypes and whether the teams continue to develop them. One of the co-created solutions is currently being implemented and additional resources of funding for the implementation has been applied by the client of the solution.
Other Information
https://challenge-camp.geoportti.fi/en/latest/
Research teams develop new solutions for the health and well-being sector in ten weeks:
https://locationinnovationhub.eu/en/news/research-teams-develop-new-solutions-for-the-health-and-well-being-sector-in-ten-weeks-966/
4 social and health sector innovation solutions to be developed at the Geospatial Challenge Camp: https://positio-magazine.eu/2023/11/4-social-and-health-sector-innovation-solutions-to-be-developed-at-the-geospatial-challenge-camp/
Geospatial Challenge Camp’s ideas for the health and well-being sector surprised positively: https://positio-magazine.eu/2023/12/geospatial-challenge-camps-ideas-for-the-health-and-well-being-sector-surprised-positively/
Four prototypes for addressing health and well-being challenges using location data: https://positio-magazine.eu/2024/01/four-prototypes-for-addressing-health-and-well-being-challenges-using-location-data/
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