The mission is unglamorous and vital: turn strategic advantages (critical minerals, green hydrogen, forest bioeconomy, territorial capabilities, pilot plants, digitalization, clean manufacturing) into globally exportable tech, investment attraction, and measurable economic, social, and environmental gains for both countries.
Helsinki, November 2025.- In a glassy auditorium at Team Finland House, more than 100 founders, researchers, and public-sector heavyweights watched a cross-hemisphere bet go live. Business Finland, Corfo, VTT, and Fundaci贸n Chile switched on a Binational Technology Transfer Platform designed to move science-based tech out of the lab and into industry鈥攆ast鈥攕tarting with sustainable mining, decarbonization, and climate adaptation.
This isn鈥檛 a ribbon-cutting. It鈥檚 an operating system: a shared pipeline for co-innovation, pilot deployments, and scale-up across two countries that look small on a map but punch above their weight in natural resources, R&D, and regulatory stability.
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"This event marks an important step in strengthening the long-standing and positive relationship between Finland and Chile. With this collaboration platform, we now have the opportunity to expand business ties even further".
"The Collaboration Platform has been created to foster innovation and co-innovation, and to explore how we can enhance trade not only between our two countries, but also with other international markets".
"I believe there are excellent opportunities here for companies to engage in co-innovation, to accelerate their scale-up and piloting phases, and ultimately to reach markets faster".
"Finland and Chile share many common strengths, particularly in mining and forestry industries and now, with the rise of green hydrogen and other advanced technologies, there are even greater possibilities for cooperation and growth", says Risto Vuohelainen, Executive Director of Growth Services, Business Finland.
Why this alliance matters (now)
Chile and Finland share a paradox: resource-heavy economies with limited domestic markets. The platform鈥檚 answer is to fuse Chile鈥檚 scale in mining and renewables with Finland鈥檚 deep tech and applied research muscle so both can build exportable solutions鈥攁nd prove them in demanding, real-world pilots.
From the Chilean side, Corfo frames it as hardwiring R&D into industry, not just for multinationals but for the mid-market where efficiency, safety, and climate impacts compound.
"The relevance for Finland, I think it鈥檚 a work we have done in the last two years, together with the Chileans and the Finnish government, at different levels, a ministerial level, and then supporting institutions like, Business Finland and Corfo, and then the ones who are going to apply, you know, operationalize this, like VTT and Fundacion Chile".
"The idea behind that is, you know, to make collaborative work in terms of innovation, research and development, also, business related with certain sectors where Chile has quite interesting opportunities for Finnish firms, for example, in the mining sector, the forestry sector, and also the smart cities solutions".
"And why Chile? Because, you know, we have the scale, but we have, the necessity of solutions based on knowledge that can be applied in Chile, and not only the demand will be in Chile, but also the opportunities to use Chile as a platform to another country nearby in South America is also an opportunity".
"And for the Chilean side, it鈥檚 also very relevant because, you know, it鈥檚 a mechanism to, you know, apply this in order to improve, you know, productivity in certain sectors, especially the mid-size, mining sectors, and also include this one to enhance our policy to put wood in general terms, as a product, in several dimensions, even building up constructions based on wood and several other sectors", said Jos茅 Miguel Benavente, Vice President of Corfo.
How it works
Think of it as a matching-grant engine and coordination layer. The platform aligns companies, regional governments, tech-transfer centers, and Chilean ecosystem actors with Finnish R&D institutions and firms. It also moves talent (training, mobilization, and shared teams) so pilots don鈥檛 stall at the hand-off between lab and plant.
"We are working to develop solutions in Chile, where we have the necessary scale, but also to partner with Chilean companies to create those solutions together".
"Among the expected outcomes, we aim to validate and adapt new solutions between Chile and Finland, to train and mobilize talent across both countries, and to build alliances across different sectors".
"It鈥檚 also important to note that, although we have identified several areas where joint challenges are already evident, this remains an open agenda (one that we must continue to explore together. In fact, the first stage of this cooperation will focus on doing exactly that) working closely with all of you to define and shape those opportunities".
"So, our first task now is to define what these three or four initial projects will be to bring Chilean and Finnish companies together to work together", Hern谩n Araneda, CEO, Fundaci贸n Chile, explained to Entreprenerd.
Finland鈥檚 take
For Helsinki, this is about building with peers鈥攁nd exporting jointly.
"I think there is a great match between the countries and the people and the size of the country and so on. So I think it鈥檚 always nicer to work with equal partners".
"And I think this is an area where Chile and Finland share a lot. And of course, coming from the mining and minerals industry, I think Chile is such an important player globally, but as discussed this morning, it鈥檚 not only what we can do in Chile or Finland, but how we could also create solutions for sustainable mining to third countries".
"And with the experience you have and the big players you have and also the mid-size, which is a very interesting area just to bring new innovations and sustainability, a better way of doing mining and sharing it with other countries", Jarkko Vesa, Chief Specialist - Mineral Policy, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland.
Follow the money (but don鈥檛 obsess over it)
The funding structure is straightforward and long-horizon: a matching-grant model seeded by both states to push projects through pilots and into markets over a seven-year window.
"So this platform mainly works as a matching grant, with $20 million from the Chilean side, which is a lot of money by Chilean standards, together with a similar amount coming from the Finnish side, to fulfill certain expectations and carry out these projects over the next seven years. That鈥檚 why this is relevant for both sides," said Jos茅 Miguel Benavente, Vice President of Corfo.
"This puts Chile on the radar of a country like Finland, where Chile鈥檚 size is very interesting for the Finnish in general, because we are not that large compared to other countries in the developed world".
"But we are developed enough to make this kind of agreement that will be useful for Finland. It also opens the door to explore other related areas, especially focusing on small and medium-sized companies, which is highly relevant", Jos茅 Miguel Benavente, Vice President of Corfo, emphasized this point.
Origin story鈥攁nd the roadmap
Born as a VTT initiative in early 2023 led by Andro Lindsay and Jussi Manninen, the platform has scaled into a state-to-state cooperation framework stretching to 2050 and beyond.
It connects both Ministries of Foreign Affairs, TEM, the Chilean Ministry of Economy, CORFO, Fundaci贸n Chile (FCh), Business Finland (BF), and VTT to mobilise public-private co-funding, co-create applied technological innovation, transfer capabilities, and orchestrate binational innovation ecosystems.
The mission is unglamorous and vital: turn strategic advantages (critical minerals, green hydrogen, forest bioeconomy, territorial capabilities, pilot plants, digitalization, clean manufacturing) into globally exportable tech, investment attraction, and measurable economic, social, and environmental gains for both countries.
If everything goes well, it should establish a blueprint for other projects to follow; bringing together countries, companies, and other stakeholders to drive impact and growth.
The launch was attended by Jos茅 Miguel Benavente, Vice President of Corfo; Hern谩n Araneda, CEO of Fundaci贸n Chile; Andro Lindsay, Business Development Manager at VTT, and Leopoldo Reyes, VTT鈥檚 representative in Chile; Risto Vuohelainen, Executive Director of Growth Services at Business Finland; as well as Bel茅n Sapag, Chile鈥檚 Ambassador to Finland, and Catalina Calder贸n, Consul of Chile in Finland; Vanessa Severin, Investment Promotion Attach茅 for InvestChile in Berlin; and Rodrigo P茅rez, Head of International Affairs at Corfo.