Organised by Orion Corporation, the Oriontation - 100 Ideas competition for Finnish universities was a great success. The winning trio will be announced at the Oriontation gala on Valentine’s Day.
In honour of the centenary year 2017 of Orion and Finland, Orion Corporation invited university students and researchers to participate in the Oriontation - 100 Ideas competition. The purpose of the competition was to collect ideas in three categories for the development of human and animal treatments.
“We received over 80 ideas, and from these our multi-professional jury selected 21 for the second round. The participants come from various parts of the country from Oulu to Helsinki,” says Carina Stenfors, Principal Research Scientist at CNS Research, Orion Corporation.
Ideas were developed by various researchers from students, post-graduates, professors and medical doctors. Several of the ideas that made it to the second round have the potential to be developed further, Stenfors says. “We’ve invited eight groups to present their ideas at the gala in February. And all the groups that made it to the second round have, of course, been invited to the gala,” Stenfors says.
Stenfors says that once the winners have been announced, it will be time for hard work. “Our aim is to increase research networking. There is room for improvement in that regard in Finland.”
During the competition, Stenfors visited various research centres in Finland with her colleagues. “Researchers really want to boost collaboration and increase interaction about new ideas.”
Boosting collaboration is considered a priority at Orion. “What we need now in Finland is creativity and enthusiasm. This competition proved that there are amazing ideas in our universities that can also be realised as soon as the right channels are found,” Stenfors says.
The winning ideas of Oriontation 100 and their creators will be announced at the award gala and symposium at Orion’s headquarters in Espoo on Valentine’s Day. Speakers include four Orion specialists from various research areas.
Text: Johanna Paasikangas-Tella
