VTT’s new med­ical tech­nol­o­gy pilot envi­ron­ment in Oulu aims to slash the mar­ket entry time of patient-friend­ly solu­tions

The VTT Tech­ni­cal Research Cen­tre of Fin­land has opened a new pilot line envi­ron­ment for med­ical devices in Oulu, Fin­land. Estab­lished by VTT with an invest­ment of EUR 3.4 mil­lion, the facil­i­ty is unique in Europe and aims to accel­er­ate the mar­ket entry of patient-friend­ly inno­va­tions. It enables the pro­duc­tion of small- and mid­dle-size pro­to­type series con­sist­ing of the most advanced elec­tron­ic, pho­ton­ic, micro­elec­tron­ic and microflu­idic com­po­nent and inte­gra­tion tech­nolo­gies. 

The pilot line focus­es on inno­v­a­tive med­ical devices, such as wear­able sen­sors for mon­i­tor­ing car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­eases and microflu­idic sen­sors for ear­ly can­cer detec­tion. By pro­vid­ing a reg­u­lat­ed envi­ron­ment for pro­to­type pro­duc­tion, the facil­i­ty helps over­come com­mon bar­ri­ers that star­tups face when tran­si­tion­ing from research to mar­ket-ready prod­ucts. It also sup­ports cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process­es, reduc­ing time and cost in bring­ing new tech­nolo­gies to patients.

Key areas of focus include pre­ven­tive mon­i­tor­ing of car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­eases, meta­bol­ic syn­dromes, and ear­ly can­cer detec­tion, with devices designed to be com­fort­able and dis­creet. Addi­tion­al­ly, the pilot line enables quick diag­nos­tics, allow­ing health­care providers to per­form on-site tests, ulti­mate­ly giv­ing patients the pos­si­bil­i­ty to reach ade­quate care more quick­ly. 

VTT aims to col­lab­o­rate with med­ical device com­pa­nies, uni­ver­si­ties, and health­care orga­ni­za­tions to bring inno­va­tions to the mar­ket faster. The pilot line began oper­a­tions in ear­ly 2025 and is part of VTT’s broad­er efforts in advanc­ing med­ical device tech­nolo­gies in Europe, includ­ing lead­ing the EU Chip­s­Act pro­gramme.

Con­tact per­son: Jus­si Hiltunen, Research Pro­fes­sor
jussi.hiltunen@vtt.fi
+358407795831

Source (text and image): VTT