Oulu’s Tech Companies Offer Strong Expertise for the Life Sciences Sector 

LifeFactFuture’s Fourth consortium meeting was held on 11 March 2026 in Oulu, hosted by Bittium. The meeting featured an interesting line-up of presentations not only from our host, but also from other companies. On the following day, 12 March, the consortium had the opportunity to visit Nokia’s new factory in Linnanmaa and Oulu’s new university hospital. The visits provided lively discussion among the participants, and plans were also made for continuing the work after the project. 

Oulu companies are technology frontrunners 

Oulu is one of Finland’s most rapidly growing regions, and one of the defining features of the area is the strong presence of technology companies – making it a key region for LFF. Besides our hosts Bittium and Nokia, other interesting companies in the region include Polar, Oura and iLOQ. In addition to the technology strongholds, Oulu is also the European Capital of Culture this year. 

Bittium, host of the consortium meeting, is a core partner in LifeFactFuture. Medical is one of three business divisions in the company, supplementing engineering services and their strong expertise in defense and security sectors. The company exhibits impressive growth with more than 40% growth in revenue in 2025 compared to the year prior.  

While Bittium is a technology partner for top-tier product development, Nokia’s new 55,000-square-metre campus in Oulu is one of the world’s most advanced research and development centres for mobile networks. The 5G and 6G research and development work carried out at the site provided an inspiring benchmark for the LFF consortium, which is developing life science manufacturing for the 2040s. 

Towards the 2040s 

LFF’s goal is to research, test and bring into piloting life science manufacturing solutions for the 2040s. Finnish industry in the sector must ensure it can continue to produce world-class products cost-effectively in the future as well. Co-development projects like LFF provide the consortium with a strong way to build, through its network, the dynamic capabilities and technologies needed to prepare for possible futures. 

Tuuli Ahava from Nokia captured this well in her presentation by saying: “Business ecosystems can change the world!” 

At the consortium meeting, experiences of collaboration between research institutes and companies were shared, and the post-project phase was also discussed. During the project, the aim is to help ensure the work continues through new joint projects. The work continues! 

Photos and video by Tolga Karayel.