[suomeksi]Welcome to the homepage of Cewic!

Cewic (Centre of Expertise in the Water Industry Cluster) aims at bringing the fragment Finnish water sector together and elevate the industry to a higher level by combining the academic, industrial and government research and development expertise into an internationally acknowledged force in the water industry. Cewic has been started to help enterprises in developing research proposals and finding appropriate funding sources for innovative and multidisciplinary projects, to help in networking among the Finnish water and wastewater companies and to develop the companies' expertise and competitive edge in the global water business.

Open competence centre in the water sector

Cewic's goals are to attract Finnish businesses with an interest in the water sector, their suppliers, research and educational organisations, as well as customers from municipal and industrial sectors. The goal of the cooperation is to produce products and services based on innovative and novel research and development that can be sold in competitive international markets.

Cewic is an open centre, where all the interested parties can join and benefit from the networking and expertise provided by the Cewic staff and the numerous contacts that they have developed. The diverse sources of funding from private industry and public bodies are critical in making Cewic a relevant entity in the Oulu region and beyond. Many companies have already shown interest in Cewic and discussions are on-going for specific projects to be carried out jointly between research and development organisations and the relevant private and public sector partners.

3-year-long start-up project

The project aiming at organising the centre and its activities started in September 2008 with an initial seed funding of 3.6 million euro for the period of three years. The project is financed by the Council of Oulu Region from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the City of Oulu, and the enterprises and research and educational organisations participating Cewic.

The project is led by the Oulu University of Applied Sciences, in cooperation with University of Oulu and Technopolis Ventures Ltd. The goal is to found a permanent Centre of Expertise in the Finnish water sector funded by several private and public sources.

Homebase in Northern Finland - the whole world as a playground

The Cewic start-up project will initially focus on the Oulu region in Northern Finland, but it will link to entities in all of Finland. However, the ultimate goal of the Cewic is to act globally. International organisations and companies that have business interests or existing offices in Finland are welcome to participate the Cewic competence centre as well. Therefore, any interested parties that want to participate in the development of project ideas, discuss global trends in the water sector, or have concrete proposals are encouraged to contact Cewic staff listed below.

Information and Contact

You can get more information of Cewic in English by contacting anyone of the project crew. More information in English will be added to this website later 2009.