Chile-Finland Platform enters execution phase: sets up its Strategic Committee and prepares calls for startups and companies
Sustainable mining and forest bioeconomy will be among the first focuses of an initiative that aims to connect the technological capabilities of both countries. After the first session of its Strategic Committee in Santiago, the platform is preparing territorial work in Atacama and Biobío, a new meeting in Helsinki, and calls to incorporate businesses and startups starting from the coming months.
SANTIAGO, AUGUST 2026.- One year after its announcement and after beginning to outline its first work areas, the Chile-Finland Platform for Development and Technological Transfer took a new step in its implementation with the holding of the first session of its Strategic Committee in Santiago, an instance that will have the mission to define priorities and guide the projects that will connect the technological and productive capacities of both countries.
The meeting marks the transition from a design and articulation stage to an execution phase, with sustainable mining, forest bioeconomy, and regional development among its main areas of action.
The first session was chaired by Santiago Marín, manager of Corporate Relations at Corfo, and also included Risto Vuohelainen, executive director of International Development at Business Finland; Jussi Manninen, executive vice president of Carbon Neutral Solutions at VTT; Hernán Araneda, general manager of the Chile Foundation; and Patricio Merello, independent advisor.
The instance will have a monthly periodicity and will be responsible for strategically guiding the initiative, ensuring the achievement of its objectives and goals, and evaluating the alignment of the various work streams and project portfolios with the purpose of the alliance.
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One of the decisions made was that the presidency of the platform should fall on the representative of Corfo for the next five years.
"My role will be to preside over this table for the next five years, always asking for the suggestion of all members of the platform. This is going to be a collaborative presidency with everyone's work," explained Santiago Marín, Corporate Relations Manager of Corfo at Entnerd.com.
FROM COOPERATION TO PROJECTS WITH BUSINESS MODEL.
The Chile-Finland Platform was officially announced in August 2025 and subsequently launched in Helsinki, as a mechanism to connect companies, technological centers, R&D institutions, and public actors from both ecosystems.
The initiative includes a first stage of five years and an initial contribution of up to US$20 million from Corfo, using funds from the R&D contribution associated with lithium contracts. This will be supplemented by leveraging resources from the Finnish ecosystem and other national and international sources, with a total estimated budget exceeding US$50 million.
Now the challenge is to transform that structure into concrete projects.
"This milestone marks the formal launch of this Chile-Finland bi-national platform for technological transfer that will drive Chile's growth and productivity," Marín pointed out.
As explained by the Corfo executive, the Strategic Committee will need to define priorities and criteria for selecting initiatives that not only incorporate innovation, but also respond to specific productive problems and have real possibilities of becoming businesses.
The objective is to prioritize projects where there is a problem to be solved, an innovation capable of addressing it, and a company or actor willing to adopt, purchase or scale that solution.
MINING AND FORESTRY: THE FIRST MAJOR FOCUSES
The first prioritized sectors will be mining and forestry, two industries where Chile and Finland have capabilities that could complement each other.
Mauricio Henríquez, executive director of the Chile-Finland Platform for Technological Transfer and Capacity Development, explained to Entreprenerd that the first meeting allowed progress in strategies linked to bio-economy, new derivatives from the forestry and mining industries.
In this last area, part of the work will be focused on the medium-sized mining in Atacama, in addition to operations and challenges related to the central region of the country.
In the forestry sector, meanwhile, the focus will be on advancing towards greater productive sophistication.
"What we need is to reactivate our industrialization, reactivate our abilities to grow," Henriquez maintained.
His role will precisely be to identify capacities within the Finnish ecosystem and connect them with Chilean companies, institutions and capacities to drive joint projects, joint ventures and technology transfer.
The aspiration, he explained, is for that knowledge to not only reach the country, but also to enable the development of local technology, generate employment, and open new opportunities for growth and export.
TODAY WE ARE ALREADY INSIDE THE FIELD
For Hernán Araneda, General Manager of Fundación Chile, the establishment of the Strategic Committee represents a turning point after months of work between both ecosystems.
"This is a very important milestone because we have been exploring for some time with Finland how we can articulate the entrepreneurial and technological development ecosystem of both countries," Entreprenerd pointed out.
During the first session, he added, the main verticals were validated and an initial portfolio of initiatives was reviewed.
Some projects still require further specification, while others display a sufficient level of maturity to move forward to their next stages.
"The important thing about this is that it has already been set in motion. The resources have been approved since March of this year and today, at last, we are in the field playing this wonderful match which is going to be how to contribute to accelerating innovation and technological transfer, and scientific-technological based enterprises in Chile and Finland," stated Araneda.
HOW CAN STARTUPS PARTICIPATE?
One of the next steps will be to open the platform to businesses, tech providers, and startups capable of responding to challenges raised directly from the industry.
As the representatives of the initiative informed Entnerd, between September and October the invitations and linking mechanisms with companies from both countries should begin.
In mining, among other areas, there will be a search for technologies associated with the retrofit of trucks, dust control, and solutions for tailings. In the forestry sector, there will be opportunities related to wood construction, bioeconomy, and new cellulose derivatives.
From Corfo, they explained that one of the relevant criteria will be the level of maturity of the solutions.
"Those startups that are at a technological maturity level of 6 can approach, that is, they are more than just a pilot, but already an idea that needs to be scaled up, validated," explained Marín.
Araneda added that the model will seek to work from specific challenges identified together with the industries.
"Very soon there will be calls for suppliers and/or developers of solutions to participate in specific areas of technological development," he stated.
The idea will be to generate calls for suppliers and technological developers from Chile and Finland, and at the same time, attract Finnish companies interested in using Chilean productive conditions to validate and scale technologies that they could hardly test at the same scale in their country of origin.
FROM ATACAMA AND BIOBÍO TO HELSINKI.
The roadmap includes activities outside of Santiago.
Henríquez announced that the teams will travel to Antofagasta and Atacama, focusing on mining, and to Biobío, where a significant part of the work associated with the forestry sector will be concentrated.
In parallel, a new work session is scheduled for September in Helsinki, where representatives from Corfo and Business Finland will seek to deepen the participation of the Finnish ecosystem and the mechanisms through which they will mobilize resources and technological capabilities.
A technological mission is also planned for October that will allow Chilean companies to directly learn about solutions, innovation models and existing capabilities in Finland.
A BRIDGE THAT SEEKS TO GENERATE BUSINESS BETWEEN TWO ECOSYSTEMS.
From Finland, the focus is precisely on increasing business and scientific interaction between both countries.
Jussi Manninen, Executive Vice President of Carbon Neutral Solutions at VTT, explained that the strategy aims to substantially increase collaboration. "The position of Finland and VTT concerning this platform is that, through it, we can substantially increase interaction between Chilean and Finnish companies, as well as between research institutes in both countries, with the aim of generating benefits for both Chile and Finland, particularly in terms of economic development and exports".
This new stage thus deepens a story that we have been following since the announcement of the Platform in August 2025, through its official launch in Helsinki and the definition, at the beginning of 2026, of its three main areas of collaboration: sustainable mining, forestry and wood industry, and smart territorial development.
The difference is that now the discussion is beginning to shift from institutional matters towards projects.
And it will be in the coming months when that promise begins to be measured in concrete initiatives, connected companies, transferred technologies and, eventually, new businesses built between Chile and Finland.