In a world of temporary alliances and short-term innovation programs, a different kind of project is taking shape one that's designed to evolve and expand not over months or years, but over decades.
The recently launched binational innovation platform between Chile and Finland aims to become a living, adaptive framework for deep collaboration in science, technology, and sustainable development.
At the center of it is Andro Lindsay, a Chilean business development executive at Finland’s leading research and innovation institute, VTT, and the original ideator of this cross-continental alliance.
"The vision, the philosophy is not five years, is not 10 years, it’s decades, okay. So the idea this will be a platform that stays there and it’s just... it’s a living animal that need to be evolving with the ecosystems with both."
Andro Lindsay, business development VTT
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The Genesis: From Concept to Connection
It all started nearly three years ago when the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs began asking VTT to take on a more globally impactful role. That led to internal discussions about systemic collaboration; not just "being present," but driving transformation. Lindsay was part of that conversation.
"One of the ministries in Finland actually was asking VTT for like a much stronger role in a global scale... like making like an impact global, understanding that VTT is working like everywhere in the world and having presence everywhere... but the idea to make an impact, of course, is aiming to much more than that."
In those early conversations, a 3+3 cooperation model (state-to-state, private-to-private, and R&D-to-R&D); used previously between Germany and Indonesia, came up. But Lindsay had a different geography in mind.
"And then of course there was my Finnish and Chilean bias, ha ha, saying okay... the main problem actually that we have on the planet is... well, we are facing systemic challenges. One of the main, the biggest systemic challenge we are facing is energy transition, right? The problem we have is that the more sustainable we become in the northern hemisphere, the more unsustainable we become in the southern."
Andro Lindsay, on the origins of the binational platform idea.
And so the idea was born: a binational innovation platform between Chile and Finland, focused initially on mining and natural resources — but with the flexibility to evolve.
"It’s my Chilean bias here. I say okay. Chile... biggest producer of copper in the world and lithium and so on. So... it could be actually great if we could apply like a systemic, binational kind of framework where we can actually match two countries around this. And then actually that, well... can we build it? Well, of course we can, right?"
From Wild Idea to Formal Alliance
Lindsay reached out to Chilean collaborators — including Leopoldo Reyes and Hernán Araneda — and began testing the concept in local stakeholder meetings. He then connected with José Miguel Benavente at CORFO, who instantly resonated with the idea.
"He’s great, like-minded person... he saw the potential of this and we say again yeah, make total sense to build this around both countries."
They organized a week-long mission in Finland with Benavente attending intensive meetings alongside Finnish counterparts.
"He’s a machine. I mean, I put like nine technical meetings in a row every day, he was digesting everything. It was a really good week."
By September 2023, a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed at the Finnish Embassy in Santiago, with Chile’s Fundación Chile later appointed as the local executor of the platform.
Not Just Mining, Not Just Finland and Chile
While the initiative began in the mining sector, it quickly broadened into a multi-vertical opportunity.
"We realized that, why to actually just focus on mining and not to all these strategic verticals. We have all these strategic verticals in Finland. In Chile there are a strategy for the development of the country, and beautifully, it happened to be the same."
Andro Linday in an exclusive chat with Entreprenerd
From raw materials and hydrogen to forestry and regional development, both nations had complementary strengths and common goals. The platform structure reflects that scalability.
"The idea is not to create like an isolated chapter of a topic that then will end to nothing... and then take like something totally unrelated to that. The idea is to have Chapter 1... that it will grow into Chapter 2... the Chapter 2 of course, we are aiming to be with more private sector and fundable, so we create a bigger Chapter 3 and so on... So it’s like a roadmap of initiatives."
Funding the Snowball
To get things started, CORFO committed USD $20 million in seed funding — a first-of-its-kind commitment for a bilateral partnership. But Lindsay is clear: this isn’t the end goal; it’s the trigger mechanism.
"This is just the seed funding... I always like explain as a snowball that we create that start rolling... and as getting momentum, start getting... more speed and bigger and start growing and growing and growing."
Funding is not the bottleneck, he adds; the challenge lies in matching funding instruments between the two nations.
"The money is available... Business Finland has a lot of money, Corfo has a lot of money... the problem is that the funding tools were different. So just the mechanism, right?"
This is also a historic first for CORFO.
"It’s the first time in history that actually Corfo is allocating this amount of money tailor made for just one country... So it’s not like a global competition... this is a joint venture alliance that has been built from the scratch between the two countries."
Historical facts related to the Binational Platform, in the words of Andro Lindsay
Built to Expand, Not to Close
While Chile and Finland are the core actors, the platform is designed to stay open. It can bring in third-party countries, institutions, or companies if they fill a specific innovation need.
"It doesn’t mean that everything will come from Finland and Chile... hopefully the most of the solutions come from or are created by... but if we need some particular technology solution, stakeholder, player that actually is filling a gap in a value chain in a particular ecosystem... welcome to join."
And while the seed funding instrument has a five-year evaluation period, the vision; as Lindsay puts it: has no expiration date.
"That particular funding tool has a lifespan of evaluation like return of investment, if you want to see that way, for five years. But the platform as itself... the philosophy of the vision... is aiming to actually last decades... decades."
Andro Lindsay on the funding tools related to the binational platform.
Internally, they’ve started referring to it as Platform 2050 — a name that may change, but not the intent.
The Next Chapter Starts Now
The next phase is clear: activate the ecosystem with demand-driven initiatives from both countries. Lindsay believes the ingredients are already in place — it’s now about execution.
"We have the topics, we have the traction, we just need to actually start working on that."
What sets this effort apart isn’t just its diplomatic innovation or public-private structure. It’s the fact that it was built with longevity in mind; and designed not as a one-off project, but a scalable, evolving binational platform.
"The idea is to have Chapter 1... that it will grow into Chapter 2... the Chapter 2 of course, we are aiming to be with more private sector and fundable, so we create a bigger Chapter 3 and so on... So it’s like a roadmap of initiatives."
Andro Lindsay’s vision for the present and future of the binational platform.
