Without alternative views on the future, there will be no actions, only reactions. With us, you won’t miss the radical forces that shape the future.

For over 15 years, Demos Helsinki has helped governments, businesses, cities, NGOs, and universities to grasp and to build desirable futures. The experience we have gained makes us believe in co-creation, foresight, and research. 

Together with the most affirmative changemakers of our time, we want to stay at the forefront of significant transformations. The world needs organizations that solve the right problems and find the most promising answers – let’s find yours, together.

Projects/examples of our work

• A significant strategic research project “Naked Approach” created an alternative, human-driven approaches to the digitalizing society
• We conducted an evaluation study of Finland’s sustainable development policy to reach the UN’s Goals by 2030 
• We proposed a new economic paradigm for the EU, a shift towards the Economy of Wellbeing
• We created scenarios of the future of work with a group of pioneers of the Finnish working life

We help organizations to navigate outside the traditional boundaries and renegotiate their societal role in the changing world.

Technological disruptions, climate change, and the distrust in traditional institutions have rapidly changed the operating environment of any organization. All sectors will undergo a major change within the next decade, and our societies must be able to become decarbonized. Our approach helps you to create bold visions and to launch future-proof strategies. 

Projects/examples of our work

• We partnered with the world’s fourth-largest public transport provider, RATP, who wanted to find new roles in the mobility transformation
• We helped the International Federation of Red Cross to structure a global strategy that could help their stakeholders to consider current challenges in the Humanitarian sector
• In an ongoing partnership with Ylva, we focus on supporting their “corporate activist” mission
• We helped the University of Arts to create a strategy for the next ten years in an extensively participatory process

Building communities of change, enhancing co-creation across sectors, and developing innovative ways for working in these environments are at the core of Demos Helsinki.

The world changes when people and organizations come together. We have vast experience in assembling different kinds of stakeholders to share resources, combine capabilities, and commit to joint action. Every organization should be at its best when creating shared value. Real impact can only take place when we build partnerships across sectors, and a group diverse enough becomes part of the change. 

Projects/examples of our work

• We joined forces with Google.org, Nesta, and SAK to set up a training program for workers whose jobs are changing as a result of automation or digitalization
• We are co-founders of the COMMITTED community, focusing on the most intriguing themes of energy transition together with Fortum, St1, Tieto, and Wärtsilä

It’s time to embrace iterative planning, turn failures into learnings, and explore the unobvious. We help you to turn experiments into tangible solutions.

Many governments and corporations have shifted away from old mindsets and moved towards ‘experimental governance’ to adapt to the ongoing radical changes. Experimentation not only helps in finding out what works and what does not: when done right, it can improve participation, increase trust, and accelerate learning and innovation throughout the organization. 

Projects/ examples of our work

• We designed tailor-made sustainability criteria for MyHelsinki’s Think Sustainably service which helps everyone in the city to reduce the carbon footprint in their everyday actions
• In collaboration with the UNDP, we support the work and experimentations of the first governmental Innovation Lab of Bahrain
• For the Finnish Ministry of Finance, we have defined the preconditions for transforming the national governance system to the digital era