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Our latest updates, thoughts, and events — as they roll out.
Calling all urbanists! Flow Festival and Demos Helsinki proudly present: Flow Talks: Urban Life – an inspiring Friday afternoon free to all Flow Festival Friday ticket holders. Join us for mind-expanding discussions, insightful co-creation and electrifying talks with a set of international urban influencers. We promise you will never look at…
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The world’s largest climate innovation contest ClimateLaunchpad culminates at the national level in Microsoft Flux (Korkeavuorenkatu 35, Helsinki) 15.6. at 16:30, when 9 Finnish finalists will pitch their concepts. Sign up for the event here to hear ideas ranging from renewable-energy based solutions to clothes rental services. ClimateLaunchpad aims to…
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More than 70% of global emissions come from cities. This has not stopped the urbanisation rate from growing: every 30 minutes, 540 families migrate into cities around the world. Smart City Expo Casablanca brought together experts from three continents to share thoughts on the role of smart cities in mitigating global climate emissions….
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Drawing on almost five years of Cities Mission implementation, Demos Helsinki and its partners from Dark Matter Labs and the Mission Board argue that mission governance has reached policy readiness. Its mechanisms have been tested, its governance infrastructure is in place, and it offers a transferable model for delivering on EU strategic priorities at scale.
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Finland managed the Covid-19 pandemic comparatively well. Yet the longer the crisis lasted, the more visible the limits of the governance system became. This brief examines what a prolonged crisis revealed about institutional strength, societal vulnerabilities, and the kind of governance future crises demand.
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Decades of low growth in Finland may be a symptom of a weakened capacity for renewal inside organisations, including the country’s top businesses. In this report, we explore the role that Finnish companies play in the current growth environment and document what business leaders think should be done next. We conclude with key recommendations for boards and executive teams to create the conditions for a renewed purpose in business, one that fits the current Finnish context and reveals underused capacity for renewal.
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Governing with cities: Europe’s overlooked governance infrastructure
July 21, 2026
The Cities Mission functioned as a natural experiment that revealed an overlooked property of European governance: cities do not merely implement policy more effectively; they generate governing capacity and governance knowledge that Europe should intentionally incorporate into policy design through a revised multilevel governance architecture.
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The next MFF should institutionalise what mission governance has proven
July 21, 2026
The challenge for the next MFF is not to invent a new governance model, but to organise European decision-making around the governing capacity that already exists.
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Governments can steer with wellbeing at the core (but nobody said it was easy)
April 28, 2026
Governments keep promising change and then hitting the same walls with the old machinery. Reorienting governance around human wellbeing is both urgent and possible, and the work continues even when the political climate turns.
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