Data-Driven Innovation lead announced

Jarmo Eskelinen has been named as Director of the Data-Driven Innovation (DDI) initiative, a key part of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal.

Jarmo joins the DDI initiative from Future Cities Catapult in London. As Chief Innovation and Technology Officer, he led Catapult’s research and innovation strategy and academic collaboration. He brought together businesses, universities and city leaders to tackle the problems that cities face.

Before joining Catapult, Jarmo was the CEO of Forum Virium Helsinki, the innovation lab of the City of Helsinki, Finland. He is one of Europe’s Living Lab pioneers, promoting user-driven innovation and developing real-life testbeds for services.

Welcoming his new role, Jarmo Eskelinen said:

“Data is the new soil, and collaboration the seeds. The Data-Driven Innovation initiative is unique in its ambition and scale. It’s been designed to reach out to the whole City Region, so we can develop and test new services to meet the needs of our citizens.

“I am extremely honoured to join the programme team and have the chance to collaborate with and learn from the world-leading experts of the two Universities. I look forward to helping a diverse range of organisations benefit from the fast-developing field of data-driven innovation.”

Jarmo has been executive director of the Media Centre Lume of the Aalto University and programme director of the Helsinki 2000 European Capital of Culture. He is vice-chair of the international Open & Agile Smart Cities network, member of the Smart London Board, board member Open Knowledge International and former president of the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL).