Finland is a relatively small country, but it has ambitious goals when it comes to the Metaverse: Finland was the first country in Europe to develop its own Metaverse strategy, and all players in the strong local ecosystem have worked on it. By 2035, Finland wants to become a global Metaverse pioneer and help shape a Metaverse that is better than leaving things to the big tech companies alone.

Our guest in this episode is Santeri Saarinen from Finland, where he’s working as the R&D Lead and Technology Specialist at Helsinki XR Center and Metropolia University of Applied Science. He has been deeply involved in creating the development of the Finish Metaverse strategy and initiative. He shares insights into the Finnish XR scene and explains how all the different players intend to achieve the ambitious goals of the Metaverse strategy in the coming years and what role international cooperation should play in this.

You can learn more about the Finnish Metaverse initiative here. Or jump directly to the full text version of the Metaverse strategy here.

Santeri Saarinen, M.Phil. in Interactive Technology, is R&D Lead and Technology Specialist at Helsinki XR Center and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. Helsinki XR Center if the leading XR developer hub in Europe operated on public funding. They support early-stage startup teams, conduct research and development activities and support Finnish and European ecosystem around Metaverse, XR and other new technologies. Before joining HXRC, Santeri worked as a researcher at Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction at University of Tampere. Santeri has more than 13 years of experience with technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, speech and gesture interaction, mobile technologies and game engines. His latest research projects have centered around educational VR software for healthcare, green energy, public performances and industrial training. Santeri is on the Board of Directors for XR4Europe association, part of the advisory board for Finnish National Metaverse Strategy and founding member of EU Commission’s VR/AR Industrial Coalition. He also frequently acts as a keynote speaker on XR, metaverse and other related topics.