Terttu collaboration opened up a whole new horizon for our startup
KorpiForrest, a Turku-based startup offering recovery and relaxation services for work communities, helps IT workers to achieve better mental wellbeing. Mikko Pohjola, one of the company’s co-founders, explains how collaboration through Health Campus Turku’s Terttu service has given the company a whole new set of opportunities in the highly competitive field of wellbeing technology.
“It all starts from the need of IT workers to better manage cognitive load and teach communities a culture of recovery,” Pohjola describes KorpiForrest’s starting point. The starting point was a Finnish self-evident truth: nature has proven wellbeing effects. Research has shown that stress levels decrease better than in a rectangular environment.
“It’s not always possible to bring forests into city centres, so the idea was to produce the next best thing to nature.” Pohjola says “We started with a small one-person office cubicle, which became Forest Hour – a virtual nature experience for micro-breaks.”
From this, plans have now progressed to a more developed physical product, app and service solution. The company’s ethos is that caring for wellbeing is a holistic approach, where small improvements are not enough.
Terttu service helps with validation
KorpiForrest started working with the Health Tech Lab of Turku University of Applied Sciences by approaching them through the Terttu collaboration service. Terttu acts as a portal through which companies, research groups, universities and, in fact, anyone who needs scientific services can get in touch. Health Campus Turku analyses needs and matches them with research groups and research infrastructure of the universities.
The Health Tech Lab is part of Turku University of Applied Sciences’ own research and development infrastructure and its ICT competence area. Located on the Kupittaa campus, the lab provides a state-of-the-art framework for all kinds of health technology testing.
“From the beginning, we had the hope that we could use scientific testing to make sure that this application of ours is really effective – does it work the way we think it will?” Pohjola explains. “It was really nice to be able to work with Health Tech Lab in a lab setting to test our idea. And now that the study is complete and the results analyzed, we have scientific support for this concept.”
KorpiForrest collaborated with both the Turku University of Applied Sciences and the Department of Psychology at the University of Turku. Right from the start, the collaboration helped to solve a major stumbling block. “Health Tech Lab designed the experimental setup for us in collaboration with Mika Koivisto, associate professor at the University of Turku. The lab also provided us with vital support in implementing the measures required by data protection and the European General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR.”
A more credible product as a result of the research
Perhaps the most important support, however, came from the ethical design of the test setup. Through collaboration, the study was submitted to the Research Ethics Committee of the Turku University of Applied Sciences. Without prior ethical review, publishing the research data would have been a challenge.
“I have a background as a researcher and I know how important it is to be scientifically credible in the wellness market.” Pohjola says.
Most wellbeing technology is science-based, but the scientific basis is usually based on general research. Now KorpiForrest’s product has been proven to work scientifically and has a significant advantage in the market in terms of credibility and quality.
“With this setup it’s good to start thinking about world conquest, although over the years there have been some feet on the ground – but we are a growth company in this business. Our product has already been very well received in Finland and we are now looking to the world’s major cities.”
Pohjola has nothing but good things to say about the cooperation, “The psychologist was really good to work with, he had the right research profile and was an expert in different research methods. He gave us a scientific backbone.”
KorpiForrest works in the SparkUp business incubator run by Turku Business Region. Going forward, KorpiForrest has not only the legal side, but also the cooperation networks in place should the need arise for further product development. With the rise of Covid, going natural has become a global megatrend and KorpiForrest is aiming to ride this wave with a second-best, but proven alternative.