Terttu Collaboration Platform supports business growth from the start
The Terttu collaboration platform, developed by Health Campus Turku, has been built as an early-stage tool for companies, research groups or other potential collaborators in need of support and testing of scientific research to start collaborating with higher education institutions in the Turku region.
The Terttu service has been built up over several years and the first results speak for themselves. An excellent example of a research path from start to success is the example of KorpiForrest, a start-up from Turku. KorpiForrest, which provides wellbeing services to companies and their staff, was first contacted in 2020 via the Health Campus Turku website, hoping to collaborate with the scientific validation of its product.
A common dilemma with health products and services is a valid doubt about the scientific nature of the goods they produce. KorpiForrest’s founder, Mikko Pohjola, understood this problem from the very beginning and started a process that has resulted in a scientific publication on the functionality of KorpiForrest’s products and strong scientific evidence of the functionality of the service.
“The effect of virtual breaks on recovery from cognitive load – A study on the effects of the KorpiForRest break experience” was carried out in collaboration between Turku University of Applied Sciences, the University of Turku and KorpiForrest, and started with a contact via the Terttu collaboration platform.
Elina Kontio, Senior Lecturer at Turku University of Applied Sciences, who led the scientific validation, describes the process: “We started by assessing the feasibility of the project, and in the case of KorpiForrest it was clear that technical validation and usability studies were needed, which would require legal expertise.”
The required legal contracts were drafted by Tero Vahanne, a project engineer from Turku University of Applied Sciences, who led the process of defining everything from research ethics to data management. For the research, agreements also had to be drawn up on data ownership and the process had to be designed from the perspectives required by the European Union’s GDPR regulation. The data management plan was made using the DMPTuuli tool for data management. For the ethical foresight, plans were made for metadata and data storage and release.
After the ownership and legal issues were clarified, a division of roles was defined. At the same time, KorpiForrest brought in a partner from another university: ‘KorpiForrest felt it needed the expertise of the Department of Psychology at the University of Turku as part of the scientific validation, and that’s when Associate Professor Mika Koivisto came on board. Koivisto played a key role in the design of the study and his expertise was at the heart of it.” Kontio says.
The research plan led to the application for a research permit from the Ethics Committee and the implementation of the GDRP’s provisions. Jaani Kuusela, Data Protection Officer at Turku University of Applied Sciences, was a key player in defining the role of the registry keeper and in this phase.
Kontio describes the next stage. “Collecting the data and recruiting the test subjects was no trivial matter. Of course, the recruitment involved students from the polytechnic and the data collection was done as student work integrated as part of the teaching.”
The role of the recruited students was to familiarise themselves with the hardware, code tasks for the test situation, collect reference video, test the test systems, test volunteers and at the same time gain practical knowledge of test situations.
Turku University of Applied Sciences has invested heavily in research infrastructure and this was now put to good use with the Health Tech Lab’s high-tech facilities serving as a tool for the research work. The student-led research allowed students to do cutting-edge research with cutting-edge equipment. There has definitely been a return on the investment made.
KorpiForrest was allowed to keep the research data for itself, but as part of the collaboration, Health Tech Lab was allowed to keep the results anonymous. Plans are already underway to use the data for further research.
The beneficiaries of the process have been the Turku University of Applied Sciences and its students, the Department of Psychology of the University of Turku and of course KorpiForrest, whose service has now been scientifically validated. The study written on the results will be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Kontio concludes. “We have the capability to help companies with product development, both in terms of organisation and equipment.” The slogan of the research team led by Elina Konttio is: “We are an active expert partner in the product development of wellness technology.”