Team Finland USA is organizing a business delegation visit to the State of Colorado on February 15-17, 2022. The visit is led by Mr. Mikko Hautala, Ambassador of Finland to the United States.
Finland and Colorado are building a stronger partnership in the sectors of quantum, space and the green economy. Colorado leads the growth in advanced, strategic industries such as space, aerospace, defense, quantum, energy, advanced manufacturing, bioscience, and health & wellness. Employment in each of Colorado's strategic industries grew faster than at the US national level, by up to 25 percentage points.
Due to its unique geographical location in the middle of the country, and the camouflaging effect of the Rocky Mountains, Colorado is home to many national labs that are sensitive to national security. These include National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Argonne National Laboratory, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
Colorado is also home to Fortune 500 companies such as Lockheed Martin, Keysight Technologies, Raytheon, Boeing, Honeywell, and Ball Aerospace. Other fast-growing companies such as Palantir, MapQuest, Avaya, and Level3 have made Colorado home. The startup ecosystem adjacent to University of Colorado in Boulder is mushrooming quantum companies such as Quantinuum (former Honeywell and Cambridge Quantum Computing), Atom Computing, ColdQuanta, Keysight Technologies and Vescent.
Further, Colorado is taking ambitious steps in climate leadership. The state is in the US top ten on both wind and solar energy. Colorado is developing solutions for cleaner transportation such as EV batteries and hydrogen. The state is also interested in developing carbon capture technologies and is emphasizing climate resiliency efforts such as wildfire, drought mitigation and management.
The delegation visit will kick-start new long-term collaboration in meetings with the Governor of Colorado, local businesses, federal research institutions and Colorado's top tier universities.
Who should attend?
This onsite visit is aimed for Finnish companies that are already present in the US, and representatives of the Finnish research and innovation sector, who are interested in pursuing business opportunities and research collaboration within the thematic areas of quantum, space and green economy. The planned collaboration derives also from the mutual commitments of Finland and Colorado to climate resiliency and climate leadership. We also welcome Finnish companies traveling from Finland to the US and from other sectors that are pursuing business opportunities in the US.
We are closely following the Covid-19 travel restrictions and upcoming changes related to them. The visit may be postponed if restrictions are tightened in the US. Kindly note that all delegates are required to have proof of two vaccinations to be able to take part in the visit program.
The delegation program in Colorado will consist of visits to national labs, meetings with industry associations and individual US businesses as well as networking with universities and Colorado State leadership.
Participation fee
To cover the expenses of arranging the visit, Business Finland will charge a participation fee.
- Micro Businesses and SMEs: 1275 EUR + 24% VAT per person
- Major Companies: 1500 EUR + 24% VAT per person
Business Finland will invoice the participation fee after the visit based on the actual costs. The invoiced fee will not exceed the amounts mentioned above. Kindly not that the participation fee does not include flights or accommodation of the participant nor meals outside the business delegation program.
