Project details

RDI & Teaching environment for next-generation medical devices, softwares and services – open science-based health data for regional growth

Investment and development project

Summary: This project aims to implement an open science based RDI environment (SmartSleep Lab) that fulfills national and international quality and safety requirements and is suitable for measuring sleep quality, various physiological signals, and vigilance under standardized conditions. SmartSleep Lab will be employed for the development, testing, and validation of various healthcare technologies in conformity with medical device standards and medical approval processes as well as employed for academic-level education. The project aims to enhance collaboration between local health-themed projects, organizations (Savonia, VTT, KUH, UEF), and companies in the Kuopio area and is strongly linked to the Kuopio Health innovation ecosystem and Kuopio Living Lab concept.

In the investment part of the project, sleep laboratory and medical equipment testing facility, meeting national and international safety and quality standards (SFS-EN ISO 17025:2017, SFS-EN ISO 17011:2017), will be built in Canthia (Kuopio campus, UEF). The laboratory will be merged into permanent operations of the Department of Applied Physics, UEF. In the development project we will build a service concept for business partners, consolidate the activities of SmartSleep Lab into local health-tech testing protocols, accreditate, and certify the operating models, quality, and safety of the laboratory, and finally, conduct pilot measurement series to verify SmartSleep Lab’s efficiency in authentic testing schemes.

This project aims at the sustainable development of the local economy, the development of new products and services, and the promotion of well-being following the highest ethical standards and respecting human rights and equality in all aspects of the work. These aims will be achieved by setting up superior-quality laboratory.

The nationally unique SmartSleep Lab strengthens the health technology competence ecosystem at the Savilahti campus and enables local commercial actors to test new health-tech solutions in an authentic laboratory environment corresponding to a clinical environment. The service concepts and regional test chains developed during the project will be rooted in permanent operations, and after the project, SmartSleep Lab will continue to operate as a certified and accredited service provider. The project thus significantly strengthens the regional special expertise of the Pohjois-Savo and contributes to the RDI activities of companies in the region. The lab will be strongly RDI-focused, enabling bold openings and new development ideas.

Project period: 1.8.2021 – 31.8.2023

Funding: Regional Council of Pohjois-Savo (REACT-EU programme)