Virtual Campus Experience of Aalto University (external link)
Virtual Campus Experience 360 of Aalto University
Below you can find the timetable for funding decision meetings in 2023.
Project name (ID in Thinking Portfolio, see aalto.thinking1.com)
Funding granted and purpose (project phase)
Short description
Name of contact person
HOOK to MOOC (ID 523)
405 000 € was granted for implementation for year 2023 (phase G3).
The project showcases Aalto creativity through vibrant communications that hooks people and pulls them into a Radical Creativity MOOC.
Contact person: Riikka Mäkikoskela (LSS/Radical Creativity)
Services for Events and Conferences (ID 372)
148 000 € was granted for rollout (phase gate 4).
The project aims at standardizing the event and conference management by introducing unified processes; overview of events, invitations, visitors and feedback, better transparency in managing events financials, resources, partners and collaborators.
Contact person: Jessica Sinikoski (COS)
Talent boost - Pathway studies (ID 503)
330 000 € was returned (phase gate 3).
The purpose of the project is to support and ensure successful students recruitment as well as the students’ integration into the Finnish society and working life.
Contact person: Sanna Viitanen (LES)
Webpages platform and template for minisites (ID 487)
60 000 € was granted for implementation (phase gate 3).
The project aims at creating a solution for website building and hosting that allows users to use pre-built website templates and ready-made elements to create and modify webpages to projects without project costs.
Contact person: Juha Juvonen (ITS)
Sustainability action booster (ID 543)
227 000 € was granted for implementation for years 2023-2024 (phase gate 3).
The project develops tools, process and rapid-fire-fund for small and medium sustainability actions owned by students.
Contact person: Jussi Impiö, LSS/Solutions for Sustainability
Renewing the technical solution for course feedback (ID 540)
108 000 € was granted for implementation for years 2023-2024 (phase G3)
The purpose of the project is to advance learning-centricity by aligning feedback practices. The main goal is to replace the current technical solution with a SaaS system in order to cover the main features of the re-built process of Collecting and reporting course feedback.
Contact person: Sanna Pihlajaniemi
Student Dashboard / Academic Advising (ID 429)
15 000 € was granted for finalizing the project (phase G5)
The goal of the project is to
1) offer Salesforce Student Success Hub for LES and Academic Advisors
2) start building a daily portal – MyStudies – for students.
Contact person: Saara Maalismaa
Aalto Digital Experience (ID 443)
250 000 € was granted for roll-out (phase G4)
The goal of the project is to define what the Aalto Digital Experience should be and work with our community to build a commentable, scalable service of assets that if used, will ensure that a given digital service feels like Aalto and also fulfils technical accessibility requirements.
Contact person: Robert Salvén
Events and Forums for Radical Creativity (ID 541)
92 000 € was granted for impementation (phase G4)
The aim of the project is to speed up the renewal of operating methods, the utilization of new technologies, to develop innovations in working life, and to make Finnish working life the best in the world.
Contact person: Riikka Mäkikoskela
Below are listed all development funding decisions in 2022.
Leap (MyStudies, ID 429)
100 000 € of additional funding was granted for implementation (phase G3).
The purpose of the project is to support academic advising and study guidance by implementing a Salesforce Student Success Hub (SSH) as the first functionality that the student dashboard introduces.
Contact person: Saara Maalismaa, LES
Leap (Aalto Service platform) Student admissions, phase 1 (ID 430)
87 000 € of funding was granted for roll-out (phase G4)
The purpose of the project is to enhance user experience by having the relevant parts (e.g. academic assessment) of the admissions processes in both bachelor and master level admissions, and potentially doctoral level admissions, implemented in Aalto Service Platform.
Contact person: Leena Hauhio, LES
LWL Marketing (ID 524)
250 000 € was granted for planning (phase G2)
Focused brand building and marketing efforts in order to ensure we reach and attract new audiences, are able to build Aalto’s brand and impact in the society, grow our market share, develop an uniform customer experience, and create synergies with degree education.
Contact person: Jutta Kasslin, LES
HOOK to MOOC (ID 523)
13 000 € was grated for planning (phase G2).
The project showcases Aalto creativity through vibrant communications that hooks people and pulls them into a Radical Creativity MOOC.
Contact person: Riikka Mäkikoskela, LSS/Radical Creativity
CRM: Data Driven Process for Innovation, Research and Analytics (ID 513)
172 000 € was granted for implementation (phase G3).
The aim of the project is to complete research project partnership master data implementation with guidelines, integrations, data updates and process renewals, to establish CRM as core tool in this area and for innovation partnerships. In addition, advanced analytics is deployed.
Contact person: Ville Krannila, ADCO
CRM: Executive Education collaboration, Donor and Alumni Engagement (ID 514)
180 000 € was granted for implementation (phase G3).
The aim of the project is to integrate data for Aalto University and Aalto Executive Education partnership relations, elevate the donor program and increase incoming donations as well as expand the alumni federation, concept, process and implementation of alumni master data and related marketing and integration development. In addition, advanced analytics is deployed.
Contact person: Ville Krannila, ADCO
Cloud Services Productisation (ID 502)
55 000 € was granted for planning (phase G2)
The goal of the project is to productise, enhance, and develop Aalto cloud computing services to ensure compliance and security as well as to support research and teaching current and future needs.
Contact person: Hannes Päivänsalo, Minna Joensuu, ITS
Digital signing (ID 446)
48 000 € of additional funding was granted for implementation (phase G3)
The purpose of the project is to procure and take into use a service or services fulfilling 80%of digital signing needs for the whole Aalto staff.
Contact person: Titta Tuovinen, LSS
Device Lifecycle Management (ID 402)
100 000 € was granted for implementation (phase G3)
The objective of the project is to plan and implement a new lifecycle process enabling Aalto to meet the legal and sustainability requirements, Aalto policies and ITS goals for operational excellence that relate to the management of IT assets, including workstation, phone, and tablet.
Contact person: Hannes Päivänsalo, Timo Niemi, ITS
Aalto Service Platform Development (ID 431)
250 000 € of additional funding was granted for implementation (phase G3)
Salesforce partner's support for further platform's capability development, project management & governance.
Contact person: Matti Kuha, ITS
Library system renewal (ID 276)
30 000 € of additional funding was granted for closing the project (phase gate 5).
The purpose of the project was to replace an outdated library system with a state-of-the-art SaaS software which can handle all materials and services of a modern library.
Contact person: Matti Raatikainen, LES
MEC Global Programme pilot EDUCase Platform / Global South (ID 491)
1 186 000 € was granted for implementation (phase gate 3).
The purpose of the project is to deliver globally leading education, entrepreneurial skills and research related to grand challenges. The project is funded by MEC.
Contact person: Riina Subra, LSS
Backup solution for Aalto Service Platform (ID 531)
10 000 € was granted for pre-study (phase gate 1).
The purpose of the project is to acquire a service for backing up Aalto Salesforce and possibly other cloud services used by Aalto University.
Contact person: Matti Kuha, ITS
Student communications development (ID 519)
250 000 € was granted for planning (phase gate 2).
The purpose of the project is to construct and migrate My Studies student webpage content to Aalto.fi and develop student communication guidelines and quality in changing digital environment.
Contact person: Meri Karjalainen, LES
Talent Boost - International talent (ID 534)
139 000 € was granted for planning (phase gate 2).
The purpose of the project is to strengthen the connections of international students to working life in order to enhance their preconditions for employment in Finland.
Contact person: Elisa Kouvonen, ADCO
Talent boost - Pathway studies (ID 503)
602 000 € was granted for planning (phase gate 2).
The purpose of the project is to support and ensure successful students recruitment as well as the students’ integration into the Finnish society and working life.
Contact person: Sanna Viitanen, LES
Partner compliance and ethics (ID 530)
91 000 € was granted for planning (phase gate 2).
Note! This decision replaced with new decision made in September 2022.
The purpose of the project is to create a coherent policy and procedure on compliance and the ethical analysis of partnerships, supporting the sustainable development of partnerships across Aalto at all levels.
Contact person: Teppo Heiskanen, ADCO
Space utilization rate data pilot (ID 427)
40 000 € was granted for implementation (phase gate 3).
The purpose of the project is to to gather utilization rate data for piloting the opportunities in the campus decision-making and development activities. The results of the pilot provide essential information and experiences for the potential scaling phase in the future, which will be planned and executed as a separate project according to the results of the pilot project.
Contact person: Antti Säynäjoki, ACRE
Talent Boost / Kielibuusti (ID 522)
1777 k€ was granted for implementation (phase gate 3).
The Talent Boost (Kielibuusti) project was initialised by MEC in order to create a national network of Finnish/Swedish language teaching and counselling and a nationwide platform where international talents can find all relevant language learning-related counselling and study contents in one place. Aalto University has special responsibility for sub-project 1 with focus on the creation of a national collaboration model and platform.
Contact persons: Kaisa Oikarinen, Sanna Viitanen (LES)
RC Creativity MOOC (ID 525)
186 k€ was granted for implementation (phase gate 3).
The Creativity Online Course facilitates collaboration, experimental culture and radically new thinking inside and outside Aalto and strengthens Aalto's offerings on life-wide learning.
Contact person: Riikka Mäkikoskela (LSS)
Sustainability Science Days (ID 527)
90 k€ was granted for planning (phase gate 2, update).
The goal of the project is to grow SSD to become a globally recognized, transdisciplinary event for sustainability sciences. The ultimate goal is to make the event financially independent through partnerships by 2025.
Contact person: Jussi Impiö (LSS)
Impact Communication (ID 529)
355 k€ was granted for implementation (phase gate 3).
The goal of the project is to create a strategy, action plan and related practices for Aalto’s impact communication in order to communicate actively about collaboration with our partners, our diverse start-up activities and student-led entrepreneurial community as well as our radically creative, multidisciplinary research ecosystem.
Contact person: Annika Linna (ADCO)
HR Service development (ID 533)
40 k€ was granted for planning (phase gate 2).
The HR Service development project (“HR2023”) aims at more user centric and efficient HR services by re-organization and automation of routine activities and releasing more work time to value-adding activities and support.
Contact person: Ulla Martola (HRS)
Subscriptions and notifications (ID 532)
30 k€ was granted for planning (phase gate 2).
The main goal of the project is to re-model and develop current newsletter software taking into account needs for segmentation, master data and marketing automation, utilizing areas of interest to reach the right audiences.
Contact person: Ville Krannila (ADCO), Robert Salvén (COS)
Finance backbone renewal (ID 445)
3756 k€ was granted for implementation (phase gate 3).
The project aims at replacing current backbone systems with a modern ERP system (SaaS) and re-engineering of main financial processes – enabling the improving of services, more accurate data, and work time savings both in academia and services.
Contact person: Marc Habets (FIS)
Aalto Project List deployment to Salesforce (ID 536)
30 k€ was granted for pre-study (phase gate 1).
APL is a Platform for managing externally funded research project proposals and projects throughout project life-cycle. The project aims at creating a service solution for research proposal and project management as the current APL support is ending.
Contact person: Riikka Railio (ITS)
Services for Events and Conferences (ID 372)
264 k€ was granted for finalizing the implementation (phase gate 3, update).
The project aims at standardizing the event and conference management by introducing unified processes; overview of events, invitations, visitors and feedback, better transparency in managing events financials, resources, partners and collaborators.
Contact person: Jessica Sinikoski (COS)
Hook to MOOC, phase 1 (ID 523)
271 k€ was granted for the implementation (phase gate 3).
Hook to MOOC - the Radical Creativity showcase promotes the leader role of Aalto University as driver of creativity and innovation through high-quality and high-visibility communications combining documentary and reportage with an engaging MOOC.
Contact person: Riikka Mäkikoskela (LSS)
Student communications development (ID 519)
184 k€ was granted for the implementation (phase gate 3).
The aim of the project is to improve student experience by migrating student webpage content to Aalto.fi and by developing its content and usability. In addition, guidelines will be elaborated regarding the various platforms as well as what will be communicated to students on which platform.
Contact person: Saara Maalismaa (LES)
Process re-building (ID 401)
60 k€ was granted for finalizing the implementation (phase gate 3, update).
The project aims at 1) harmonizing, standardizing, describing and implementing customer journeys, processes and ways of working in LES, 2) establishing practices and set of tools for continuous improvement of processes and 3) enhancing Aalto level change management capabilities.
Contact person: Eija Zitting (LES)
Service platform - legacy rampdown (ID 428)
22 k€ was granted for finalizing roll-out (phase gate 4).
The goal of the project is to migrate teaching and learning related processes from legacy systems (most urgently eAge and its instances, also Nintex when applicable) to Aalto Service Platform.
Contact person: Eija Zitting (LES)
Joint physical and online service points / Shared Online Services (ID 538)
10k€ was granted for pre-study (phase gate 1).
The project aims at improving services’ findability and offering help in any service-related question by solving the problem immediately or helping finding the right path for the solution. In addition, the project outcomes may include cross-service coordination mechanisms, competence development, resourcing, and service quality measures.
Contact person: Mirella Lähteenmäki (LSS)
Aalto Service Platform -Thesis Management & MyStudies (ID 535)
50 k€ was granted for planning for year 2022 (phase gate 2).
In the project, end-to-end thesis processes in bachelor, master and doctoral level are harmonized and implemented in Aalto Service Platform. User experience will be enhanced with better visibility into the process. Staff and faculty will be able to manage the thesis process easier than before, and also provide support and guidance for students in their thesis process.
Contact person: Paula Koivukangas (LES)
Talent Boost - International talent (ID 534)
21 k€ was granted for implementation (phase gate 3).
Aalto University has committed to the Talent Boost service promise to strengthen connections of international students to working life in order to enhance their preconditions for employment in Finland. Due to the growing number of international students, the university needs more resources to provide study and career services. The goals of the project include e.g. supporting degree programmes in providing international students with opportunities to get to know the Finnish working life and strengthening university – employer networks and promoting employers’ commitment to recruit international students.
Contact person: Elisa Kouvonen (ADCO)
Partner compliance and ethics, update (ID 530)
60 k€ was granted for planning for year 2022 (phase gate 2). The decision replaces the previous G2 decision.
The purpose of the project is to create a coherent policy and procedure on compliance and the ethical analysis of partnerships, supporting the sustainable development of partnerships across Aalto at all levels.
Contact person: Teppo Heiskanen (ADCO)
Cloud Services Productisation (ID 502)
132 k€ was granted for implementation for year 2022 (phase gate 3).
The goal of the project is to productise, enhance, and develop Aalto cloud computing services to ensure compliance and security as well as to support research and teaching current and future needs.
Contact person: Hannes Päivänsalo (ITS)
Leap (Aalto Service Platform) / Admissions, phase 2 (ID 501)
170k€ was granted for implememtation for year 2023-24 (phase gate 3).
The purpose of the project is to continue the Admissions 2 project with necessary improvements to enhance the user experience, reduce the amount of manual labour, and secure the processing and evaluation of applications on all degree levels. The project follows the confirmed LES roadmap in implementing new processes on the platform.
Contact persons: Leena Hauhio, Eva Oesch (LES)
Joint physical and online service points, update (ID 538)
55k€ was granted for the pre-study phase for year 2022 (phase gate 1).
The goal of the project is to improve services’ findability and to offer help in any service-related question by solving the problem immediately or helping finding the right path for the solution.
Contact persons: Satu Ekdahl (ITS), Mirella Lähteenmäki, (LSS)
Aalto Service Platform –Development, update (ID 431)
34k€ was granted for implememtation for year 2022 (phase gate 3).
All Service platform projects will benefit from the platform and growing own competence and ongoing licensing costs will be utilized more efficiently.
Contact person: Petri Huhtahiiri (ITS)
Aalto Service Platform - Thesis Management & MyStudies (ID 535)
677k€ was granted for implementation for years 2023-24 (phase gate 3).
The aim of the project is to harmonize and implement end-to-end thesis processes in bachelor, master and doctoral level in Aalto Service Platform. User experience will be enhanced with better visibility into the process. Staff and faculty will be able to manage the thesis process easier than before, and also provide support and guidance for students in their thesis process.
Contact person: Paula Koivukangas (LES)
Aalto Project List deployment to Salesforce (ID 536)
60k€ was granted for planning for year 2022 (phase gate 2).
The goal at this stage is to create an implementation plan for external funding management processes in Salesforce platform.
Contact person: Riikka Raitio (RES)
Aalto University has reserved 16,7 M€ annually for strategic development for years 2021-2024. In 2021, 12 M€ was granted leaving 4,7 M€ for coming years. The funding is allocated to development projects mainly based on recommendations made by Research, Learning, Impact and Enablers Steering Groups. After the funding approval recommendation, the President and CFO grant funding for the project. Funding decisions are made on monthly basis and published at aalto.fi. All decisions are searchable also from SAHA (electronic document and records management system).
Virtual Campus Experience 360 of Aalto University
Steering groups for planning, decision-making and guidance of Aalto’s joint activities