Nokian Tyres has announced it’s taking a leading role in the development of FUTUREPROOF research and innovation (RDI) programme. Through a €70 million initiative co-funded by Business Finland, with the aim of tackling the critical challenges of future mobility.
The five-year programme intends to create a robust ecosystem involving over 100 partners, focusing on enhancing European on- and off-road mobility through cross-industry collaboration.
The Futureproof programme is being driven by four main objectives: Digital Foundation: Laying the groundwork for digital transformation, Advanced Manufacturing: Developing state-of-the-art manufacturing processes. Future Mobility and Business: Driving innovation in mobility and exploring new business opportunities and Sustainable Tyre Lifecycle: Improving the sustainability of tyre production and usage.
Each objective will address issues such as improving safety and sustainability in transportation, reducing emissions, advancing driving technologies, and accelerating Industry 5.0 adoption. The collaborative development with ecosystem partners is guided by defined objectives to ensure measurable progress.
Business Finland will contribute €20 million to the programme, with an additional €50 million invested by partner companies in the ecosystem. The combined research, development, and innovation (RDI) expenditure of Nokian Tyres and its partners is expected to increase significantly, driving growth in Finland’s economy and is expected create hundreds of new jobs by 2034.
The programme’s outcomes could range from new tyre technologies to novel business opportunities within the broader mobility sector, underscoring the potential of shared innovation and cross-industry synergies.
Paolo Pompei, President and CEO of Nokian Tyres, emphasised the importance of collaboration and states, “The FUTUREPROOF programme aims to respond to challenges such as climate change and increasing vulnerability of the global value chains with innovations across business, process and technical domains. It drives growth for both Nokian Tyres and the ecosystem partners while creating concrete benefits for drivers. Results of the cooperation can vary from a new innovative form of technology used in a tire to a new business opportunity for the mobility sector. It is only together we can rise to the challenges, and a cross-industry ecosystem will be needed to find the solutions.”
