New accelerator program brings together Blue Economy companies and doctoral students

A´Pelago and the Digital Waters flagship project (DIWA) are launching a collaboration by starting a business accelerator tailored to doctoral students. The accelerator offers researchers in the DIWA doctoral training pilot the opportunity to develop their skills in entrepreneurship and the start-up world. The collaboration will be launched at a networking event for water sector companies and doctoral students on March 12, 2026.

The three-year doctoral training pilot program of the Digital Waters flagship project has a total of 60 doctoral students at various partner universities. Launched in 2025, the doctoral training pilot aims to train a new generation of water sector experts in Finland who will develop their expertise, particularly in understanding the digital transformation of the water sector, comprehensive water management, and the changes caused by climate change.

Business cooperation plays an important role in both the flagship program and the doctoral training pilot. The goal is that when the doctoral students graduate, they will be well equipped to tackle water-related challenges as employees of Finnish companies or as founders of new companies.

A'Pelago and DIWA will launch a collaboration in March 2026, in which A'Pelago has customized its own LabOff business accelerator for the doctoral training pilot. Students from partner universities participating in the DIWA doctoral training pilot can take part in the accelerator.

"In the Accelerator, we bring together researchers, entrepreneurs, companies, and investors to discover and grow new blue economy business initiatives. Incubator services are available to students, but there are no programs in Finland that directly serve the needs of researchers. This program explicitly puts researchers first and creates entrepreneurship as an alternative career path for them. The goal is to find a few good ideas that can be used to create new growth companies. Impact is created through research, but achieved in the market," says Patrik Anckar, co-founder of A'Pelago.

"Emphasizing business activities as part of doctoral education is a new thing, and it fits with the goals of the doctoral education pilot," says Petteri Alho, deputy director of DIWA's flagship program at the University of Turku. The graduation and employment of doctoral students in the business sector also contributes to strengthening the competitiveness of the Finnish water sector.

Welcome to the first networking event at the University of Turku on March 12, 2026.

The Digital Waters Flagship (DIWA) is organizing and matchmaking event in collaboration with A’Pelago, where companies, organizations and DIWA’s doctoral and postdoctoral researchers have the opportunity to connect. Come meet future water industry experts, discuss practical challenges the water industry is facing, and brainstorm possible collaborations or pilots. The DIWA Doctoral Pilot is a group of over 60+ Doctoral Researchers in five universities across Finland (Oulu, Aalto, Turku, UEF, ÅA).  

Why should you take part in the event?

Connect fit experts: Meet the key recruits of the future in one place. DIWA’s researchers come from 15 different countries, so you’ll be sure to find fresh perspectives and international contacts.

Brainstorm and grow: Exchange views on Digital Twin and AI-solutions, as well as FAIR data with experts – the DIWA Doctoral Researchers specialize in, for example, AI-based snow and ice hydrology, quality assurance of sensor data, land use issues, robotics, and multi-sensor measurements.

Cocreate create new solutions: Share your challenge and lay the groundwork for low barrierbarrier collaborations or pilot projects.

Network: Build high valuevalue connections across academia and industry

Program and registration:
https://eve.utu.fi/event/128/ Register before 4.3.2026. 

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DIWA in a nutshell:
DIWA, led by the University of Oulu, is part of the Research Council of Finland’s Flagship Programme—backing top tier research with real economic and societal impact. Our tier research with real economic and societal impact. Our sixpartner consortium brings together the University of Oulu, University of Turku, Aalto University, the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI) / National Land Survey of Finland, the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke), and the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI).  www.digitalwaters.fi

More information:

Digital Waters
Petteri Alho, Vice Director, DIWA | +358 50 570 8333,mipeal@utu.fi 
Annukka Pekkarinen, DIWA | +358 50 5512012, annupek@utu.fi

A'Pelago
Patrik Anckar, CEO, co-founder | +358 50 408 7730, patrik@apelago.fi
Alina Sippolainen, Nordic Head of Accelerator | +358 509177170 alina@apelago.fi