Despite the general economic downturn and geopolitical changes, the year 2023 was a success for VTT. Net turnover from commercial activities remained almost on level with the previous year, but jointly-funded activities brought an overall increase in net turnover. Our customers feel that projects carried out with VTT strengthen their competence. In 2024, we will focus on completing our investment projects and target our funding to support companies in the clean and digital transition.
The impact of VTT's operations is illustrated by customer satisfaction, which has remained excellent: our customers' score for implementing projects is 4.3 (on a scale of 1 to 5), which increased slightly from last year (4.2). The net promoter score (NPS) is, in turn, around 75 (on a scale of -100 to +100).
In 2023, the net turnover of commercial activities remained almost on level with the previous year, but the total net turnover increased due to strong jointly-funded activities. Active international cooperation and targeted customer work produced new openings, including solutions related to energy transition, sustainable development and health, which have proved essential for the companies.
"Crises have clarified what VTT needs to focus on: long-term research aimed at solving climate change, the utilisation of digitalisation, society's resilience and other major challenges. We want to help companies renew and achieve the objectives of the clean transition. Our goal is that our research investments accelerate the renewal of companies and encourage them to invest in new solutions," says VTT's President & CEO Antti Vasara.
Jointly-funded activities increased VTT's net turnover
In 2023, the parent company accrued a net turnover of EUR 188 million (in 2022: EUR 164 million), of which EUR 118 million was accrued from strategic research (EUR 94 million) and EUR 70 million from research based on commercial principles (EUR 70 million). The parent company’s result of the financial year was EUR 2.5 million (EUR 3.7 million).
"Despite the volatility of the general economic situation, VTT performed well, which we can be satisfied with. The economic downturn has been reflected in our customers’ capacity to invest, but our operations have been accelerated by the public competitive research funding granted by Finland and the EU as well as the Finnish Government’s strong investment in RDI activities," Antti Vasara says.
Four new spin-off companies were created through the VTT LaunchPad business incubator.
In 2023, VTT had a total of 1,135 customers, the majority of which represented the private sector: 635 from Finland and 310 from abroad. The remaining 190 customers were Finnish and foreign public sector actors. Of the parent company's net turnover, public sector revenues accounted for 63% (58%) and private sector revenues for 37% (42%), which decreased slightly due to the strong jointly-funded activities. The domestic revenue accounted for 55% and foreign revenue for 45% of the net turnover (57% and 43%).
Sustainability monitoring now part of customer projects
Sustainability is a key part of VTT's strategy. Our sustainability goals include reaching sustainable impact through research and a positive carbon handprint as well as carbon neutrality by 2030. We now also monitor how sustainability is realised in customer projects, in addition to our own and jointly-funded projects.
"Ensuring sustainability is now part of the preparation of our customer projects. We also piloted carbon handprint calculation in some of our research projects," says Vasara.
As part of our sustainability, we defined VTT's sustainability governance model and prepared VTT's value chain and a double materiality analysis approved by VTT's Board of Directors. We used the analysis results to prepare for the transition to reporting under the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the European Sustainability Reporting Standard (ESRS), which will be mandatory from 2026. According to the double materiality analysis, the key topics for VTT are our impact on climate, biodiversity, own personnel, resource use and circular economy, employees in the value chain and research ethics.
In 2023, we also paid particular attention to occupational safety and the development of safety culture.
New PhD programme promotes dissertation work
In 2023, the impact and visibility of VTT's scientific articles increased in the scientific community. We promote scientific publication and the development of the competence of VTTers with our new doctoral programme, which was launched last year. The PhD programme also creates new career paths for VTTers.
In our annual personnel survey, the promoter score continued to rise.
"VTTers still find their work meaningful. We want to invest in the well-being of our experts through continuous training and other measures that promote well-being. Throughout the year, we recruited nearly 400 new VTTers, one quarter of whom were international recruitments, and our team now represents 59 nationalities. VTTers had a great year, and for this, I would like to offer my warmest thanks to everyone – also our customers and partners," Antti Vasara says.
The results of 2023 have been compiled in an annual and sustainability report published on the VTT website. The sustainability report includes a GRI index table and a stakeholder chart. The financial statements as well as a report on the tax footprint, management, salaries and remuneration have been published as annexes to the annual report.
The particular mission of the parent company VTT as an independent and impartial non-profit research centre is to promote the wide-ranging utilisation and commercialisation of research and technology in commerce and society. In accordance with the Act on the limited liability company called VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, any profit of the company will be used in its entirety for the company's own research operations, competence development and dissemination of research results. At the end of the fiscal year, in addition to the parent company, VTT Group consisted of three fully-owned subsidiaries: VTT Ventures Ltd, VTT International Ltd and VTT Holding Oy.
