in content lists or on the content page.Sitra is Finland’s fund for the future
Everyone in Finland has a role to play in building the future. A better tomorrow is born from today’s acts and decisions. At Sitra, we strongly believe that the future is made together – so come and join us!
The future is a team effort. But no one can make major change happen alone. That’s why we are so enthusiastic about co-operation. When we share a common goal, it becomes easier for each of us to find our own pivotal position in the team. In this team, government and officials have their roles to play, researchers, artists and companies play their own and even the team’s staff and supporters have an important contribution to make. Every act and every decision takes us to the future.
The best result is achieved when the right people and organisations find each other and make renewal possible.
A builder of preconditions for reforms
We share a passion for making Finland a pioneer of sustainable well-being – and we take our vision seriously and work in any way we can to achieve it.
We base what we do on expertise and foresight. As an agile, experienced, future-oriented organisation, we have a wide variety of tools at our disposal to identify the need for change and to make it happen.
Our role as a future-oriented fund involves creating preconditions for reform, spurring everyone towards making a change and providing opportunities for co-operation. What it means in practice is that Sitra investigates, explores and develops operating models in close co-operation with other responsible operators to support public administration.
The common factor in all our activities is our vision: Finland will prosper by building a fair, sustainable and inspiring future that ensures people’s well-being within the limits of the earth’s carrying capacity.
A strategy means making choices
Achieving the goals set out in our vision depends on making the right choices. At Sitra, we have three strategic themes to tackle the challenges posed by megatrends.
- Sustainability solutions
We strengthen biodiversity and accelerate ecological reconstruction. We promote in practice the transition towards a society that improves the state of the environment and enables everyone to adapt to the earth’s carrying capacity. We drive an ambitious climate policy, boost a fair and competitive circular economy and encourage people to take action for sustainability. - Fair data economy
We build a human-driven, fair data economy based on the European value base as an alternative to a state-driven or monopoly-driven data economy. This means that we promote changes in economic structures, such as regulation and rules, increase peoples’ opportunities to affect the use of data and offer practical tools to companies operating in the data markets. - Democracy and participation
We strengthen democracy and influence the building of an inspiring future. We renew and develop democratic structures, procedures and means of participation and interaction, among other things. We especially focus on investigating how network-based approaches and algorithm and data-based ways of acting and influencing can be harnessed to support democracy, engagement and co-operation.
Read more
What kind of values are Sitra’s activities based on?
Sitra’s values have been condensed into four words: together, independence, respect and responsibility. These values guide our actions in our work at Sitra, in our work to create an impact and in our cooperation with stakeholders. We updated our values in 2021. The key principles that have guided Sitra’s activities in the previous decades are still visible in the values after the update.
The secret to Sitra’s independence
Sitra’s operations are funded by the returns from its capital originally granted by the Finnish Parliament. According to law, the funds must be invested securely and in a profitable manner.
Although the returns from Sitra’s capital fluctuates, it averages approximately 30 million euros a year. The amount is not very large in terms of the overall state budget, but if wisely allocated it does give Finland an opportunity to play a pioneering role, increase well-being and generate new business. Read more about Sitra as an investor.
Another important facet of Sitra’s independence is the fact that it reports directly to the Finnish Parliament. We are not answerable to the government in power at any one time, nor to a certain party or a trend, but to the parliament.
The profits accrued from our diverse investments secure the long-term future-oriented work carried out by Sitra’s staff, based on their expertise and vision.
Sitra was a present given by Parliament to Finland on the country’s 50th anniversary. The independent fund has been commissioned with the task of probing the future and promoting qualitative and quantitative economic growth.
The future is a team effort