Aalto University was established in 2010 as a merger of three major Finnish universities: the Helsinki University of Technology (established 1849), the Helsinki School of Economics (established 1904), and the University of Art and Design Helsinki (established 1871). The close collaboration between the scientific, business and arts communities fosters multi-disciplinary education and research. The university is composed of six schools with close to 17,500 students and 4,000 staff members, making it Finland's second largest university.

Aalto University’s purpose is to shape a sustainable future. We do high-quality research, excelling and making breakthroughs in and across science, art, technology and business. We spark the game changers of tomorrow, and renew society with research-based knowledge, creativity and an entrepreneurial mindset. All our work is guided by the values of the university: responsibility, courage, and collaboration.  We have adopted a living strategy tailored for a world in motion. We promote multidisciplinarity, co-creation and entrepreneurship with an ambition to make major contributions to industrial and societal renewal. The Aalto innovation ecosystem targets a leading position in Northern Europe, measured by our capacity to create new businesses and growth. AI is both enabler and target of the innovation, with Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence (FCAI, fcai.fi) an organic part of the ecosystem. ICT is the largest key research area with over 100 professors working in the field. 

FCAI plays a key role in Finland’s AI Strategy to realize the potential for AI- led economic growth by accelerating industrial and societal renewal through effective and ethically responsible application of AI. A major enabler in this focusing activity has been the Academy of Finland funding for profiling of Finnish universities, which has been used to strengthen the research foundations of the wide key research areas as well as to identify and support narrower spearheads within the key research areas.