Helsinki, Finland: The Finnish Brain Association, aka Aivoliitto, hosted Eyre for a week in Helsinki and arranged an array of meetings to discuss Finland’s approach to the brain economy transition. Dialogues were arranged by Mika Pyykko, Executive Director of the Finnish Brain Association, with stakeholders including pension funds, non-governmental organizations, parliament, private sector, financial engineering, economics, neurology, mental health and startups.
Eyre noted at the conclusion of these dialogues that Finland is leading in the brain-positive economic transition, aka brain economy transition, given the convergence of a few key factors: excellence in digital literacy (namely against mis- and disinformation) and general education, leadership in wellbeing economics, a successful National Brain Health Programme, recognition the brain economic transition subserves successful energy and digital economic transitions and broad stakeholder buy-in across sectors and society, and exploration of impact investing approaches to align public, private and philanthropic capital in the pursuit of improved brain health.
In the lead-up to these dialogues, Eyre and Kaisa Hartikainen, neurologist and Chief Advisor to the Finnish Brain Health Programme, published an Op Ed in Turun Sanomat. This was republished in English on the Finnish Brain Association’s website here.
A successful panel discussion and session on Optimising Brain Health was held at the Radical Health Festival Helsinki 2024. See here for more details.
Technical meetings were conducted with economists and financial engineers to discuss modelling approaches.
The week culminated in discussions with the Finnish Parliament, including with Members of Parliament including Hanna Holopainen, Inka Hopsu and Atte Harjanne, and Tero Suoniemi, expert in European politics and foreign policy, currently working as a Political Advisor for the Green group in the Finnish Parliament.
