Final Show 2025 Design for Government

This year, the Final Show will showcase the “Open Government” work with the Ministry of Finance and the “Continuity of Knowledge” with Kela and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

Design for Government (DfG) is an Aalto University MA course in which students collaborate with Finnish ministries and public service organisations each year to tackle national-level challenges with a design approach.

After 12 weeks of close collaboration, students from four groups will present their research and design proposals in one event, gathering the community of civil servants, practitioners, and researchers to get inspired in designing for systemic change.

We will host the Final Show in the beautiful Helsinki City Hall (Pohjoisesplanadi 11-13, 00170 Helsinki).

The event is open to the public. To indicate your interest in attending, please register to the Eventbrite event so we know the capacity and we can send you the video recording after.

Program

13.00 Welcome

13.10 A vision for an age- friendly Finland

13.30 Continuity of Knowledge (Presentations, Q&A).

14:00 Stakeholder discussion (KELA, THL and HUS)

14.20 Coffee Break

14.35 Open Government (Presentations, Q&A)

15:05 Stakeholder discussion (Ministry of Finance, Helsinki Elderly Council)

15.30 Panel discussion and closing words

About the projects

Open Government for an age friendly Finland
Ministry of Finance

The Open Government Action Plan 2023–2027 is a living document that captures Finland’s commitment to transparency, participation, and inclusivity, among other values. The action plan emphasises the need for innovative responses to societal challenges, particularly including vulnerable groups, to realise these values in practice. Finland has the third largest proportion of the +65 population in the world. In addition to forming a growing age group, the population is now living significantly longer. This large age group face barriers to participation in governance and civic life. The Ministry of Finance wants to explore targeted approaches to ensure that the needs of this growing demographic cohort are more effectively integrated into the work and outcomes of government policies.

Main questions:

• How can open government principles be tailored to address the unique needs of older adults?
• How can open government tools and principles be adapted to foster digital inclusion among elderly citizens?
• What does meaningful engagement look like for elderly citizens?

Continuity of Knowledge
KELA and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health

Continuity of Care is an ongoing, multiyear collaboration between Kela, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, and Aalto’s Design for Government (DfG) course. The project will build upon last year’s collaboration focused on the Omalääkäri, or “Personal Doctor” service delivery concept. The Finnish healthcare system is burdened by long lines and unequal access to care, with rising costs and a need for improvement. To explore possible interventions, this year’s work focuses on finding principles and insights on how “Continuity of Knowledge” can support a continuity of care model across care organisations and provide more effective value-based healthcare for +65 demographic groups living in Finland.

Main questions:

• How does continuity of knowledge support a continuity of care healthcare model?
• What are the most critical gaps working against continuity?
• How do citizens, healthcare, and social care professionals contribute to knowledge creation?
• What knowledge is currently not being recorded or utilized?
• How can current information systems and knowledge practices enable effective care decisions?
• How do multi-morbidity challenges benefit from continuity of knowledge?

Get to know more about Design for Government on our website: https://dfg-course.aalto.fi/

Design for Government team

Students

Thalia Zelißen, Paola Rapino, Paul Grandchamp, Francesca Martini Carter, Xuan Huang, Valeria Nova Cázares, Yue Yu, Daniela Bianchi Schlotfeld, Sushmita Charlu, Ronja Chydenius, Takashige Doi, Joni Lappalainen, Warda Mohamed, Sanjana Punjabi, Yuchen Tang, Jaakko Vuorenkoski, Chu Chin-Ying, Vu Trang, Huang Tzu Tai, Marta Ligaj.

Núria Solsona

DfG Course responsible, is a University lecturer at the Aalto University (ARTS), Department of Design. At Aalto, Núria teaches the practice of design in policy-making, and service development, in collaboration with commercial and non-commercial project partners. Previously she worked as a service design consultant in the UK and Finland with commercial and non-commercial organisations around the world.

Marco Steinberg

DfG Course responsible, is a Professor of Practice at Aalto University advancing strategic design as an approach to complexity and large-scale socioeconomic change. Marco is the founder of Snowcone & Haystack, a strategic design practice focused on helping governments and leaders innovate. Previously he was Director of Strategic Design at the Finnish Innovation Fund (Sitra) and Associate Professor at Harvard University.

Natalia Villaman

DfG Lecturer and tutor, alumni of DfG 2019, currently pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Helsinki. Her research focuses on facilitation in the context of participatory/deliberative democracy as a practice to foster civic engagement and higher political efficacy. At Aalto, she focuses on teacher collaboration & curriculum development at the Summer School, and is a thesis advisor for the MA in Creative Sustainability.

Sara Rynefors

DfG Teaching Assistant, Alumni of DfG 2023, is currently a master’s student in Creative Sustainability Design. She just finished her master thesis that focused on the notions of sustainability by looking at private swimming pools in Sweden. In her practice, she uses various forms of storytelling, where she finds documentary and writing to be the most engaging.

Project partners

Janne Mattila and Ojajärvi Anni (Kela); Katju Holkeri (VM).

Privacy & Data processing

The event will be recorded and documented with pictures.

Pictures and recordings of the session will be posted on the DfG website later. For more information on how we handle your data, please visit: https://www.aalto.fi/en/services/privacy-notices

For further inquiries on privacy-related matters, please contact: heidi.henrickson@aalto.fi