Tutkimuksesta liiketoimintaan: Kaupallistamisen pullonkaulat Espoon syväteknologiaekosysteemissä

Deep tech ventures originating from public research often face a critical "Valley of Death" when attempting to move from validated prototypes to market deployments. This thesis examines how research-based spin-offs in Espoo progress along the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4-9 corridor, why many stall specifically at TRL 4-7, and how ecosystem actors can mitigate these frictions. The study addresses two main questions: (1) What are the primary bottlenecks impeding commercialisation between prototype and scale-up? (2) Through which concrete mechanisms can Aalto University, VTT, the City of Espoo, and private actors collaboratively bridge this gap? The empirical material consists of 18 semi-structured interviews with ecosystem experts, including investors, funders, and public sector representatives, and founders of research-based spin-offs, complemented by document analysis. The data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis with an abductive approach. The findings reveal that bottlenecks along the TRL 4-9 continuum are cumulative and institutional rather than purely technical. Key barriers include discontinuums between project-based grants and scale-up finance, fragilities in team formation, a shortage of intermediate piloting infrastructure, and weak conversion of testbed pilots into reference orders. Addressing these challenges, the thesis proposes a set of collaborative mechanisms, such as flexible funding bridges to span the pre-seed gap, shared pilot facilities linked to innovation-friendly procurement, and systematic models for integrating commercial leadership into research teams. Together, these results offer a stage-sensitive perspective for orchestrating research-to-business transitions in university-anchored deep tech ecosystems.