In the North Karelia region, there are significant common challenges, such as an aging population, workforce availability, high morbidity, and socio-economic problems. These challenges inevitably impact the vitality of the region. However, North Karelia has good opportunities to seek innovative and sustainable solutions to these challenges. The Smart Specialization Strategy of North Karelia specifically emphasizes the opportunities offered by global changes. It is crucial to leverage expertise from various fields and technological innovations in the development of services. The strategy emphasizes that the public sector should anticipate growth opportunities and provide a conducive environment for various experiments and service development. Advanced technologies can significantly contribute to the development of the region's service offering, the creation of new innovations and sustainable services, and the identification of commercialization opportunities. The North Karelia region lacks an innovation environment focused on addressing the development needs of the social and healthcare sector and the common well-being challenges of the region in collaboration with educational institutions, private, and public sector stakeholders. One goal of the North Karelia Smart Specialization Strategy is to enable the creation of solutions that support innovation activities. Addressing regional challenges requires multidisciplinary innovation activities that bring together educational institutions and business stakeholders toward common goals. This allows the transfer of knowledge and expertise, leading to the emergence of new innovations and business opportunities in the region. The main objectives of the project are: Initiate joint innovation activities and an ecosystem involving educational institutions and business stakeholders to support the development needs and business opportunities in the social and healthcare sector. Support the development and implementation of new technologies in the North Karelia region in social and healthcare, as well as in municipalities. Generate innovative sustainable well-being solutions in collaboration with municipalities, educational institutions, the well-being area, associations, and businesses. Launching innovation activities requires an innovation environment that serves as a shared experimentation and development platform for social and healthcare educational institutions and business stakeholders. Alongside the project, an investment project is implemented, focusing on constructing environments that support innovation activities. An open ecosystem is formed alongside the innovation environment, consisting of social and healthcare businesses, technology companies, the well-being area, educational institutions, and municipal actors – all of whom are also the project's target group. Project work packages include: WP1 Development of a user-driven innovation environment and ecosystem. WP1.1 Formation and co-development of the innovation environment and ecosystem model. WP1.2 Business-oriented TestBed activities. WP1.3 Sustainable product and service processes based on co-development. WP1.4 Involvement of students in innovation activities. WP1.5 Support from innovation to commercialization. WP2 Development of healthcare research and learning environments and support for technology capabilities and the adoption of new technologies at different levels. WP2.1 Health and well-being technology showroom to support the adoption of new technologies. WP2.2 Development of a remote guidance testing environment. WP2.3 Innovative virtual learning environments and content. The project aims to create a new innovation environment and ecosystem for social and healthcare in North Karelia, based on co-development with educational institutions and business stakeholders. Additionally, the goal is to establish a permanent structure and model for the new activity, tested and developed in collaboration with the project implementers and ecosystem stakeholders. The innovation environment also serves as a shared learning environment for social and healthcare students and professionals. It provides support to businesses for product and service development, as well as the commercialization of innovations in collaboration with educational institutions and ecosystem stakeholders. The project aligns with the goals of the North Karelia Smart Specialization Strategy, especially in the area of Innovative and sustainably produced services. Furthermore, the project supports the objectives set by various stakeholders in the North Karelia Regional Programme (POKAT 2025) to enhance the vitality of the region and improve the well-being of residents. The project also contributes to the implementation of the Well-being Pioneer Strategy (2020-25) for North Karelia. The project is firmly grounded in the strategies of Karelia University of Applied Sciences, Siun sote, Riveria and the City of Joensuu. Project implementers: Kare