Only together can we fight for a fair, sustainable, and joyful next era
Meet Demos Helsinki, a globally operating, independent think tank.
We build practical paths to fair, sustainable, and joyful societies.
Demos Helsinki is a globally operating, non-profit, and independent think tank that conducts research, creates new policy tools, and helps build capacities that instigate and sustain essential transitions. We collaborate with local and national governments, international organisations, civil society, and critical industries to create the tools that will define this pivotal moment in global history.
We help organisations of all kinds to lead societal transformations.
Building fair, sustainable, and joyful societies requires widespread effort. In our 20 years of experience, we bridge the gap between immediate interventions and long-term societal needs. Working with us, you can be sure that you ask the right questions and that the answers are backed by our research-based, kind, and passionate experts.
Our mission is to help organisations turn uncertainty into possibility by remastering technology and imagining alternative futures.
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Transforming our economies to address this reality is hard work—but it’s work we can do together.
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Building new and exciting capacities is one of the most long-term impact interventions that can turn organisations into a examples of a new era.
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Foresight is not just a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have for strengthening your societal relevance in a complex world.
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Cities can lead collective action. We help city leaders and administrations transform their governance, equipping them with the mindset, tools, and knowledge to address societal challenges.
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The challenge for the next MFF is not to invent a new governance model, but to organise European decision-making around the governing capacity that already exists.
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Drawing on almost five years of Cities Mission implementation, Demos Helsinki and its partners from Dark Matter Labs and the Mission Board argue that mission governance has reached policy readiness. Its mechanisms have been tested, its governance infrastructure is in place, and it offers a transferable model for delivering on EU strategic priorities at scale.
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Finland managed the Covid-19 pandemic comparatively well. Yet the longer the crisis lasted, the more visible the limits of the governance system became. This brief examines what a prolonged crisis revealed about institutional strength, societal vulnerabilities, and the kind of governance future crises demand.
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The Climate-Proofing Nordic Security project examines whether the region’s whole-of-society security model is built for the climate reality now taking shape. Funded by the Nordic Climate and Air Programme (NKLP), the project combines climate-security risk mapping with a hands-on simulation exercise for decision-makers across Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland.
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Collaborations
We are leading societal transformations with partners around the world.
Governing with cities: Europe’s overlooked governance infrastructure
Post
July 21, 2026
The Cities Mission functioned as a natural experiment that revealed an overlooked property of European governance: cities do not merely implement policy more effectively; they generate governing capacity and governance knowledge that Europe should intentionally incorporate into policy design through a revised multilevel governance architecture.
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