UNIKIE OY

Their core work

Unikie is a Finnish technology SME that develops embedded software and systems engineering solutions for the automotive and mobility sectors. In H2020 projects they have contributed to two distinct but related challenges: building fail-operational perception and control systems for highly automated vehicles (sensor fusion across LIDAR and RADAR), and engineering smart, secure energy solutions for future mobility including vehicle-to-grid charging, energy harvesting, and smart tyre sensing. Their participation as a specialist partner in large research consortia indicates they bring deep technical implementation capability — likely in software, firmware, or systems integration — rather than academic research. Based in Tampere, Finland's established automotive and ICT hub, they sit at the intersection of automated driving and electrified transport.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Unikie's H2020 footprint shows a clear pivot from the safety and perception layer of autonomous driving toward the energy and electrification layer of smart mobility. Their earliest project (NewControl, 2019) was firmly in autonomous vehicle systems — fail-operational architectures, LIDAR/RADAR fusion — representing the "how do we make self-driving cars safe" problem. By 2021, their second project (Energy ECS) had shifted almost entirely to the energy dimension: EV charging, V2G, smart grids, and energy harvesting. This is not a random jump — both tracks sit within the broader intelligent transport system, but the emphasis moved from sensing and control to power and grid interaction.

Unikie appears to be following the mobility market's shift from autonomy software toward electrification infrastructure, making them a plausible partner for projects combining EVs, smart grids, or energy management with vehicle intelligence.

How they like to work

Unikie has participated in both projects as a consortium member, never as coordinator, which is consistent with a specialist technology company that contributes targeted technical work within larger collaborative efforts. Their 78 unique partners across just two projects suggests they operate inside large, multi-partner consortia — typical of EU ICT and transport RIA/IA projects. This signals they are comfortable as one of many contributors, likely delivering a defined technical work package rather than driving the overall research agenda.

Despite only two projects, Unikie has built connections with 78 unique partners across 16 countries — an unusually wide network for an SME at this scale, indicating that both projects involved large international consortia. Their geographic reach spans at least 16 European countries, suggesting well-established ties within the EU automotive and ICT research ecosystem.

What sets them apart

Unikie is one of few Finnish SMEs active in both autonomous vehicle systems and smart energy-for-mobility — two fields that are converging rapidly as EVs gain autonomy features and charging infrastructure becomes "smart." This dual positioning makes them a relevant partner for projects that need industry-grounded implementation capacity rather than pure academic research. As a private company in Tampere — Finland's automotive software cluster — they can also bridge research outputs toward commercial product development, which is valuable for Innovation Actions targeting market readiness.

Highlights from their portfolio

• Energy ECS
  The larger of the two grants (EUR 210,527) and the most thematically broad, covering V2G, smart grids, drones, XR, and energy harvesting — signalling Unikie's ambition to expand beyond core autonomous driving into the full smart mobility energy ecosystem.
• NewControl
  Addresses one of the hardest unsolved problems in autonomous vehicles — fail-operational systems that remain safe when components fail — placing Unikie in technically demanding, safety-critical research from the start of their H2020 participation.