This paper examines the ways in which “innovation-based-economy/society” manifests itself in the contemporary state spatial transformation in Finland. The paper first scrutinizes the key ideational elements of transnational spatial development discourse and debates the inherent materiality of this discourse. Secondly, the paper deals with how transnational spatial development discourse and the “national” attempts to increase state competitiveness through specific institutional reforms are being fused in contemporary state restructuring in the Finnish context. More specifically, it elaborates the recent attempt to construct a new spatial scale, metropolis, within the Finnish spatial development practice. By examining the process of establishing a new “innovation university” in the greater Helsinki region, the paper gives some evidence how this new spatial scale is being materialized and loaded with meaning in contemporary political processes which seek to associate a political community/entity (Finland) with “global flows” of footloose capital and talent.