The PBI Foundation was founded in 2001 to provide a scientific home for a group of scientists and consultants within the field of industrial management. The group was led by professor Kim Wikström, the main founder of the foundation. The foundation and its subsidiary PBI Research Institute Ltd, www.pbi.fi, formed a platform for combined efforts to create and implement new knowledge within industrial management. An essential part of the concept was a collaboration agreement with Åbo Akademi University to support doctoral students and research projects.

Today the foundation both supports and conducts research initiatives as a frontrunner within areas such as industrial and infra investments, project business and thereto related ecosystems and transformation of industrial segments.