Karolinska Institutet is one of the world’s leading medical universities and Sweden’s largest center for medical education and research. According to KI’s strategy 2030, Karolinska Institutet will be a driving force in the development of Swedish Life Science and actively contribute to campus development in Solna and Flemingsberg. In order for research to be applied, a functioning infrastructure and a constructive collaboration between business, the public sector and academia are required. Karolinska Institutet Science Park as part of Karolinska Institutet’s innovation system contributes to this with a focus on strengthening interaction between the area’s actors – so-called Triple Helix collaboration.  

Biomedicum, Karolinska Institutet’s new research building, completed in 2018, resulted in 45,000 square meters of laboratory and office space being vacated on Campus Solna. There is now a unique opportunity to gather the leading Life Science companies and develop the Karolinska Institutet Science Park community to the next level. In close connection with academic research, education and healthcare, a complete science park concept is offered. In the area there are modern office and laboratory premises, co-working, meeting places för startups, scale-ups and large companies who wish to be part of a creative, business and scientific context. The campus development is done in close collaboration between Karolinska Institutet Science Park, Akademiska Hus, Karolinska Institutet Innovations and Karolinska Institutet.

Owners and financiers

Campus Solna – a central part of Hagastaden

Stockholm is one of the fastest-growing cities in Europe and Hagastaden is one of the largest urban development projects in Sweden. Hagastaden is a new inner-city district that links Stockholm with Solna, soon with 6,000 homes and 50,000 jobs. Here, world-leading research, clinical development and innovative companies gather together with students, researchers and entrepreneurs from all over the world. Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm Region, SciLifeLab, the Swedish Public Health Agency and the European Institute for Infectious Disease Control, ECDC, are some examples of actors in the area.

The Stockholm Life Tech project

To make structures for research and innovation available

Stockholm Life Tech is a three-year project, running between 2020-2023, with funding from the European Regional Development Fund. The purpose is to further develop and make available research and innovation infrastructures in the region. This includes opening up the advanced development and production environments in Flemingsberg and Hagastaden for small and medium-sized companies.

The goals of the project are:

1. To increase growth in small and medium-sized Life Science companies in the two strong Life Science environments Flemingsberg and Hagastaden.

2. To make laboratories, research and innovation infrastructures available to companies in and around the two strong Life Science environments.

3. To increase the Stockholm region’s attractiveness with special focus on Life Science.

During the project, the goal is to reach 200 companies with different forms of support, to develop and test generic and scalable methods and models for companies’ ability to use research and innovation infrastructures in Flemingsberg and Hagastaden, and to increase cooperation between different types of research and innovation infrastructures.

Project owners are Region Stockholm, other parties are Akademiska Hus, Flemingsberg Science, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska Institutet Science Park, Karolinska University Hospital and Stockholm Science City.

Primary contact person: Project leader Nina Lahti.

Collaboration

Sustainability

What is a Science Park?

Sweden’s national industry association for incubators and science parks – SISP – describes science parks as neutral platforms for collaboration. They offer stimulating and developing environments that offer knowledge-intensive growth companies in all phases, access to infrastructure, networks, business development and innovation support.

A science park can be described as a meeting place between people, ideas, knowledge and creativity and often constitutes a platform for major innovation and collaboration projects between the public sector, business and academia. The Science Park often collaborates with the academy to facilitate that knowledge and research results can be commercialized and reach the market or otherwise used to create competitive companies.