CONCENTRATED KNOWLEDGE

SCIENCE PARKS: Northern Europe’s largest concentration of high-tech research in biotech, medico and pharma, Medicon Valley, which is spreading around Copenhagen and the south of Sweden, is not just characterised by its universities and institutions of higher education, but equally by a number of science parks which provide research results to sustainable, commercial companies.

Scion-DTU is Denmark’s first university based science park. It started back in 1962 in Hørsholm north of Copenhagen, and is today home to a number of Den-mark’s most intensively knowledge-based companies. For many years the science park had a loose collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), which was formalised in 2004 when the university and science park merged, the latter becoming a subsidiary of the university. They are physically located in Hørsholm and Lyngby respectively, separated by just 12 kilometres of motorway.

“Today Scion-DTU contains the largest concentration of biotech and medico companies in Medicon Valley,” says director Kim Høgh. “There has been a very strong growth in the number of small companies since we merged, and today we have more than 155 large and small companies across 260,000 m² in Hørsholm and 25,000 m² at the University in Lyngby.”

Incubator

Scion-DTU has had success as an incubator for small research based companies which have grown out of the university environment. With the science park’s facilities and infrastructure, its professional offers on service and consultancy and access to both management and capital, the foundation for increased internationalisation has now been created.

“We have the large network and research intensive environment which foreign companies seek when planning to use Denmark as a bridgehead to the Nordic region and the Baltic area,” says Kim Høgh. “Following the merger with the university, we have shifted the perception of ourselves from business park to fully fledged science park, where we offer access to the entire range of services – human resources, offices, access to capital and knowledge sharing to help build networks. Everything that is necessary to make innovative research into sustainable commercial business.”

Penetration power

Since Kim Høgh became director in spring 2006, he has been busy redefining Scion-DTU’s strategic direction, starting with focused consolidation. He is at the same time a tireless champion of closer collaboration between the seven existing science parks in Denmark.

“When you look around in Denmark, the science parks shine like high-tech lighthouses. But when viewed from abroad, the light seems much dimmer because we are scattered around the country. With the new university reform, the first step has been taken towards closer collaboration where our collective competencies gain much bigger penetration power. Instead of shining individually, we must shine together. Because collectively we have formidable, professional and research-wise strength,” says Kim Høgh.

http://www.sciondtu.dk

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