The Nordic countries have traditionally been among the international elite in life sciences and medical technology, with one of the world’s highest patent filing rates per capita. Still, it does not seem that small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in this sector are able to capitalise on the existing Nordic framework, and the number of viable startup companies have reclined in recent years.
The Accelerace Life project wants to set up a cross-border high growth accelerator to help promising life science SMEs into the international market, placing it in four Nordic markets simultaneously. By forging a strong collaboration between the best Nordic incubators and accelerators, the project’s goal is to translate their gained market experience into the international market, with more than 25 new collaborations established among regional and national organisations, and approximately 75 SMEs creating more than 200 new jobs.
Project description
The Nordic countries have traditionally been among the international elite in life sciences and medical technology, with one of the world’s highest patent filing rates per capita. Still, it does not seem that small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in this sector are able to capitalise on the existing Nordic framework, and the number of viable startup companies have reclined in recent years.
The Accelerace Life project wants to set up a cross-border high growth accelerator to help promising life science SMEs into the international market, placing it in four Nordic markets simultaneously. By forging a strong collaboration between the best Nordic incubators and accelerators, the project’s goal is to translate their gained market experience into the international market, with more than 25 new collaborations established among regional and national organisations, and approximately 75 SMEs creating more than 200 new jobs.
Project status
As of May 2015, the Accelerace Life project has built a joint platform for high growth called Accelerace Life Labs. Here, SME’s formulate key hypothesis for fast market access. Between labs the hypothesis are field tested in a Nordic setting, evaluated and re-formulated. This is repeated three times with the full network and expertise of the program and constantly validated with external experts and stakeholders.
So far, 11 life science SME's from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark has been accepted into the programme, with 5-6 more to follow in August 2015. Each SME have gained access to facilitated Nordic market testing in the field.
Project partners:
Denmark:
Accelerace Management A/S (Project Manager), COBIS A/S
Sweden:
STING, Lund Life Science Incubator, KI Innovations AB
Finland:
Turku Science Park
Norway:
Kjeller Innovasjon
