Incubators participate in cross-sector collaboration to address health challenges at the interface between food and life science

The newly formed “Food, health & life science innovation node,” a partnership involving SmiLe Incubator, Medeon Science Park & Incubator, GU Ventures and Krinova Incubator & Science Park, will lead to innovations that simplify daily life for the chronically ill.

 

The partners will initially focus on identifying the challenges that people with diabetes encounter in daily life and where the solutions can be found at the interface between food and life science.

“Tomorrow’s health care will be more preventative and personalized. In order for Sweden to be able to drive developments and maintain its leading position in life science, interdisciplinary collaborations are needed to create opportunities for brand new types of treatments, forms of care and health-promoting measures,” says Ebba Fåhraeus, CEO of SmiLe Incubator in Lund.

Many of our society’s public and private activities are organized in silo structures, which often make it difficult for organizations to work together efficiently. The aim of the new partnership is to develop a model for such cooperation between life science and food incubators, based on challenges at the interface between food and life science. The model will enable innovation environments to proactively initiate development projects and invite companies and researchers to participate.

“Diet is of course known to have a major impact on our health. There is great potential in working with innovation projects at the interface between food and life science. Within the partnership we are laying the groundwork for an innovation-driven node where various skills and areas of knowledge meet and where differences become a strength in a common innovation process – all to provide maximum benefit and create new values,” says Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth, CEO of Krinova Incubator & Science Park.

The formation of the “Food, health & life science innovation node” is part of the Foodinova project that Krinova is running, along with Inkubera and about 20 project partners.

For more information, please contact: Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth, CEO, Krinova Incubator & Science Park, charlotte@krinova.se, +46 (0)708-29 14 34

 

About Krinova Incubator & Science Park: Krinova is Sweden’s largest incubator and science park for food-related innovations and startups. Krinova’s mission also includes arranging projects involving academia, the public sector and industry that can lead to new business ideas and innovations, using societal challenges as their point of departure. Collaborations and projects at the intersection of food, environment and health are run at local, regional and international levels. www.krinova.se

About Medeon: Medeon Science Park & Incubator is a research park specializing in pharmaceutical development, medical devices, bioengineering and health care. The research park is located in Malmö, in the middle of the Öresund region and the middle of Medicon Valley – the geographic area where the majority of Scandinavia’s life science companies are located. Medeon currently houses about sixty companies with a total of 450 employees. Medeon is owned by the City of Malmö (60 percent) and the property company Wihlborgs (40 percent). www.medeon.se

About GU Ventures: GU Ventures ranks as one of the top 20 university-managed incubators worldwide, offering business development and capital to build growth companies based on innovative new ideas. To date, GU Ventures has developed over 150 new business concepts in Sweden; 12 of its startups are now listed on the stock market and about 30 were sold to larger companies. They have raised a total of about SEK 1.75 billion in funding, employ about 400 people, and have sales of about SEK 320 million. The portfolio currently consists of 55 holdings, 87% of which contribute to the global sustainability targets established by the UN. GU Ventures is wholly owned by the Swedish government and managed by the University of Gothenburg. Read more at: www.guventures.com.

 

For information about SmiLe Incubator, contact: Ebba Fåhraeus, CEO at SmiLe Incubator
+46 (0)734000433, ebba@smileincubator.life ; Or visit our mediaroom

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