What has been the key to Linköping’s success?
Closeness to the university, the strong focus on new industries, and the ability to digitize industry after industry make the park an ideal location for new businesses.
Sectra AB is a good example of a Linköping success story. The company, which provides IT solutions for storing, viewing and working with medical images and other sensitive information, was founded in 1978 and its head office is in Mjärdevi, Linköping. Sectra has direct sales operations in 19 countries and operates through partners worldwide. Sectra shares are quoted on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange.
There are several other life sciences players present such as Glycobond, producer of carbohydrate-binding peptides for use primarily in diagnosis and monitoring of liver diseases and cancer, and LinkoCare Life Science who develop natural contact lenses and bioengineered corneal implants. Eurofins Digital Testing (part of Eurofins Scientific, which has more than 900 laboratories in 50 countries and around 55,000 employees worldwide) is also present on the park. Further examples are AMRA, Medical, SyntheticMR, Celluminova, Respiheart, S2Medical, AddBIO and PU sensor.
To what extent is that success related to the park’s physical environment?
For example, the quality of individual buildings and how they relate to each other (spatial context)?
The physical environment of a science park can have a significant impact on the concentration of talented people. The layout of individual buildings and the way they are connected can encourage or discourage interactions between people. For example, if buildings are spread out and there are no obvious places for people to meet, it can be more difficult for talented people to connect with each other.However, if there are clear paths between buildings and plenty of areas suitable for events, it can be much easier for talented people to find each other and share ideas. We like to see maximum connectedness within buildings and between buildings and the term “collision density” neatly describes what I mean.In addition, the lunch queue is often a great place to make connections, as it gives people a chance to chat informally about their work. By creating an environment that is conducive to interactions between people, science parks can help to concentrate talent and create new opportunities for innovation.
Do you have new buildings currently under construction or just recently completed?
Ebbepark is the newest of the four locations within Linköping Science Park. Now that a masterplan has been agreed with the university, we will see this location expand, with three new buildings already under way. Ebbepark includes residential property and therefore will have more of a “24-hour city” feel to it than the three other locations.
In terms of the future, what are the key trends likely to shape LSP?
Innovation arises at the intersection of different sectors and disciplines. Thus, structures enabling new connections are the key to transformative innovation.
So, I believe that greater use of cross discipline policy labs will definitely be important in the future.
A policy lab takes a problem and looks for solutions across sectors. Of course, tech needs to understand the regulatory framework and be aligned with national policy in order to create solutions. For life sciences, living labs are likely to be a growing trend as well, because they allow innovation to be assessed in real time on real people.
