It is time to unite political and industrial interests on both sides of the Oresund Bridge and sync the Danish and Swedish agendas. Medicon Valley has every opportunity to succeed and become one of the world’s strongest environments for research, development and innovation in life science, but we must collaborate in a smarter, more efficient and broader way than ever before.
The purpose of Medicon Valley Alliance (MVA) is to make Medicon Valley an attractive destination for the best talent within life science.
Over the past year, we have significantly strengthened Medicon Valley’s image as a unique arena of collaboration between academia, healthcare and industry through the Medicon Valley Beacons – the region’s scientific strongholds, which we hope will act as regional landmarks on the global life science map in the future.
Representatives from Medicon Valley’s rich life science eco-system continuously show support for the Medicon Valley Beacons, which are developing and taking form. Each Medicon Valley Beacon is characterized by a high degree of cross-disciplinary collaboration between the public and private sectors in Denmark and Sweden.
Drug Delivery
Within Drug Delivery, our ambition is to establish a new research centre dedicated to ground-breaking drug delivery research. Although the centre has yet to become a reality, MVA continues to investigate and pursue further development. The first step is a potential joint professorship in Drug Delivery at Lund University, Malmö University and the University of Copenhagen.
Systems Biology
We have made progress in several ways on the Systems Biology Beacon. Earlier this year MVA initiated a spin-off pilot project that focuses on the coordination and use of health registries and biobanks in the Oresund region within breast cancer. It will highlight the barriers for coordinating health data and suggest a roadmap for overcoming these barriers.
Immune Regulation
Within Immune Regulation, we arranged a workshop in the spring that attracted a lot of positive response from both Swedish and Danish healthcare, industry and academia. At the workshop, participants discussed and agreed on a vision for the research field – the ambition is to establish an arena for closer collaboration across the various disciplines within immunology and inflammation.
Structural Biology
Structural Biology is possibly the most developed stronghold in Medicon Valley, as it directly relates to the tremendous investments at ESS and MAX IV. MVA is in the process of identifying and engaging the different research groups and professionals within the academic and industrial spheres. By identifying and engaging all the relevant players, we can strengthen the regional network and contribute towards the creation of valuable partnerships and collaborations.
Independent Living
As the development of e-health continues on both sides of the bridge, the Independent Living Beacon is continuously stimulated. There has been an interesting development where new care models are implemented, applying e-health, thus enabling more people to live as they wish and at the same time getting the care that they need, conveniently from home.
It starts and ends with talent
We can only release the full potential of Medicon Valley if politicians and the life science industry actively involve themselves in the development of our region as an attractive destination for the world’s top talent within life science.
This requires us to unite and pool our experiences, knowledge and innovation skills, constantly working across disciplines and geographical boundaries. Because it all starts and ends with talent.
Stig Jorgensen, CEO Medicon Valley Alliance
