Three science parks and many areas of innovation. Wednesday saw the launch of the Johanneberg Science Park, located on Chalmers University's campus in Johanneberg. The park will focus on built environment, energy, materials and nanotechnology.
Covering new areas of innovation, Johanneberg will complement Gothenburg's two other science parks; Lindholmen and Sahlgrenska.
"The parks are three different nodes. They represent different types of science parks and stand for different types of utilizations. This creates very exciting possibilities" says Karin Markides, Principal of Chalmers, during the launch.
Lindholmen Science Park is Gothenburg largest innovation centre. Its main focus areas are mobile Internet, intelligent vehicle- and transport systems, as well as modern media and design. Today, over 275 companies can be found in Lindholmen and 18,000 people work or study there.
Sahlgrenska Science Park works to strengthen the field of life science in the region. It is located at Sahlgrenska University Hospital and provides a start-up environment for new life science companies.
All three parks are results of cooperation between Gothenburg's universities, the public sector and the business sector. Collaboration is the word of the day.
"There are actually not that many places in the world where you can find science parks with the ambition and tools to integrate academia and the private and public sectors" says Karin Markides.
"Just to have the conversation between universities and the city - this is quite unique in
Europe. And this gives us a significant advantage" says Anneli Hulthén, chairman of Gothenburg's municipality board.
The model creates a win-win situation for both the world of academia and the business sector. Research and innovation is brought closer to the business world when companies operate on the university campuses. It creates a new kind of competitiveness.
"I would like to call it a Swedish model of open innovation. It is therefore important to create opportunities for physical meetings between the different actors" says Karin Markides.
The vision is a campus where business and academia meet over an informal cup of coffee in the campus cafeteria. The aim of the science park is to create an open and facilitating meeting place.
But how will the vision be put into practice?
"We need to work with real, concrete projects from the start. Action right away, not just talk" says Anders Ådalh, head of R&D at Göteborg Energi, which is one of the main owners of Johanneberg Science Park.
"Communication between researchers and people that work in the companies is very important. We have to go further than the big words and the nice polish" says Mats Rydehäll from Chalmers' energy research area.
Anders Palmqvist from Chalmers' nano research area believes sharing staff is a step in the right direction.
"Half-time positions in both places. This form of employment will create a dynamic between people in the industry, the society and Chalmers. And this helps us create these meeting places that will make the whole difference."
Malin Persson, the CEO of Volvo Technology, which is another main owner of Johanneberg, also believes in staff sharing. She also thinks that sharing equipment will create a natural meeting place.
"A lot of things will solve itself just by us being on the area. We are already working a lot with students through degree projects, and I can imagine this will be even easier when we become more visible."
The idea of collaboration also extends to the different science parks.
"The interaction between the science parks is important. What happens between Lindholmen and Johanneberg Science Park? What happens between Sahlgrenska and Johanneberg Science Park?" says Anneli Hulthén, chairman of Gothenburg's municipality board.
She hopes the interaction between the science parks will spark new ideas and new projects that no-one had even thought about from the start.
Already, the science parks in the region work together on an international level.
"The CEO's of the science parks meet quite regularly and that is very positive; we need to work together as one, and be seen as one. This also concerns the science parks in Trollhättan, Skövde and Borås, which are part of our collaboration. It's something unique, which we should take good care of and develop. We make ourselves visible together" says Karin Markides.
The science parks help attract international competency to the region. International researchers can be connected to Swedish companies through contacts at the universities, and the opportunities for close collaboration with the business sector can be a driving force for international students to come to Gothenburg.
"The meeting places are a very important component of our attraction force, and we need to attract new players to our part of the world" says Karin Markides.
Mats Bergh, the CEO of Johanneberg Science Park, points out how important an international environment is for the innovation sector.
"Many companies have an international market. You can have the best product in the world, but you can't sell it if you don't understand the market."
"We want to develop a knowledge environment of absolute world class. We are very grateful to the companies that have supported us in this start-up phase, and we will continue to work to expand this group, not only from this part of the nation or even Sweden, we also want to attract foreign companies."
To find out more about Gothenburg's science parks, visit:
www.johannebergsciencepark.com www.lindholmen.se www.sahlgrenskasciencepark.se
