About MVA

Medicon Valley Alliance was founded in 1997 as an EU Interreg II project under the name Medicon Valley Academy. Informal discussions about creating the organization, however, already started in 1992 when work on the bridge between Denmark and Sweden took off. As the bridge became a reality, expectations about closer interaction between research and business communities in the two countries grew.

The main initiators behind Medicon Valley Academy were the universities in Lund and Copenhagen, strongly supported by the major pharmaceutical companies in the region; Novo Nordisk, Lundbeck and Astra-Zeneca. The idea was to create a platform where Danish and Swedish life science actors could meet.

Medicon Valley Academy changed its name to Medicon Valley Alliance to signal its broader foundation within Medicon Valley’s rich and diverse life science ecosystem. At the same time, our initial role of strengthening the network in Medicon Valley through events changed to the more nuanced role we have today.

While we still run an extensive events program aimed at strengthening the network between our members and facilitating knowledge-sharing, the late 2000s saw our focus shift towards boosting Medicon Valley’s ability to attract talent as it became obvious that the region was at risk of finding itself on a “burning platform”.

We decided there was a need for bolder, more ambitious measures to attract and retain talent in Medicon Valley, and the Medicon Valley Beacons was born.

Today MVA is a non-profit membership organization in the Danish-Swedish life science cluster Medicon Valley. Our 300 members represents the region’s triple helix and include universities, hospitals, human life science business, regional governments and service providers. We exist to delevelop Medicon Valley into the leading life science cluster in Northern Europe and make the region an attractive destination for the best talent within life science. We create value for our members by launching and driving initiatives that put Medicon Valley firmly ahead in the global race for talent and bridge, develop and promote scientific strongholds in the region.