Medicon Valley Beacons

Collaborating regionally to compete globally

The Medicon Valley Beacons is an initiative to create a handful of world-class research environments, known as Beacons, in the Danish-Swedish life science cluster, Medicon Valley. The vision is to release the full potential of Medicon Valley by bringing together regional actors in fresh constellations conductive to fostering disruptive insights, which result in innovative products and technologies.

For Medicon Valley to be a serious contender in the highly competitive global life science race, the cluster as a whole needs to strengthen its ability to attract a constant stream of talent and capital. MVA and Invest in Skåne formally launched the Medicon Valley Beacons in November 2011 with funding from the EU Interreg IV A Programme and the initiative aim to achieve this by showcasing the region’s scientific strongholds and acting as regional landmarks on the global life science map.

The objective is to develop, expand and brand selected research environments that build on Swedish-Danish synergies between existing strongholds – in both the private and public sector – and which span the entire life science value chain from early research all the way to commercialization, in order to drive economic growth and job creation in the region.

Four Beacons – systems biology, structural biology, immune regulation and drug delivery – have been selected following an extensive evaluation of existing life science strongholds in the region based on analysis and input from regional stakeholders and an analysis by Boston Consulting Group. Each Beacon is characterized by being highly cross-disciplinary, building on existing regional strongholds and addressing future demands and medical needs. The individual Beacons focus on areas where there are considerable potential for synergies in Medicon Valley for creating world-leading research environments.