Sweden
Dalarna Science Park – Innovation Arena That Supports Growth Ambitions
Dalarna is so much more than just dala-horses and red houses – it’s a well-liked, year-round tourist destination, one of Sweden’s leading export counties, home for large, international and also small, local companies. But it is also the location for Dalarna Science Park.
Dalarna Science Park has worked within innovation and entrepreneurship since 1987, providing a long-term, broadly entrenched regional platform – innovation arena, supporting the development of people and companies with growth ambitions.
Dalarna Science Park has access to broad experience and skills in their own organizations, they are surrounded with a broad network of qualified people. This arena of innovation can be described as a meeting place for people, ideas, knowledge and creativity, it is often a platform for larger innovation and development projects.
Tailored support to build global products
Through the incubator, Dalarna Science Park offers effective business development processes. Both entrepreneurs with new business ideas as well as companies with growth potential are invited to join. Their Open Innovation model involves companies that are concerned with the improvement of services, processes, customer contacts and supply chains. Incubators help companies with their structure and strategy – what to focus on, how to grow fast enough but not too fast to ensure positive cash flow. Dalarna Science Park is also a first incubator to develop a package of tools to help companies become more sustainable and increase market competitiveness.
Startups and pre-incubators are also an important part of the Dalarna Science Park. It offers up to 3 years of support for the startups, however depending on requirements, the support could be prolonged. Up to six months work is completed in the pre-incubators: identifying markets, working on business plans, signing the agreement, mapping out their needs. Ten external consultants are matched with the startups to offer the best possible support. Companies that are ready to leave the pre-incubator have to comply with the exit criteria: functional leadership and the board, functional organization, attractive portfolio of services, ability to follow the market demands for future, regular sales activity.
How to join Dalarna Science Park?
The process to join the platform and become a part of the innovation arena is straightforward and simple – the potential company usually has three meetings with the representatives of Dalarna Science Park. One of the most important aspects is to find out whether the market fit is there and if the business is addressing the right problem. The agenda of the meetings is not a secret either – companies usually present their value proposition canvas, goals of the company for the following five years, financial, economic, social, technological and environmental factors that may affect them.
Dalarna Science Park can host around 20 companies in the incubator – currently, there are 17 companies operating, all of them are Sweden based with a few that were originally founded in foreign countries. Explore your company’s possibilities to join Dalarna Science Park by visiting www.dalarnasciencepark.se/en/.