The innovation programme SPARK Denmark is being established at Denmark’s five largest universities based on a grant of DKK 44 million from the Novo Nordisk Foundation. SPARK Denmark builds on successful experience from abroad and will enable researchers to commercialise their research or innovative ideas and to attract investors.

Denmark is a leading country in basic research in the life sciences and in the number of registered patents per capita in biotechnology and medical technology. Unfortunately, the number of new products and solutions launched does not reflect this, because the commercial expertise and the ability to raise start-up capital are often lacking. SPARK Denmark will seek to address this problem.

SPARK was originally established at Stanford University in the United States 2006. Since then, SPARK has become a global programme that has been rolled out at 40 research institutions, including hubs in northern Europe in Germany, Norway and Finland.

European SPARK network is already collaborating actively in providing education and organizing joint mentoring events. SPARK Denmark brings new opportunities for deeper and more versatile collaboration in future. “This is a remarkable milestone in strengthening European collaboration for developing new solutions and businesses in health tech and life science space. This also enables bringing new cool projects and teams visible for much wider audiences,” says Pasi Sorvisto, Director of SPARK Finland and SPARK Europe.

European SPARK programs welcome warmly SPARK Denmark and all associated institutions to our program network!

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