Nordic SPARK programs were once again on a joint Silicon Valley tour, and it is no surprise… It was a big success. Our programs have had years of successful collaboration in boosting the emergence of new value-creating solutions in the health tech and life science fields.

Last week of April 2025, 28 participants from SPARK Finland, SPARK Norway, and SPARK Denmark were attending the Stanford Drug Discovery Symposium 2025 (SDDS), of which we are also supporters. Project teams had numerous meetings with industry, investment, and academic professionals. They also had the opportunity to meet several Nobel Laureates and listen to their speeches.

After SDDS 2025, we had multiple meetings with key institutions in the region. SPARK at Stanford offered us a great educational evening on campus, and during the week we had the opportunity to attend numerous meetings with the world’s leading academic venture creation and tech transfer professionals in the Stanford and UCSF ecosystems. Ted Papagiannis, partner at Knobbe Martens, offered SPARKees a great session on different aspects of the IP. Our warmest thanks go also to our longtime friends and colleagues Craig and Abby Garner, entrepreneurs Tero-Pekka Alastalo (CEO of Avenue Biosciences), Mads Lillelund (CEO of Qvin), Oystein Saebo and May Roen (Founders of Pathogenomix Inc), and the multitalented venture capitalist Fumiaki Ikeno (Founding Partner, MedVenture Partners). We want to express our gratitude also for the Nordic Innovation House for the introduction of their services.

This is how the Nordic program network wants to improve the impact of SPARK projects and, at the same time, bring our programs, projects, and emerging startups to “exist” for wider audiences around the world.

Stay tuned for great news regarding SPARKees and our Nordic SPARK programs!