What does it take to take Lund Innovation District to the next level?

Caroline Wendt

Communicator, content manager, storytelling

Published

February 13, 2024

Categories

Future Living & Spaces

Innovation district

Lund's expansion towards the northeast is largely a consequence of the interaction between society, universities and companies. The area that can be called the Lund Innovation District extends from universities and hospitals in the more central parts of the city up to the ESS at the far end of Brunnshög. Already, this is an attractive area for education, research and entrepreneurship — but with collaboration, open meeting places and a common package, it could be even more attractive. Those were some of the conclusions after discussions about plans and geography for the innovation district's core elements at an event in January hosted by Medicon Village Innovation.

In the effort to strengthen what is known as the Lund Innovation District, talks and discussions are arranged and in January it was time to discuss the plans that created the area and what might be important to consider as the area develops further. Initially presented Ms Johnson both an overview of some of the plans made and what conclusions she and Pia Kinhult have drawn from the work on these plans. Peter Kisch also presented a survey conducted by Future by Lund in collaboration with Parlametric in which more than 500 people in open answers gave their views on the Lund Innovation District.

- We have so much in Lund - talented companies, a fantastic university, strong organisations and an active innovation system. It is a strong ecosystem but still quite fragmented, in the sense that we do not see the total value of the power available in Lund. If we manage to see the big picture, we will rise so that we will be stronger than when we are one and one. That's why we're here today,” moderator Pia Kinhult started the discussions with.

An important element was the panel discussion where the university, business and the municipality were represented through Charlotte von Brömssen, architect and project manager for campus development at LU Building as well as the site planner for the establishment of the university in Science Village, Bert Nordberg, Chairman of AXIS ssilence (but also with experience from Ericsson, Saab and Sigma Connectivity, among others) and Lund municipal board chairman Anders Almgren.

The panel was able to conclude that Lund has come a long way, that many basic structures have been put in place, that now may be the time to both build on and take advantage of what is available, but also to look again to see how the innovation district can develop.

What does it take to take this to the next level?

- It must be attractive to come to Lund and then access to engineers is an argument. Building more homes will make it attractive to move here and make it easy to live close by, points out Bert Nordberg, who also came up with the very concrete proposal to systematically contact the development managers of selected companies who may have a budget to invest in an office in Lund.

Anders Almgren told about how representatives of Lund visited Barcelona several times, including to learn about the city's successful work with an innovation district. There you work with soft values and then combine that with negotiations on the real estate side.

- Lund has long been good at physical structures and now we need to strengthen the work of thinking out who will sit there, says Anders Almgren. We need to think about the types of actors that we want to bring here to make us even more attractive and complete.

Pia Kinhult highlighted that a disadvantage for Lund may be that the city may find it difficult to offer both the cheapest and the most expensive premises.

- We need to identify where the cheapest premises are located, not just the sites for new construction, in order to develop what we already have, says Charlotte von Brömssen. In the university's campus plan, we work to identify value-bearing characters and nodes for different types of meeting places and services. It would have been interesting if within the university we could agree on a number of nodes and common concepts to build a whole in the innovation district.

One reason why there may be a lack of cheap premises is that Lund does not have as many industrial premises left in the city centre. Now a situation arises where, for example, part of the university's operations will move to Science Village and, over time, the hospital move will also free up premises.

- We are facing relocations that can free up some premises and need to have a dialogue about what can come next, says Anders Almgren. We at Lund Municipality are on the ball to be a matchmaker, but so far it is a new role for us.

During the debate, the panel also discussed the importance of creating hotspots where actors from different organizations have natural meeting places, events and activities that attract people from all over the world to Lund, and what digital venues could contribute.

The discussion about the Lund Innovation District had 65 pre-registered and many also wanted to participate in the discussions. Here's a selection of posts from the audience:

- We can improve our communication about Lund. I see that what we do not communicate well outwardly is that in Lund it is so close that you can talk to each other. Another important advantage that we should talk more about is that Sweden is not hierarchical compared to many other countries. In Sweden, for example, I can call a CEO — and he will answer me. That's a huge advantage. (Lisa Andersson, International Citizen Hub Lund)

- Actually, the goal may not be for many people to live here, but we want many people to think about Lund when they want a new solution or a new answer. Many people can work with us in the non-hierarchical environment and we can find ways to connect companies. I am sometimes contacted by people who want to know more about “the vibrant environment - can you guide us”. (Anna Stenstam, CR Competence and Chemistry Centre.)

The next meeting about Lund Innovation District will be March 11 and the theme is Innovation portfolios in Lund ID and talent attraction. If you would like us to send you invitations to upcoming events send a message to info@futurebylund.se

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How does Lund work with its innovation district? Lund University and Lund Municipality have commissioned Future by Lund and partners to catalyze the work to co-create Lund as an international innovation district. The work is done, among other things, to enable us in Lund to increase our capacity to solve complex and shared challenges. The work is based on a steering group consisting of Anders Almgren, Chairman of Lund Municipal Board, Pia Kinhult, ESS and Kristina Eneroth, Vice Rector at Lund University.

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Previous conversations

Lund Innovation District with the vision “Global impact within walking distance”

The proximity makes Lund's innovation district unique

How can we present the innovation district's capabilities?

Human Rights Design as a Foundation for Innovation

Great interest in creating inspiring places

You can read the full report by Maria Gimenez Grau here.

How do we create exciting meeting places in the innovation district?

Great interest in the work with Lund Innovation District

Packaging, financing and critical mass key components of Lund Innovation District

Creative spaces in Lund provide unique opportunities