Uppsala Green Innovation Park: Catalyzing sustainable connections between academia and business

One of the locations you can meet at Uppsala’s booth during BIO-Europe Spring is the Green Innovation Park. The goal of this exciting new innovation campus is to contribute to a more sustainable future.

Both the recent Paris COP21 conference and the launch of the UN’s new Sustainable Development Goals, emphasised the urgent need for innovative green technologies to solve the pressing issues of climate change and sustainability. Few countries are better placed than Sweden to show leadership in this growing field. Swedes have always cared passionately for their environment and pioneered sustainable ways of manufacturing and doing business. Now in a major investment, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) is creating the Uppsala Green Innovation Park (GIP) to build on this tradition.

Creating a greener future
“Our ambition is for the Green Innovation Park to become one of the leading innovation arenas in Europe for knowledge-intensive businesses across the whole green sector – from agriculture and food to life science and clean tech,” says Sara Brännström, GIP Project Leader.

Sara sees Green Innovation Park as catalyzing close connections between academia and the business community, allowing people and knowledge to be transferred between the two, and in turn creating new innovations contributing to a more sustainable future.

“In Sweden this is a unique setting, with a university campus with space for 200 businesses that are related to the focus areas of the university. GIP aims gather the best competences and create suitable conditions for tenant companies to collaborate and create new innovations,” she continues.

Practicing what they preach
SLU is one of the leading agricultural universities in Europe and GIP will, in addition to academia, and business have plenty of recreation areas, restaurants, service and regular apartments. “This means that it is not only a science park, but also an integrated part of the city, an attractive location for people to work, live and evolve towards living a more sustainable life. In effect practicing what they preach.” says Sara Brännström

Room to grow
GIP is conveniently located about 4 km from the city center in the southern part of Uppsala. Today about 35 businesses are already located on campus, with the goal is to have 200 by 2030. The first phase occupies 250 000 square meters, housing research, education and businesses, with plans to expand the business area by an additional 100 000 square meters. The park is co-owned by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Akademiska Hus.

Meet Green Innovation Park in booth 67.