ScanBalt BioRegion: A model case for Europe

Abstract

Europe takes part in a global competition for scientists, capital and knowledge – major factors of importance for societal growth. In the USA, regions such as Bay Area, Massachusetts and North Carolina, in particular, have developed to a critical mass far beyond the potentials of individual regions in Europe or other parts of the world. The foundation of the ScanBalt BioRegion as a pan-European life science/biotechnology collaboration has the perspective of closing this gap. The greater Nordic-Baltic region – including the Nordic countries, the Baltic countries, North Germany, Poland and the north-western part of Russia – constitutes a meta-region with a great pool of knowledge, capital and resources. In recognition of these potentials, the Nordic-Baltic region has marked itself as one of the world's most proactive in terms of building cross-sector and pan-regional networks and cooperation at local, regional and meta-regional levels. As a consequence private companies, public institutions and governments are aiming to create an internationally competitive and prosperous meta-region comprising Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Sweden, north-western part of Russia and the northern part of Germany. Thereby the political visions, for years expressed by, for example, the Baltic Development Forum, are becoming a reality in the world of biotechnology and life sciences – the frontier of a knowledge-based society. The emerging meta-region is named the ScanBalt BioRegion.