EU’s first innovation hub to be run from Flemingsberg
Health Data Sweden (HDS) will be the first among the EU’s new digital innovation hubs. The initiative is managed by Sebastiaan Meijer, Deputy Head of School at KTH in Flemingsberg.
The goal of HDS is to promote the use of health data to contribute to more efficient healthcare outcomes. The concept of health data includes information collected by healthcare providers, from individuals with the help of various sensors and health apps, and from research.
By combining different health data, it is possible to increase knowledge about individual conditions, identify new treatment methods and contribute to better diagnoses. Health data is believed to be a key factor in the growing field of precision medicine.
“Currently, the health data landscape is highly fragmented. There is a large number of good, smaller initiatives nationally and within the EU. But the exchange and access to health data is very limited. We also need to gather knowledge about how to best use and administer health data,” says Meijer.
One example of how health data is changing and simplifying care is a mobile app that growing numbers of health centres are using to provide faster answers to whether a change in a person’s skin could be due to cancer.
In Sweden, access to health data is primarily a regional issue, which slows its use and dissemination.
“We hope that the HDS consortium can lead to a breakthrough in usage by better co-ordinating data collection and dissemination. Our goal is to contribute to greater incentives for everyone to make available and share their health data throughout Europe,” Meijer says.
The HDS initiative brings together 18 partners across the country, such as universities, regional authorities, innovation environments and research institutes. HDS has recevied funding amounting to six million euros over three years.
From Science Week: Innovative arenas create collaboration for the city of the future
See the panel discussion on how innovative neutral arenas are central to the development of the smart and knowledge-intensive city. Flemingsberg Science CEO Johnny Högberg participates together with a panel consisting of Sophia Sundberg, CEO, Barkaby Science, Peter Dobers, Professor of Business Administration with a focus on sustainable development and collaboration, Södertörn University, Johan Zachrisson, Business Development Manager, Fabege and Anton Västberg, Development Director, Region Stockholm.
Test your business idea: Flemingsberg Science Award Startup open for applications
STARTUP is a competition for startups with a clear connection to Flemingsberg, either as students, residents or otherwise active in the area. All ideas are welcome to participate in STARTUP as long as you compete with your own idea and the turnover and external equity is below SEK 1,000,000 at the time you submit to the competition. After that, we of course welcome you to continue working with the business idea, sales and any investments.
Science Week: Innovative arenas create collaboration for the city of the future
Stockholm is growing and we want a smart city with knowledge-intensive industry that is sustainable. In a panel discussion during Science Week on February 1, we discuss how innovative neutral arenas are central to the development of the smart and knowledge-intensive city.
Our Sound Space – soundscapes in cities
Don’t miss the opportunity to experience an interactive sound installation at the same time as you contribute to research that improves the future of urban planning.
The Our Sound Space installation has now opened at Neo in Flemingsberg, which offers visitors the opportunity to use their smartphones to experiment with different sound environments and explore with soundscapes.
Our Sound Space is part of the Planning for Youth research project that aims to study methods and tools for meaningful participation of the younger demographic groups in participatory planning and placemaking. Romina Rodela is Docent at Södertörn University and project leader for the initiative. ““Historically, children and young people have not been very central in spatial planning. In our project, we want to explore new methods which are better able to capture their voice in spatial planning and placemaking,” says Rodela.
In this case, you use your smartphone to listen to how a new residential area will sound, for example. Which sounds are perceived as positive and which sound environments are less attractive? The idea is to give the planners of the future better tools to include children, young people and people with impaired vision or other functional variations in the planning stages of such projects. “We’ll use Our Sound Space to gather opinions from different groups to establish how effective a tool like this can be. At the same time, the installation is open to all to try out and comment on,” says Rodela. The software itself is developed by researcher Maurizio Goina at KTH and may in future be shared with planners, construction companies and architects.
Mattias Lindén is responsible for Hemsö’s properties in Flemingsberg and believes that installations such as Our Sound Space have the potential to improve the image of the area. “We’re sitting on an underused resource. In courtyards and along walkways there are areas that could be used for temporary art exhibitions – opportunities for as yet undiscovered artists to gain some exposure. We’ve just decided to support the Our Sound Space project. Imagine if people in the future will associate Flemingsberg with exuberant creativity, a place where you experience new and fresh ideas. Our Sound Space can be a small step in that direction,” says Lindén, Senior Property Manager at Hemsö. Our Sound Space runs until 7th March, while the research project will continue for another two years.
