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Last update : 27/03/2006


	Copenhagen - A region of excellence for innovative start-ups --- Copenhagen is the capital city in Denmark. It covers a geographical area of 287 km2 and the region has a total population of nearly 1.79 million The work force in the Copenhagen region numbers just over 964 000. Unemployment has been falling year on year since 1995 and is below the 5% level. This is comparative to the Danish national average and is well below the EU level of around 8%. The GDP per capita within the region is €35.798, 122% of the Danish GDP and 145% of the EU GDP. Copenhagen has many good universities and learning institutions and 23% of the people within the region have a higher education level of some kind. The Copenhagen region promotes a strong economic growth in knowledge intensive industries such as pharmaceuticals, the biotechnology industry and business services. The dynamic business environment facilitated by clustering businesses together through building innovation parks and developing networks has lead to an increase in the number of spin-offs being created through research ventures. Research and development co-operation has increased between academic and private partners and also with horizontal and vertical ventures between corporations. These strengths in developing the innovation and start-up industry have been recognised and as such the local business policy focuses sharply on clusters and R&D partnerships between the public and private sectors.



	Key sectors and research facilities --- The Medicon Valley cluster is a premium example of the successes within the Copenhagen region regarding the advancement of innovative industries. Medicon Valley is home to many of the worlds leading pharmaceutical companies and in fact Denmark is the third largest exporter of pharmaceuticals in the world. Denmark is third highest spender on research and development for pharmaceuticals within Europe and between 1992-1999 was the second most prolific patentee in the biotechnology field (based on patents filed at the US patent office) The Universities within the region play a very important role within the innovation and start-up industry. The universities have a rich and strong tradition of research where staff and students have access to world class research capacities. Opportunities for the industrial commercialisation of university research are maximised by the presence of liaison services and the encouragement of start-ups from a very early stage. Although the rates of start-up creation are comparably low the survival rates of these start-ups are well above average. Furthermore, private companies operating exclusively in research and development establish their own infrastructure, including venture capital sources, patent offices and incubator facilities in order to promote spin-offs.



	Copenhagen and the European Commission --- Along with several other regions in Europe, Copenhagen, through participation in the START project, which is part of the European Commission sponsored PAXIS programme, hopes to achieve several advances in the development of its local innovation start-ups. Key objectives to be realised are to : Spur the adoption of new methods and spin-off mechanisms at higher education institutions Reinforce expertise and competencies in the knowledge transfer systems Promote increased co-operation between public and private parties and Establish networks with other regions By analysing spin-offs in both the public and private sectors, facilitating the exchange of important experiences and experimenting with new settings and methods, best practices and policies can be extracted and can then be disseminated and adopted throughout the region.

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