Year 2013 is coming to an end and a lot has happened in Hagastaden during the year. With the ever expanding activites in the area, Stockholm Life in Hagastaden is providing an increasingly attractive environment.
The proximity to the three largest universities and the Stockholm School of Economics with world class research, Karolinska University Hospital in Solna and the ongoing construction of the New Karolinska University Hospital (NKS) makes Hagastaden a unique area that is now rapidly growing. SciLifeLab - an elite laboratory and national infrastructure - bringing together researchers from Karolinska Institutet (KI), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm University and Uppsala University continues to grow. A national Drug Discovery and Development platform (DDD platform), offering Swedish scientists support in order to advance academic discoveries is now launched at SciLifeLab.
There is no doubt that Hagastaden is an increasingly popular city district, and requests for premises are high. It has become difficult to find vacant offices in existing properties at Norra Stationsgatan and the first new property at Torsplan is filled with new tenants. The ground floor's local service with a food store and a pharmacy makes life easier for those of us working in the area. Now there are as many as 75 life science companies in Stockholm Life Hagastaden (SCB 2011) compared to the 53 life science companies in the area in 2009. That's an increase of over 40 percent.
The spectacular Aula Medica at KI Solna campus has been inaugurated. The auditorium can accommodate 1,000 people and has a restaurant at the street level. It is well worth a visit on a sunny day when the 5,700 panes of glass glimmer in the light. The building of the new top-modern research laboratory, Biomedicum , has also started this year.
During the year, the foundation has worked to enhance the collaboration between industry, academia and healthcare providers. It has been particularly exciting to bring together the ICT and the life science sectors to see how they can work together to meet the challenges in healthcare. This led to the conference Digital Health Days, which took place in August this year and attracted over 400 visitors. Look for it at the end of August next year as well!
A few weeks ago, the Stockholm County Council's decided to extend the metro line to Hagastaden and Solna which pleased many of us. The color of the line are now being debated, and my favorite is pink. Hagastaden has simply become known and popular.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
