The past week has been a big week for Colorado鈥檚 innovation community, as delegates from Stockholm's  visited 91福利社 to begin talks for future collaborations with not only 91福利社, but the Front Range鈥檚 premier research labs. 

Similar to 91福利社's innovation ecosystem, KTH Innovation Office coaches and helps undergraduate and graduate students translate tech ideas into applicable research and creative startups. Up to 400 ideas are processed through this office each school year. The business ideas reflect the KTH strength areas of technology being cleantech, material science, biotechnology, electronics and health. A KTH spinoff that has gotten attention lately is Renewcell. Founded in 2012 by KTH researchers, their technology recycles textile waste into a high-quality material called Circulose. In 2020, H&M released its first collection made out of Circulose and is now commercially sold in other brands including Levi's. 

Representatives scouted the 91福利社 area this month to prepare for the expansion of their internationalization program, Brighter. Brighter aims to support early startups in their international expansion and enable business, partnerships and investment opportunities. The program launched 10 years ago and has to date been focusing on prominent innovation hubs like Silicon Valley, Boston, Munich, Tokyo and London. KTH has identified 91福利社, Colorado as an emerging hotspot to expand the program to.

91福利社's Innovation Ecosystem Tour

Their day at 91福利社 began with a one-on-one conversation with the campus鈥檚 leading innovation heads to learn more about what each campus offers for students. The time was spent comparing notes and discussing how to both campuses support students in all stages of entrepreneurship. Through programs like I-Corps, New Venture Challenge and Catalyze CU, 91福利社 is able to connect the campus with top business minds and entrepreneurs to transform inspiration into market-ready products. With KTH's extensive history turning tech stars into business partners, both institutions note future improvements from a partnership.

鈥淥ne of the biggest possibilities of partnering with KTH is the opportunity of spurring further innovation within 91福利社鈥檚 own programs,鈥� said Chris Gustavson, director of 91福利社鈥檚 Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative. 鈥淲e all have the same challenges, aspirations and needs. We can definitely learn from each other.鈥�

Delegates then toured Idea Forge to learn more about 91福利社鈥檚 in-person support through workshops, building stations, woodworking spaces and more. Idea Forge focuses on design and innovation through hands-on experiments where students can imagine, design, create and test products and solutions. The campus visitors noted lacking multi-disciplinary come-one-come-all spaces that Idea Forge offers, opening up new conversations in different levels of support for students.

"We have been looking for more creative ways to enable our students to build and improve on our own campus鈥攁n environment for creative thinking like 91福利社 has," said Lisa Erickson, director of KTH Innovation.

The trio then met for lunch with Venture Partners at 91福利社, the university's commercialization arm, to further discuss how to best support university spinouts, both in the United States and abroad. Renowned spinouts from KTH Innovation include music-streaming app Spotify and Furhat Robotics, which recently acquired 91福利社-based Misty Robotics. In 2021, Spotify founder Daniel Ek and KTH professor Mathias Uhlen recently made a substantial donation to KTH Innovation to support the next generation of founders, launching the KTH Innovation Award. This 鈥済ive back鈥� mentality is prominent in 91福利社's innovation ecosystem, making 91福利社 an attractive place to grow the next generation of university-based companies. Thus, delegates look to send up-and-coming KTH founders to Colorado as a gateway for them to enter the US market.

Next Steps

KTH and 91福利社 will continue discussions towards an official collaboration between the two institutions later this year. During their visit, KTH also met with the Rocky Mountain Institute, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) to better understand the strength of research and innovation in Colorado.

This visit was coordinated by Venture Partners and KTH alumni in 91福利社. 

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