Dalarna Science Park continues to strengthen Dalarna's position internationally by helping companies grow globally, develop new innovation methods, and create opportunities for new entrepreneurship. During the year, more companies in Dalarna have reached out to the world through Dalarna Science Park's Innovation Program and Enterprise Europe Network (EEN). Another example is a European project with Dalarna University that aims to make innovation a natural part of higher education. At the same time, the BSI_4Women initiative has created important opportunities for Ukrainian women to build their own livelihoods through entrepreneurship.
This work, which has been successfully implemented in Dalarna, has both empowered individuals and contributed to new European recommendations for inclusion and business support. According to Region Dalarna, 1,100 of Dalarna's 14,000 companies currently export goods and services to markets outside Sweden. New innovative companies also tend to launch global offerings from the outset, which is why a high rate of innovation in new business start-ups also strengthens Dalarna's overall international position.
A helping hand out into the world
During the year, Dalarna Science Park has strengthened its support for Dalarna companies that want to grow internationally. Within the HIT (sustainable, innovative growth) development program, the internationalization component has received increased focus. This has provided more companies with both inspiration and knowledge to take the step into international markets, while also giving them concrete support via the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), a global network that helps small and medium-sized enterprises find partners, business contacts, and financing opportunities in other countries. Several of the companies in Dalarna Science Park's incubator have also established new international collaborations through EEN.
As part of Dalarna Science Park's internationalization initiative, a new introductory workshop for start-up companies has been launched. This is in collaboration with Business Sweden and SISP, Swedish Incubators & Science Parks. The workshop is primarily intended to support start-up companies that want to begin their internationalization journey.
Innovation on the agenda, new European project for creative students
How can we bring more innovation into university teaching? Dalarna Science Park, together with Dalarna University, will find out in a newly launched European collaboration project that also includes universities from France, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The aim is to explore and compare innovative teaching formats with the goal of jointly creating a flexible, inclusive, and sustainable education model.
– I have been working with innovation processes together with the university for two years. When a new collaborative project on innovation-driven educational challenges came up, I was asked to participate, and through my participation in Crunchtime in France, Dalarna University became a project partner. We are now running a three-year project with our own Mini Crunch and sending students to Crunchtime, says idea coach Jacob Ode at Dalarna Science Park.
Now Dalarna Science Park and Dalarna University are bringing the project home to Dalarna. With a digital focus, the method will be further tested at Dalarna University with the aim of making it easier for more students to participate, regardless of where they are located.
The project started in the summer of 2025 and will run for three years, creating new ways of carrying out innovation activities, both physically and digitally, within the university world. The aim of the project is to spread a new methodology that makes innovation a natural part of education, both in Dalarna and the rest of Europe.
Entrepreneurship as the future as BSI_4Women supports Ukrainian women in their quest for independence
Since January 2023, Dalarna Science Park, together with six partner organizations around the Baltic Sea, has been collaborating on the BSI_4Women project. This is an initiative to support Ukrainian refugee women in taking the step towards starting their own businesses. The goal is to provide women with the tools, knowledge, and networks they need to create a sustainable income in a new country through entrepreneurship.
In Sweden, more than thirty participants gathered in the spring of 2024 for Business Start Ukraine, where they learned everything from idea development and customer understanding to finance, business models, and formalities such as company registration and taxes. Six women then went on to the Entrepreneurial Gateway incubation program with business ideas such as clothing manufacturing, interpreting services for social enterprises, and machine rental.
Two of the participants represented Sweden at the international final in Rzeszów, Poland, where the ideas were judged by a panel of experts. We were delighted that the winner was Alina Shynkar, with her idea of renting out machines with a focus on sustainability, says Ann-Louise Larsson, project manager at Dalarna Science Park.
The BSI_4Women project will conclude at the end of 2025. One result of the work is new national and European recommendations on how to facilitate entrepreneurship among refugee women. The proposals include simplified regulations, microloans, mentoring programs, and language support. They also include EU-wide initiatives such as financing funds, digital platforms, and social enterprise models.
Despite the fact that the path to entrepreneurship in Sweden is often difficult for women with refugee status, the project shows that
the drive and ideas are there.
Read the full Dalarna Science Park Annual Report 2025
This article is part of Dalarna Science Park's annual report for 2025. The report provides an overview of our work, our results, and developments during the year.
