Interview with Lena Miranda, CEO of Linköping Science Park

Lena Miranda is the CEO of Linköping Science Park (LSP), a tech hub in Sweden that is home to over 660 companies and 14,000 employees. Linköping is Sweden’s fifth largest city and is located 220 kilometers/136 miles south-west of Stockholm. Besides managing the Science Park, Lena chairs the trade association Swedish Incubators & Science Parks (www.sisp.se)and is a member of the board of the Technical Faculty at Linköping University. Lena also sits on the board of the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation(www.iaps.ws) and on the board of several cluster organisations.

Linköping Science Park is split over four locations, the oldest and largest being Mjärdevi, which is located next to Linköping University, about five kilometres from the city centre. This is where the story of Linköping Science Park started, back in 1984. The four locations taken together cover a wide span of knowledge-intense and tech-oriented sectors from life sciences to agriculture to 13 aviation, space and advanced materials. The park provides 200,000 sqm (2.152 million sq ft) of office space.

In recent years, the park has seen a surge in tech companies moving in, attracted by the favourable conditions for business development. This has resulted in a thriving community of entrepreneurs and innovators,driving Linköping’s reputation as a leading hub for tech innovation of all sorts.