Today, phase two of the billion investment was launched, which will show the way for world-class Swedish health innovation. With the first phase on its way to the final stage, the takeoff for phase two, and the continued development of GoCo Health Innovation City, was launched. An additional 110,000 square meters construction area is planned to be filled with innovative initiatives and new health-promoting initiatives. The total investment amounts to 6 billion SEK - an investment that will pave the way for new world-leading solutions to health challenges, an international hub for life science and approximately 8,000 new jobs.
GoCo Health Innovation City is a joint venture between Next Step Group and Vectura Fastigheter. Together with founding partners such as AstraZeneca, Fujirebio Diagnostics, Wellspect HealthCare and the Sahlgrenska Academy, the ambition is to create a collaborative environment for research, medicine and health where new contexts will accelerate Swedish health innovation. Since the first sod was taken, in January 2020, the collaboration platform GoCo Arena, the housing investment GoCo Living and the office building GoCo House have taken shape in the new district. The area has also welcomed several companies such as Fujirebio Diagnostics, Atleva, Norlandia, Siemens Healthineers, Intelligent Implats, XVIVO Perfusion and today, construction started for Mölnlycke Health Care's new head office.
- Phase one has progressed incredibly well. We have attracted leading companies and actors to the area who, like us, believe in the idea of collaboration and working together to create new solutions and innovations. In terms of time, we are well ahead of our schedule, so now we look forward to starting phase two where we double both the land area and the investment, says Jacob Torell, CEO of Next Step Group.
GoCo Health Innovation City is being built in close collaboration with AstraZeneca. According to Matti Ahlqvist, Executive Director at Astra Zeneca in Gothenburg, the new district that is emerging will be a great asset for the Life Science industry in Sweden.
- A strong life science cluster around our R&D site in Gothenburg is critically important for AstraZeneca and will help us solve future health challenges. Therefore, I am very happy that phase one has been faster than expected and that we are now moving to the next phase of GoCo Health Innovation City, says Matti Ahlqvist Executive director at AstraZeneca in Gothenburg.
The takeoff for the next development phase will be GoCo Active, an Excellence Center with public health, sports performance, medicine and mental illness as focus areas. The center will be a 12,000 sqm building designed by the New York-based architects SHoP - which, among others, has headquarters for Uber and YouTube in its portfolio of world-famous buildings. Here, both research and daily activities around physical activity in relation to living habits will be conducted in collaboration between academia, elite sports and business. Henrik Lundqvist, former NHL player, is one of the investors of the venture.
- The ambition is to create a place for people to strengthen their physical as well as mental health through collaboration and research. In GoCo Active, different actors meet to share knowledge and expertise that can form the basis for motivating and prioritizing different sectors for better public health, says Henrik Lundqvist, investor and ambassador for GoCo Active.
Martin Fagerström, Professor and Co-director for Health Engineering Area of Advance at Chalmers welcomes the new initiative.
- For Chalmers, GoCo Active is an important arena where we, through collaboration, can make a decisive difference to human health. From Chalmers, we want to contribute with new technology that enables more people to be active based on everyone’s conditions. As a national sports university with responsibility for sports technology especially, we also see the opportunity to contribute to increased performance among our elite athletes through research and efficient use of our expertise - in collaboration with other players within GoCo Active.
The Sahlgrenska Academy also points out the importance of collaboration - to gather different actors in the same place to create cross-border collaborations.
- The need for collaboration on future health challenges, within lifestyle-related illness, is well emphasized. At GoCo Health Innovation City, we create cross-border collaborations where academia, business and sports meet in the same place to meet these challenges together, says Mats Börjesson, Professor of Sports Physiology, Department of Medicine and Physiology at Sahlgrenska Academy and director of the Center for Health and performance development.
This spring, Mölnlycke Health Care announced that they are moving their headquarters to the new Life Science district. The new office will stand ready in 2024 and welcome about 800 employees. Today, the first sod was taken for the building.
- I strongly believe that GoCo, with its cluster of collaborating companies, will be one of the global hotspots for health innovation going forward. It will attract talent both locally and globally and be a true magnet for the entire Gothenburg region. Mölnlycke has a strong history of growth and our establishment at GoCo will strengthen our opportunities to continue that journey, says CEO Zlatko Rihter.
When the entire district is completed, it is expected to cover an area of 200,000 sq.m. with approximately 8,000 employees, 350 companies and 500 apartments.
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