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Number of companies per country

0 20 40 60 80 100

Figure 1. Number of bioinformatics-related start-ups and SMEs identified per country within
Europe. Orange hexagons represent regions with high concentrations of companies (countries
shown where data was available).

year, with over 75% having a science or technical companies face a talent-acquisition challenge.
degree – people and expertise matter. They need to employ experts in specialised life
science areas and, at the same time, bring in
Take Arcticzymes, located in Tromsø 10,11 . experts in cutting-edge technologies, such as
Arcticzymes extensively uses public databases machine learning and artificial intelligence.
to identify novel cold-adapted enzymes from Access to people, personal networks, partners
arctic organisms, and formulates these for use and collaborators that provide open resources
in molecular research, in vitro diagnostics and remains an important factor for the concentration
therapeutics. Companies that base their business of bioinformatics ventures in certain regions
model on digital technologies and data can be (Figure 1).
based anywhere – but our research has shown that
being close to an innovation ecosystem helps many In this report, we will explore the innovation
to thrive and go further. Because of the knowledge- ecosystems in Europe that harbour most
intensive nature of the industry, bioinformatics bioinformatics SMEs.

10 Novel enzyme technologies | ArcticZymes Technologies ASA. https://arcticzymes.com/.
11 ELIXIR – Value of open bioinformatics resources to industry and SMEs – YouTube. https://youtu.be/YWYKVzxxeZQ