A few weeks ago, I stood alongside leaders from 27 other European organisations at the Copenhagen Competitiveness Summit. Together, we signed the Copenhagen Pledge – a commitment to make Europe more innovative, resilient, secure, and healthy.  

That pledge reflects an urgent need for change that will benefit not just Europe, but the world – a need I’ve witnessed countless times in my career. 

As a teenager, my plan was to become a vet. But during my first year at university, I met a doctoral student. He took me to his lab and sat me at a microscope where I watched a sperm cell from a bull fertilise a cow egg. I saw the origin of life happening in front of my eyes – and in that moment, I changed my mind.  

I still wanted to help cure disease, but in humans – and instead of doctoring, I wanted to do research, to help develop the fundamental knowledge that could lead to new treatments.  

What I didn’t understand at the time was how difficult that path is, especially here in Europe. Many times since, I’ve seen incredible breakthroughs founder – some never make it beyond the lab, others not past early development. A few get close to real-world use but lack the funds to scale their production. And it’s not just in medicine. It’s also climate mitigation technologies, alternative foods, green energy solutions. 

It’s ironic and frustrating that Europe has both extraordinary potential to develop treatments, tools, and technologies that could change our world for the better, if they make it to market – and systems and practices that often hamper that process.  

A rocky path to market
Irina Borodina, biotechnology scientist and entrepreneur here in Denmark, knows these challenges all too well. Her research into yeast led to a low-cost, fermentation-based method of producing insect pheromones, an eco-friendly alternative to chemical insecticides.  

She founded a startup, BioPhero, that enabled her and her team to further develop the product and scale up production. In 2022, the company was acquired by a US-based crop protection company, FMC Corporation, for $200 million. The first product is now being used in Brazil to protect corn crops from armyworm, and several more products are on the way. 

It’s a success story, but it might not have been. Time and time again, Irina struggled to raise the research, development, or scale-up funds she and the company needed. And it will still be some time before BioPhero’s products can be used in Europe – the registration processes for bio-based products are simply far longer here than in many other regions. 

We supported her when we could – with grants and investments through the Foundation and our subsidiary, Novo Holdings. But what Irina really needed – and what many other innovators across Europe need now – is access to scale-up funds and infrastructure that can provide the right support for the best ideas all the way to market, and regulation that works as it should – as a check, not a stopper. 

Stimulating science where it’s strongest
Europe has world-class science and talented people. What we need now is to get better at turning research into real solutions that improve lives, not just here, but everywhere. That means supporting high-impact research, investing in innovation, and working with partners across borders. It means making sure that the breakthroughs we help create – whether it’s new resilient crops, advances in drug discovery, or green energy solutions – can be adapted and implemented in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere. 

The Nordic region has a particular role to play. The countries here have complementary skill sets, advanced infrastructure, and a long history of working well together – while also facing challenges common to many regions, such as dispersed populations and a shortage of healthcare workers. This makes them an ideal testing ground for new approaches to health data and the use of AI in disease prevention and treatment, to take just two examples. 

We know that today’s solutions to the biggest global challenges won’t do. That’s why we’re focused on stimulating science where it’s strongest, translating discoveries into practical innovations, and bringing in partners from other regions early – so the solutions developed in Europe can work for the world. 

Smoothing the path
In fact, we’ve already committed to doing what we can, together with others, to smooth the path for innovators like Irina.  

We’re working hard to build public-private partnerships that can bridge the gap between research and innovation – two examples are the Open Discovery Innovation Network and the Plant2Food collaboration platform.  

We’re also working with others to help develop new structures that provide the funding that scientists and startups need; to encourage more innovation-friendly policies; and, of course, to support the vital research that provides the fuel for any successful innovation ecosystem. Concretely, that means expanding some open calls to the Nordic or European region for the first time, including our Challenge Programme and, soon, our Infectious Diseases Catalyst Grants – with co-applicants welcomed from anywhere in the world. 

In many areas of human and planetary health, we work closely with our colleagues in Novo Holdings. Together, we can provide vital support, both financial and otherwise, across the full value chain from education and research to seed, venture, and capital investment, ensuring that the best ideas thrive instead of founder. We’re proud that Holdings is a founding investor in the Scaleup Europe Fund, which will provide crucial scale-up capital for the continent’s most promising startups. 

We will do more of all this across Europe in the years to come – always together with partners from the regions most affected by the challenges we’re addressing. Because if the solutions don’t work there, they aren’t solutions at all.  

Discovering tomorrow’s solutions
I’ve spent most of my working life in medical research – at the start of that long and bumpy road from the laboratory to the clinic. While research still excites me, I also desperately want to see the brilliant work being done by so many scientists become brilliant real-world solutions that make us and our planet healthier.  

Europe is still positioned to take the lead. And if we and others get this right, Europe won’t just be stronger for Europeans. It will become a place where tomorrow’s solutions are discovered – solutions that can benefit communities all over the world. 

This is the second in a six-part series, “The Road Ahead”, about how the Novo Nordisk Foundation is changing. Read Part One here, and look out for Part Three soon.