Boston boasts some of the brightest students and young professionals across a variety of industries, especially IT, Life Science and Engineering.

Friday evening the 15^th of February 70 of them showed up at The Venture Cafe at Kendall Square in the heart of Boston’s vibrant innovation ecosystem.

Here the room was unusually quiet as the MIT-students listened carefully to Alex Costas description of the Danish innovation eco system.

“One of the reasons why Denmark has a strong foundation for innovation is due to its growing innovation ecosystem supported by great public funding, a good education system and its world class industries within the fields of healthcare, industrial biotech, energy and shipping,” he told them.

See also: Blog: MIT students seek Danish companies

Denmark is truly appealing to talents

Alex Costas is a Senior Technology and Innovation Manager at LEO Science & Tech Hub, the R&D innovation unit of LEO Pharma in Boston. 

After a few years spent in Scandinavia Alex Costas joined Leo in Boston. This evening he very enthusiastically speaks of what characterizes the Danish way of innovating.

“The country is truly appealing for talents who either want to join the industry or a start-up due to an attractive work life balance, a great health care system and a start-up friendly environment. I think organizations like Dansk Industri and Copenhagen Capacity are playing a fundamental role in bridging foreign talents to Denmark and I believe this is critical in driving innovation,” he said.

No doubt that the message was spot on among the crowd invited this Friday evening by Dansk Industri, Copenhagen Capacity, and the newly opened Innovation Center Denmark.

Come join us in finding the solutions of tomorrow

Another man on the floor that evening in Boston was manager Roberto Flore from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) Foodlab. He spoke warmly for greater collaboration between industries and universities:

“My vision for the DTU Skylab Foodlab is to create a space where DTU students, entrepreneurs and companies can work together on the future of sustainable food production. We want MIT students to join us in this adventure. We believe that together we will find better solutions for tomorrow’s food system,” he said.

See also: DI: Businesses need foreign employees as well

I get to meet real companies

According to Jessica, PhD in Mechanical Engineering, a career in Denmark is worth considering.  

“I have been thinking for a while about moving to Europe, and Denmark is definitely one of the European countries I am looking into. It is of course a big advantage that Danes speak English, because, well, it is quite unlikely that I will become fluent within a couple of months. Then, the fact that Denmark has one of the world’s best work-life balance is on the plus side. Events like this one is a step further on in my decision-making process, because I get to meet real companies - and real people. It will have been more difficult to find them on my own,” she said.

Many of the students who participated in the event have shown interest in the MIT-Denmark program, a program allowing Danish companies and research institutions to host MIT students as full-time interns from 3 to 12 months across industries, regions, and organization size.

The Danish Industry Foundation serves as the founding partner of the MIT-Denmark program.

Already this summer, the first group of MIT students will bring their competences and perspectives to Danish companies.