Life Science Talent Talks

About Life Science Talent Talks

We want to build a community to inspire life science professionals and leaders through talent talks and organized events. Share knowledge across the life science community through personal stories of their journey. 𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗘𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺: Take part in shaping this community by sharing your feedback, questions or ideas. This you can do through our community page: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12717528/ Follow us: Nehar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neharmortuza/ and Søren: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soren-spanner-bach/

Publisher

Life Science Talent Ecosystem

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

1 Feb 2023

Latest episode

17 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

74 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   17 Sept 2026

   E74 #Ecosystem Builders “Inside The Kitchen: Turning University Research into Startups” with Jeppe Dørup Olesen

   Jeppe Dørup Olesen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeppe-d%C3%B8rup-olesen-b25577/), Head of Innovation at Aarhus University, leads The Kitchen (https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/kitchen-aarhusuniversitet/posts/?feedView=all) — an incubator that has grown from a handful of cases to over 450 active startups and 350 protected technologies in five years. In this conversation, he unpacks what it takes to turn university research into companies, why early-stage risk capital remains Europe's biggest bottleneck, and how Aarhus is building an ecosystem — from an Entrepreneur in Residence program to a university-backed venture fund — to keep promising deep tech companies from moving abroad. ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS (09:09) The Kitchen now supports 450 active startup cases and protects 350 technologies, a sharp jump from five years ago (10:25) High-risk, early-stage capital — not talent or ideas — is named as Europe's real innovation bottleneck compared to the US (23:53) The Entrepreneur in Residence program pairs commercial hires with research teams as potential co-founders; one resulting company raised a €10 million round (26:41) Sunstones, a CO2-in-minerals startup spun out of the Department of Geoscience, is highlighted as a flagship success story now moving to demonstration scale (30:29) Aarhus University's Research Foundation, Salling Foundations, Norlys, and Heartland jointly launched an evergreen VC fund that has closed ten pre-seed investments since opening (47:18) A broader EU policy push — citing the Draghi report — is set to pull universities further into innovation and commercialization over the next decade Guest Bio Experienced Leader with a demonstrated history of working in international collaboration, Innovation, advocacy and public affairs. Skilled in International Relations, leadership, program development and Politics. Strong professional with leadership education from INSEAD, Harvard University and UC Berkeley. Resources Mentioned The Kitchen (Aarhus University incubator) Aarhus University Research Foundation PreSeed Ventures BioInnovation Institute Sunstones Startup Aarhus SMIL startup festival Venture Connect investor meetups The Draghi report Ideas for future podcast guests or themes? 💡 We want to co-create this podcast with you. We’d therefore love to hear your suggestions for future podcast guests, ecosystem builders, or deep tech themes. Feel free to share in a private message or leave a comment below 🙏🏼 (It's also ok to invite yourself 😉) Call to Action If this episode sparked your interest: Share it with someone working in science, startups, or innovation Follow the miniseries for more conversations with ecosystem builders

2. 

   20 Aug 2026

   E72 #Ecosystem Builders “From Lab to Value Chain: Mission-Driven Carbon Capture” with CORC's Lasse Rosendahl & Alexia Jacobsen

   In this podcast episode on turning research into societal value, host Søren (https://www.linkedin.com/in/soren-spanner-bach/) Spanner Bach is joined by co-host Per Christensen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/per-christensen-bse/) of Black Swans Exist (https://www.linkedin.com/company/black-swans-exist/) and guests Lasse Rosendahl (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lasse-rosendahl-24b5b62/), Director of CORC (https://www.linkedin.com/company/nnfcorc/), and (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexia-jacobsen/)Alexia Jacobsen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexia-jacobsen-2aa4365/), Head of Innovation at CORC - the Novo Nordisk Foundation CO2 Research Center, headquartered in Aarhus with partner institutions across Europe and the US. The conversation centres on a deceptively simple question: what does it actually take to translate CO2 research into real-world impact when the value chain you need doesn't yet exist? Lasse and Alexia walk through the full journey - from TRL 1 microbe experiments exploring how to transform CO2 into methane, to a 200x scale-up pilot facility at Campus Viborg that is already testing market viability by exploring the sale of carbon credits and offtake products at pilot scale. A key theme throughout is that the TRL ladder is not linear: scaling up consistently surfaces new fundamental questions, sending research back down before moving forward again. Iteration is the design, not the exception. The bottleneck in commercializing carbon utilization is less about technology maturity and more about the near-complete absence of governmental verification frameworks for CCU and CCC in Europe - and the missing value chains that spin-outs need to survive. Alexia also introduces CORC's approach to impact measurement: rather than imposing performance indicators that produce what you measure rather than what you want, the team is developing key value measures in direct dialogue with researchers. And critically, the innovation team's role is to remove the administrative and legal obstacles from the researcher's path - so that scientists can stay focused on the science while still contributing to real-world impact. ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 01:26 What Is CORC? — Mission, Funding and International Scope 04:11 Why CO₂ Research Matters — And What TRL Actually Means 06:45 TRL in Practice — From Lab-Scale Microbes to Pilot Reactors 10:42 The Real Bottleneck — Value Chains That Don’t Exist Yet 17:13 What Can Industry Do? — Spin-Ins, De-Risking and Ecosystem Building 21:57 Researcher KPIs vs Real-World Impact — How to Navigate Both 25:20 CORC’s Four Mission Streams — Interdisciplinary Design 29:01 Keeping Researchers Mission-Aligned — Annual Meetings and Shared Direction 35:00 What Europe Can Learn from the US — Entrepreneurship and Failure Culture 38:21 Coalition on Advancing Research Assessment — Rethinking Researcher Metrics 41:46 Selling Credits at Pilot Scale — Testing the Market Before It Exists 43:15 Excel ERIC — Sharing Infrastructure Across Europe 45:29 Why Aarhus? — Location, Ecosystem and Production Pipeline 46:41 Impact by 2028 — Technologies Out, Value Chains Built, Knowledge Compounded 50:14 Target Industries and Products — What CORC Is Looking For 💡 QUOTES "If we are not successful in bringing down atmospheric CO2 levels, it will have consequences — not for the planet, which will survive — but for the way we as humans inhabit the Earth." — Lasse "If the value chain is not there, we set spin-outs up to fail. That's essentially what we're doing." — Alexia Ideas for future podcast guests or themes? 💡 We want to co-create this podcast with you. We’d therefore love to hear your suggestions for future podcast guests, ecosystem builders, or deep tech themes. Feel free to share in a private message or leave a comment below 🙏🏼 (It's also ok to invite yourself 😉) Call to Action If this episode sparked your interest: Share it with someone working in science, startups, or innovation Follow the miniseries for more conversations with ecosystem builders

3. 

   13 Aug 2026

   E71 #Ecosystem Builders "From Spin-Outs to Spin-Ins: How Incuba Shapes Aarhus' Innovation Ecosystem" with Jacob Doktor Mogensen

   Jacob Doktor Mogensen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-doktor-mogensen-86a7045/), CEO of Incuba (https://www.linkedin.com/company/incuba-science-park-a-s/posts/?feedView=all), joins the show to unpack how Aarhus's science park model turns university research into scaled companies. The conversation moves from Incuba's problem-first, hands-on approach to acceleration, through real cases like Coana and CrowdStrike/Humio, to the harder question of why Danish companies sell out to international capital - and what "spinning in" corporate innovation could change. Listeners get a grounded look at what actually moves a startup from idea to exit. Episode Timestamps (09:37) Concrete support: financing, applications, introductions (10:49) The Investor Hub: proximity that closes deals (27:26) Success story: Quana's journey and US sale (41:39) Defining "spin-in" innovation (46:14) Spin-in success story: CrowdStrike and Humio (50:01) Turning company problems into student projects (55:00) Aarhus' innovation ecosystem over the next 10 years Guest Bio Jacob Doktor Mogensen is CEO of Incuba, the Aarhus-based science park connecting university spin-outs, established companies, and investors across three hubs. Before Incuba, he spent fifteen years in Danish innovation clusters and science parks, including time in the food industry. Resources Mentioned Incuba (Incuba.dk) — science park hubs at Katrinebjerg, Navitas, and Skejby Incuba on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/incuba-science-park-a-s/) Coana — Aarhus University spin-out and EU Horizon-funded case study CrowdStrike / Humio acquisition Delfinus Venture Capital InnoFonden, InnoBooster, Horizon Europe funding programs Startup Aarhus Aarhus Investor Summit (October 8) Ideas for future podcast guests or themes? 💡 We want to co-create this podcast with you. We’d therefore love to hear your suggestions for future podcast guests, ecosystem builders, or deep tech themes. Feel free to share in a private message or leave a comment below 🙏🏼 (It's also ok to invite yourself 😉)

Who has been a guest on Life Science Talent Talks

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Rahmad Akbar
• Mogens Johannsen
• Thomas Poulsen
• Janine Erler
• Lluís Riera Ponsati

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

4.9 / 5

15 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 59 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

90

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

71

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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