Helsingborg Innovation District
At the heart of Helsingborg’s innovation ecosystem is Helsingborg Innovation District (HID). The district drives growth and supports the city’s wider business community.
Centred in Oceanhamnen, HID brings together more than 350 organisations, over 5,800 employees and 4,000 students. It’s a concentrated environment of knowledge-intensive businesses with strong innovation capacity.
The district is home to a network of connected hubs, including the City of Helsingborg’s Parken, Lund University (Campus Helsingborg), HETCH, Mindpark, RecoLab and E-commerce Park. Together, they form a platform where startups, established companies, researchers, entrepreneurs and the public sector collaborate to develop, test and scale new solutions.
Testbeds that deliver business value
Helsingborg has been recognised by the European Commission as one of Europe’s most innovative cities. For years, the city has taken a strategic approach to building a smarter, more sustainable and more resilient urban environment.
Innovation is used as a practical tool to address real-world challenges. A key strength is access to testbeds and living labs, where companies can develop and validate products, services and processes in real environments—often in close collaboration with the city and academia. This reduces risk, shortens development cycles and speeds up time to market.
RecoLab enables full-scale testing of circular solutions in water, waste and energy. By separating wastewater and food waste at source, it supports nutrient recovery, increased biogas production and the return of clean water to the city.
RecoPark is a development centre where organic waste streams can be converted into biochar. It offers access to full-scale facilities, technology and expertise for testing circular processes with clear climate benefits.
Transport and logistics testbeds support innovation across electrified transport, charging infrastructure, digital logistics, last-mile delivery and circular flows.
Living labs across the city allow solutions to be developed and tested with users in real-life settings. Services, digital solutions and new ways of working can be validated early, reducing risk and improving market fit. In Oceanhamnen, projects focus on climate-neutral construction and circular systems. In Östra Ramlösa, future test environments will explore sustainable building, mobility, energy and circular economy solutions.
AI Sweden’s National City Lab. Helsingborg is home to Sweden’s first municipal data testbed, This gives companies access to real urban data to develop and test AI-driven and data-based solutions in a live city environment.