Biosfär is the winner of this year’s Flemingsberg Science Award, a company that wants to give nursing and care home residents the opportunity to experience different activities in virtual reality. The award was presented during the announcement of Venture Cup’s Digital Top20.

Congratulations Elise Johanson and Kayla Van Cleave! What does winning the Flemingsberg Science Award mean, and how will it affect the business?

“For us, winning this award opens so many doors to completely new networks and collaborations. We want to take Biosphär to more businesses and we look forward to working with Flemingsberg Science to do this,” says Elise Johanson.
“The award means that more people get to hear about our innovation. It also gives us the opportunity to develop our prototype into a more scalable package that we can deliver to more care homes and nursing homes.”

You got the idea for Biosfär during Openlabs’ masterclass in design thinking, what made you decide to develop the idea together?

“During the course, we developed a similar concept. Our clients, City of Stockholm and Reality Lab, then saw the potential of establishing a permanent experience room for use in various activities at the Stureby care and nursing home. During a year of development of the concept, we ended up with what is today Biosfär,” says Elise.

“We work well as a team and received fantastic support from our collaboration with Reality Lab and the enthusiastic residents of Stureby. It felt natural to work together as we both believe so strongly in our idea and have a lot of fun together. When we saw the benefits Biosfär actually provided, it gave us the impetus to develop the project further,” says Kayla Van Cleave.

What’s the aim of the idea/the company; what’s your dream scenario for the future?
“We want to democratize elderly care. Biosfär gives all older people the opportunity to experience and share their lives with others, irrespective of their illness. We want every care and nursing home to have access to the Biosfär to improve people’s quality of life,” says Kayla.

Helping vulnerable groups
Flemingsberg Science strives to develop the knowledge-based ecosystem in Flemingsberg, a key component of which is more and growing companies. To promote the profile of, and encourage competitors from Flemingsberg, Flemingsberg Science decided to create the Flemingsberg Science Award business plan competition in collaboration with Venture Cup.

“Biosfär has a solution that can benefit a vulnerable group in society,” says Björn Varnestig, Flemingsberg Science CEO.

The winners were announced during avslöjades under Venture Cup’s Digital Top20, an hour-long broadcast that described the year’s work with the business plan competition, which included presentations and interviews – you can watch the award ceremony and read the citations here.

Last year’s winner was Cyklodash. Read our interview with Cyklodash.