Perceptions of the Baltic states do not always keep pace with their advancement. The picture changing swiftly.
Northtown Vilnius has shown that Lithuania is boldly stepping onto the world innovation map. More in our conversation with Dr Gediminas Pauliukevičius, CEO of Northtown Vilnius.
What led you to where you are today?
From the outset, Northtown Vilnius sought to strengthen Lithuania’s innovation ecosystem: for more than a decade, we advised innovative businesses, ran incubation and acceleration programmes and developed the infrastructure to support them. As the ecosystem grew, companies needed different conditions to scale.
We evolved alongside them, seeking to anticipate their needs, help them grow faster and strengthen the wider ecosystem. During our second decade, VCIIP gave this direction a tangible form: we began developing innovation zones and infrastructure designed to provide the best possible conditions for innovative businesses to grow.
In 2019, we chose life sciences as the primary focus of VCIIP’s development – a decision shaped by Lithuania’s accumulated expertise, the country’s strategic commitment to growing this industry and our conviction that conditions tailored to its needs, combined with the synergies created by bringing the sector’s leaders together in one location, could help companies achieve far more.
Today, VCIIP Bio has attracted €284 million in investment and is home to a strong community with significant growth potential and clear international ambitions. This year also marks an important new stage for VCIIP: as development expands into a new area of Vilnius, the project has received international recognition. In 2026, Real FDI named VCIIP and Bio City among the ten most attractive investment projects in Central and Eastern Europe.
For our team, this experience is highly valuable. It allows us to look further ahead – towards Vilnius as an environment where companies can grow into industry leaders, and where the knowledge, technologies and partnerships they develop create a lasting competitive advantage for the city, Lithuania and the wider region.
What misconceptions about the Baltics still persist?
Perceptions of the Baltic states do not always keep pace with their transformation. For many years, the region was seen as an attractive destination for relocating operations, drawing on a skilled workforce and operating at competitive costs. Today, its potential is still often judged by the size of its domestic markets or the success of its digital startups. This overlooks the scientific and industrial capabilities developed here. For biotechnology or laser companies, for example, domestic market size is not decisive: their growth is driven by global demand, while their competitive advantage lies in specialist knowledge and the ability to translate it into technology.
Vilnius’s progress illustrates this shift particularly clearly: the value of its startup ecosystem has grown sevenfold in five years. Alongside globally recognised technology businesses, the city brings together a strong concentration of expertise in life sciences, lasers and artificial intelligence, with expanding capabilities in advanced manufacturing. Take Bio City, for example: its expertise in biologics, gene therapy and cell-based technologies demonstrates what a broad range of research, development and manufacturing activities Vilnius can now support. This strengthens the city’s position in international partnerships and gives talented professionals the opportunity to address challenges of global significance while building their future at home.
Such rapid growth also brings a challenge: translating this accumulated potential into sustained growth for new high-tech companies. We have a strong scientific base, talented people and internationally competitive businesses. Sustaining this momentum means creating the conditions for these industries to thrive: developing the physical infrastructure they need to grow, attracting venture capital investors who understand the sectors they are backing and are prepared to take on scientific risk, and building a mature accelerator ecosystem that brings scientific expertise, business experience and funding together. We therefore believe the next stage of the region’s development will depend on our ability to anticipate industry needs and sustain the conditions that allow individual success stories to lay the foundations for the long-term growth of high-tech industries.
How well positioned is Lithuania to become a European hub for health innovation?
Over the past decade, Lithuania’s position on the European life sciences map has changed markedly – it is increasingly recognised among the countries whose scientific and innovation potential carries weight internationally. This is particularly evident in areas where distinctive expertise has already been built: Vilnius University Life Sciences Center, the EMBL Partnership Institute, biotechnology companies operating in international markets, and the continued development of Bio City together provide a strong foundation for further growth.
Lithuania now has an opportunity to bring together the full journey from scientific discovery and the development of new therapies to their application, manufacturing and market entry. This naturally aligns with the priorities set out in EU strategic documents, which emphasise the need to strengthen research and innovation ecosystems so that life sciences innovations can reach the market faster and be applied more widely in practice. Another important shift is that Lithuania is increasingly becoming a setting for international professional dialogue, where the latest challenges and developments in health, biotechnology and personalised medicine are discussed.
Today, within the VCIIP community, we can take particular satisfaction in having moved closer to our vision of becoming a hub that brings together international teams to tackle complex challenges in the life sciences. I have no doubt that we can continue to build on this momentum if we consistently strengthen the links between science, clinical practice, business and the public sector, and turn our growing capabilities into an advantage that encourages talent and investors to see their future in Lithuania and the wider Baltic region.
What are the key growth areas for Northtown Vilnius? Tell us a bit more about what your future plans are.
Northtown Vilnius’s growth is closely linked to our ability to anticipate the conditions high-tech companies will need at the next stage of their development. Our purpose, and what the city expects of us, remain unchanged: to create an environment in Vilnius that enables high-tech businesses to flourish. The growing interplay between life sciences, advanced manufacturing and digital technologies is opening up new opportunities that require space, substantial infrastructure, expert support and close collaboration across disciplines. Creating specialised investment sites and technology development centres therefore remains our main focus.
A strong life sciences community has already taken shape at VCIIP Bio, where the recently opened HUBIO welcomes companies looking to establish and grow their operations in adaptable spaces. The planned development of our second site, VCIIP Tech, will create new space for industries driving technological breakthroughs and for innovative businesses that need larger production facilities, greater engineering capacity and efficient logistics. We see these sites as complementary environments where companies can grow in step with their ambitions, so we plan infrastructure with the longer-term development of their industries in mind. Alongside this, we are open to partnerships to develop incubation, acceleration and mentoring programmes, drawing on our extensive experience in these areas.
So, our plans for the next few years are fairly clear. Looking further ahead, we never stand still: we assess emerging trends to identify opportunities for the city and its businesses as early as possible. This allows us to evolve and grow alongside the innovation ecosystem in Vilnius and Lithuania, while making a tangible contribution to its development.
Another important part of our daily work is our commitment to VCIIP’s growing community: making the park a comfortable, well-run place to work, while keeping the community itself vibrant – nurturing traditions, strengthening relationships and continually seeking synergies that can lead to joint initiatives, research and international partnerships.
How will the new cell therapy infrastructure strengthen the Baltic region’s biotech capabilities?
When congratulating the Bio City team on the opening of the centre, I summed up its significance for Lithuania in a few words: “Lithuania’s biotechnology sector is stepping into a new stage.” The vision is equally bold in its regional scope, giving greater substance to the Baltics’ ambition to help shape the future of medicine.
The new centre builds on the region’s existing experience and specialist expertise in cell therapies, adding significant capacity to develop and manufacture advanced treatments for international partners. Within Bio City, these capabilities sit alongside established strengths in biologics and gene therapy, giving research teams and companies greater scope to pursue ambitious projects here. The centre’s wider promise lies in the knowledge and relationships that can take root around it, allowing international projects to become a lasting source of expertise, new businesses and opportunity for the region.
Why do some innovations succeed while others fade away? Is there a formula for resilience?
An innovation’s future depends on its scientific foundations, market relevance and whether its environment can grow alongside it. In life sciences, discovery and market entry can be separated by many years, during which technologies, funding needs and markets change. Each stage requires different expertise, infrastructure and partners.
When that continuity breaks down, some potential remains unrealised. VCIIP’s vision therefore encompasses the full environment for business growth: collaboration with researchers, access to neighbouring companies’ experience, manufacturing expansion and international connections. Such a community accumulates knowledge that can support other innovations. We associate resilience with the ability to retain, share and apply that knowledge as circumstances change. This gives promising ideas a better chance of reaching the stage at which their true value becomes clear.
How difficult is it to scale advanced therapies from the lab to a global market?
You know, I’m afraid my thoughts on this would be rather abstract – more theoretical or intuitive, shaped by my experience of working with life sciences companies. Yet this is an important and interesting topic for the region, so I would encourage you to speak with Professor Bumelis or the Bio City team, whose insights are grounded in many years of experience.
What makes a location attractive for innovators?
An attractive location gives innovators confidence that they can fulfil both their current ambitions and those still taking shape. This calls for a concentration of talent, research and business, opportunities to find partners and room for further growth. Vilnius has a strong foundation in this respect: in 2025, high-tech sectors accounted for 11.3% of employment in the capital region. The importance of talent in biotechnology is also a recurring theme in our conversations with Lithuanian and international investors. People come first, alongside a few other conditions that matter to every business.
At VCIIP, we seek to build on the city’s potential through specialised infrastructure that can be readily adapted to investors’ needs, support in establishing operations, a prompt public-sector response to their expectations and a strong community.
And finally, there is everyday convenience – the practical details that make people feel comfortable in their surroundings and want to stay. This is why we are developing VCIIP around a ‘city within a city’ vision, where professional opportunities go hand in hand with nature, convenient transport links, education and easily accessible everyday services. We aim to create an environment where both companies and the people behind them can see their future.
Photo: Dr. Gediminas Pauliukevičius, CEO of Northtown Vilnius, Operator of Vilnius City Innovation Industrial Park
