Innovation Europe > News > Innovation EU Vol1-1 > Sweden

A stable macroeconomic environment, a well-educated workforce, a handful of R&D-intensive multinational corporations, ambitious public investment in activities related to innovation and state-of-the-art scientific performance form together the basis for innovation activities in Sweden. These strengths are reinforced by Sweden’s integration into global markets.

Despite the strengths, several weaknesses exist. Extensive decreases in activities among the dominating industrial groups combined with low levels of investments in the business community and an inability to achieve effective job creation, has put pressure on the Swedish innovation system. In addition, a decreasing rate of business R&D spending and a termination of the Swedish model for public private partnership has accelerated these weaknesses.

Main innovation challenges

• Centres of Excellence – creation of globally competitive research and innovation milieus.
• Embeddedness of R&D-intensive MNCs – safeguarding technology spillovers and job creation among knowledge-intensive industries.
• Innovative public procurement – revitalising old models to transform knowledge to commercial value.

Action

The general visions for the national innovation policy in Sweden are stated in the strategy “Innovative Sweden”. The strategy is an attempt to achieve growth through renewal and is geared towards: the creation of a knowledge base for innovation; development of innovative trade and industry; the use of innovative public investments; and the promotion of innovative people. The strategy is implemented by several decentralised and agency-based measures.

Much of the recent innovation action at the national level is focused on strategic programmes for key industries, a better structure for seed financing, focused R&D investments in engineering, life sciences and natural sciences combined with measures to strengthen the industrial institutes and innovation activities in SMEs.

Sweden continues to be concerned with and develops the issues related to renewal, as well as the Lisbon objectives, but without having an explicit national innovation policy as a guideline. The process of globalisation calls for improved linkages between domestic “knowledge hubs”, as well as linkages to excellent milieus in other countries. This calls for closer co-operation between the business community and the public sector, as well as researchers at industrial institutes and universities.