UK Science & Innovation Network Country Snapshot: Sweden
UK Science & Innovation Network Country Snapshot:
Sweden
Swedish Science and Innovation Landscape
Sweden position in
Global Innovation Index:
Sweden is recognised as a world leader in
4.00%
research, development and innovation (RDI),
3.50%
confirming it’s top position on the EU
3.00%
Innovation Scoreboard the tenth year in a row 2.50%
2.00%
in 2016, and ranking ninth in the Global
Position of UK in
1.50%
Competitiveness Index. Sweden’s impressive
Sweden's international
1.00%
collaboration 2008-12:
0.50%
RDI intensity is largely a result of strong
0.00%
government commitment to R&D investment
UK
Sweden
(2014: 1.03%) and a handful of large
GERD as % of GDP
multinational enterprises. On the other hand, a
lack of cross-government approach to S&I
Share of global GERD (per cent)
policy and top-down strategy have been noted as some of the few
Source: OECD Science and Technology Indicators
weaknesses to Sweden’s otherwise world-class innovation system. The
Löfven Government has recently set up a National Innovation Council to address this.
2nd
2nd
Sweden’s innovation strategy is set out every four years in its Research & Innovation Bill, which provides the
framework for RDI priorities and activities, and outlines the overall budget. The science and innovation strategy is
executed by the country’s RDI funding bodies and sectoral research agencies, which include the Swedish Research
Council VR for basic research, the Swedish Government Funding Agency for Innovation System –VINNOVA for
applied research, alongside a host of other public and private institutes.
Sweden boasts some of the world’s most reputable universities such as the
Karolinska Institute, Uppsala and Lund universities, whilst the country’s
excellence in industrial research has been developed in parallel through
leading technical institutes like Chalmers and KTH, with strong industrial links.
Together, the Swedish universities and institutes have established strong
international academic and industrial networks which have led to high success
rates and participation in EU framework programmes and other international
research collaborations. Recently however there have been some concerns
over relative declining educational performance (PISA), suboptimal academic
IP system, declining business R&D, and low citation rate of Swedish research.
In the private sector, much of Sweden’s RDI capacity is confined to a relatively
small group of multinational enterprises. While these large enterprises have
played a paramount role in establishing Sweden as a global actor in key
innovation areas such as life science, ICT and clean/renewable energy
technology - the country’s start-ups and SME’s are facing challenges in
achieving and maintaining sustainable growth.
Share of Global Scientific
Journal articles
1%
Sweden
6%
United
Kingdom
Share of Global Citations
in Scientific Articles
2%
Sweden
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12% United
Kingdom
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Data provided by Elsevier
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UK Science & Innovation Network Country Snapshot: Sweden
UK Science and Innovation in Sweden
Value of UK exports to Sweden:
£9,644m
ESS
The European Spallation Source (ESS) will be a pan-European multiValue of UK imports from Sweden:
disciplinary research facility using neutron scattering technology. It’s
currently under construction in Lund, Sweden at an estimated cost of €1.8
ONS Pink Book 2013
Bn (£1.6b). The Swedish Government is contributing £497m and the UK
around £165m (Around 10% total). The ESS will be one of the largest science and technology infrastructure
facilities in the world, enabling researchers with many new opportunities.
£9,346m
Energy
Vattenfall has recently announced a £300million windfarm off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland, which will link
94MW of renewable energy to the grid, with the aim of becoming a key testing ground for bringing down the cost
of offshore wind technology. The UK’s Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult is working with Scotland’s
European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) and SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden to improve reliability
testing, with the aim of building robustness into marine energy technology design and performance.
Aerospace
The UK engineering group GKN operates a number of nodes across Sweden, which includes an R&D centre that
focuses on cutting edge development in the areas of advanced composite materials and technological
components for the aerospace sector.
SIN Sweden recent success stories /forward look
The SIN-Nordic team has identified four strategic priority areas based on national and regional strengths across
the Nordics: Energy, Arctic, ICT and Life sciences. We have established a strong network within the Swedish
innovation system and worked strategically to promote the UK’s scientific excellence in these key areas.
SIN Sweden, together with the UK Supergen Marine Institute for Energy Systems and the SP Technical Research
Institute of Sweden, hosted the Swedish-British Ocean Energy Technology Workshop, which brought together
some of the UK and Sweden’s leading researchers and experts in marine renewable energy, to facilitate
knowledge exchange and catalyse collaborations addressing key challenges. Since then, several bilateral R&D
collaborations have been established in the areas such as antifouling, reliability modelling and low voltage cables.
Together with SwedenBio and BioPeople DK, we hosted a Horizon2020 session on Personalised Medicine during
the2016 Nordic Life Science Days, the largest Nordic partnering conference for the global Life Science industry,
where the Cell Therapy Catapult and several UK life science SMEs had the chance to explore commercial avenues
and partnership opportunities. This resulted in several partnerships between UK and Nordic stakeholders.
SIN-Sweden hosted a reception to promote the Cell Therapy Catapult to a Swedish audience, alongside a meeting
of the Global Alliance for iPSC Therapies (GAiT) to involve local and international researchers in the UK-led
project. The reception introduced the Cell Therapy Catapult to over 90 deleates from academia, business and
government, while the GAiT meeting resulted in a £330,000 investement in a new centre.
2016 will see SIN Sweden working strategically in the areas of life science, the Arctic and energy, as it pursues new
collaborations between the UK and Sweden, to collectively address global challenges such as climate change and
antimicrobial resistance.
SIN Sweden contacts
Daniel.Cartridge@fco.gov.uk, Head of Science & Innovation Nordics (Stockholm)
Mikael.Mikaelsson@fco.gov.uk, Science & Innovation officer (Stockholm)
Twitter @SIN_Nordics
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