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The cradle of
Swedish growth
High-quality research is essential to
continued growth in Sweden.
– MOST OF WHAT IS produced by
Swedish companies is for export and
must be better than the products of
foreign competitors. Swedish companies
are therefore constantly on the search
for new, competitive products.
As president of Sweden’s largest university
of technology, Anders Flodström
is aware that research has a key role
in more or less all social sectors today.
Knowledge generated by the Royal
Institute of Technology in Stockholm
is used in everything from banking
systems and telecom services to drug
development and forest raw materials.
- A strong innovation system that
helps to produce new ideas is at the
heart of what we are trying to achieve:
broad-based growth for Sweden. And
Strong, internationally competitive universities
play a key role in Sweden’s growth,
according to Anders Flodström.
our research must be world-class.
Companies cannot afford to invest in
anything but the best in today’s global
competition.
DIRECT CONTACTS
He regards the extremely open and
direct contacts with universities as the
key to success for Swedish companies.
There is also a tradition of cooperation
between central government and
industry on major development projects,
such as the expansion of power supply
and telephony systems.
In view of the increasing importance
AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Few countries spend as much on R&D
in relation to their size as Sweden
does. About 4 per cent of GDP is invested
in research in Sweden. Industry
accounts for a large proportion of this
investment, particularly in areas such
as vehicle technology, drug development
and telecommunications.
The Swedish higher education system
has been expanded rapidly in the
last 10 years in order to increase the
breadth of higher education as a whole
and research in particular. Today,
almost 50 per cent of each cohort of
school leavers go on to higher education,
a figure that is not matched by
any other country. There are 36 staterun
universities and university colleges
in Sweden, as well as a further 10
non-state centres of learning.
Institutions of higher education play
a major role in the Swedish funding
agencies. Researchers are often in a
of small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs) for growth, the challenge for
Sweden is to establish closer collaboration
with SMEs as a complement to the
existing collaboration between universities
and large companies.
– The ambitious expansion of regional
centres of learning in Sweden has
made a great difference. Small companies
often make their first contacts
with these centres before embarking
on cooperation with one of the larger
universities.
The important task of linking up the
expertise that is available at centres of
majority on the boards of these agencies.
The Swedish model with strong,
independent agencies is unique and
contributes to high-quality research.
The largest research funding agencies
are the Swedish Research Council,
which allocates 260 million euro per
year for basic research in the natural
sciences, engineering, medicine,
humanities and social sciences, and
VINNOVA (the Swedish Governmental
Agency for Innovation Systems), which
has a budget of 115 million euro and
supports problem-oriented research
in the fields of technology, transport,
communications and working life.
A unique feature for Sweden is that
researchers at universities etc. retain
the copyright on their research findings.
National bodies and support
structures at the Swedish centres of
learning assist in commercializing
ideas.
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