Strategic technology roadmaps

Sweden has strong research, innovative companies and internationally competitive technology environments. But to maintain and strengthen its position, Sweden needs to get better at developing, scaling up and using strategically important technology – and at gathering investments and efforts around long-term priorities.

Vinnova therefore proposes in this report a number of investments to strengthen Swedish technology leadership.

From strong parts to greater execution power

Sweden today has many strong initiatives, actors and policy instruments. The report takes on the challenge of strengthening and connecting what exists, closing gaps and creating new initiatives where they are needed.

The goal is stronger interaction from research and innovation to demonstration, scaling up and use – and greater ability to mobilize the state, business, academia and the public sector around common long-term objective.

A national investment agenda

The report's proposals are grouped into three parts:

• National direction and level of ambition
  Sweden's long-term investments and strengthening the ability to prioritize, coordinate and follow up on strategic technology investments.
• Cross-technology policy instrument
  Common capabilities that need to be strengthened, including scaling up and risk sharing, demand, regulatory frameworks, advanced research, technology infrastructure and EU participation.
• Strategic acceleration programs
  Long-term, actor-driven programme that gather forces in strategic technology areas where Sweden needs to build strong international positions.

The instruments should work together, forming a coherent system where research, capital, infrastructure, demand and regulations enable innovation, scale-up, production and competitiveness.

The figure provides a comprehensive overview of all proposals in the report. This chapter discusses cross-technology policy instruments.

The EU – a strategic lever across the entire agenda

Swedish priorities and investments need to be linked to the EU's strategic initiatives from the outset, instead of being a separate track alongside national policy.

National pooling of power can thus provide European leverage, while European initiatives can strengthen Sweden's technological leadership, for example through European funding and collaboration, Swedish nodes in shared infrastructures and value chains.

Interaction between several policy areas

Strategic technologies are not just a matter for research and innovation policy. The conditions for technology leadership are also shaped by research, innovation, industrial, security, energy, climate and trade policies.

International developments are moving towards these areas being increasingly linked together. For Sweden, this is both a matter of technical positions and the ability to get policy instruments and investmentsto pull in the same direction.

The figure illustrates that different policy areas have significance for strategically important technology areas and that interaction between these technology areas becomes important for technology leadership

Methods behind the proposals

The proposals are based on existing roadmaps, strategies and initiatives. They are also based on Vinnova's analyses of strategic techniques, international policy and investment comparisons, and IVA's work with Swedish Futures, and analysis of more than 2,000 Swedish and international roadmaps, strategies and agendas.

The proposals have been developed through dialogues and workshops with over 200 people from business, academia, institutes, the public sector, industry and interest organizations, and investors, among others. They have also been tested through written input and surveys.

About the government mission

The roadmap report is part of the government's assignment to Vinnova to strengthen Sweden's long-term technology leadership.

The assignment is linked to the investment in clusters of excellence for strategic technologies, which will be developed until 2028. It will contribute to strengthening Sweden's competitiveness, security, resilience and position in future global value chains.

Read the full mission