New policy changes the playing field in Lund Innovation District

Caroline Wendt

Communicator, content manager, storytelling

Published

May 27, 2024

Categories

Innovation district

Business, trade & Industry

City of Lund

Co-Create

Innovation management

‍ We need to be active in the EU's innovation efforts and cultivate the specific characteristics of our district from an international perspective. These were some of the conclusions when the Lund Innovation District conversation in April 2024 focused on innovation policy. The organisation of Swedish research and innovation funding is facing major changes through a new proposal from the Research Funding Inquiry, a discussion on ending the teacher exemption and a new interpretation of state aid rules. Therefore, stakeholders in the Lund Innovation District gathered to discuss a new innovation agenda and how it can affect us in Lund.

How will Sweden work with research and innovation in the future? Ingrid Petersson, Lund University Chairman of the Board, has led the work on a Research Funding Inquiry (read more below) and Lund Innovation Districts seventh event she discussed innovation policy with Göran Andersson, Vinnova, Mats Benner, Lund University, Stefan Christiernin, Volvo Cars and Mats Lundqvist, Chalmers but also received a response from Lund Innovation District through Anders Almgren, Chairman of Lund Municipality Board, and Lund University Rector Erik Renström, among others.

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Pia Kinhult, ESS, discussed innovation policy with Göran Andersson, Vinnova, Ingrid Petersson, Lund University and Mats Benner, Lund University. Stefan Christiernin, Volvo Cars and Mats Lundqvist, Chalmer participated via link (shown on the screen behind). Photo: Louise Baldetorp

Göran Andersson has over twenty years of experience working at Vinnova, including with the Vinninitiative and with the cities' innovation platforms and was involved in state aid regulations, among other things.

- The new interpretations of the State aid rules change the conditions for actors in innovation ecosystems, such as incubators and others. We do not yet know exactly what this change will entail,” says Göran Andersson.

The current Swedish organisation of the funding system for research and innovation has been in place for about twenty years — but the envisaged approach proposed by, for example, the Research Financing Inquiry is done to ensure that Sweden gets a system that better favours development under the conditions prevailing today.

Several participants felt that Sweden had not sufficiently recognised the possibility of being involved in shaping the EU's innovation and research policy.

- We see that one of the major critics of the Swedish system and how we work today is our relationship with the EU, says Ingrid Petersson. In Lund, many people are talented and bring home a lot of money, but we could bring home a lot more money and we could influence the EU's research and innovation work much more.

Several of the participants agreed with her that Sweden needs to take a bigger part in the EU's work.

- There needs to be an EU mobilisation, says Mats Lundqvist, Professor of Entrepreneurship at Chalmers. Sweden needs to participate in the EU and a current example is the CHiPs act, on chip manufacturing. Other countries have a more coordinated way of working with innovation policy, while in Sweden we are still a bit new.

Lund University Rector Erik Renström welcomed the opportunity for an action plan for how Sweden should act internationally.

- If a government puts out a clear road map then that is something that is freeing. It would definitely be needed in the EU context. Universities operate in many arenas and levels at the same time - we have the international, the national, the regional and the fairly local context and we have to function in all of them. Even the place we are in has its magic and you just see it becoming more important. It is good for the region and the country that there is something strong in Lund, Gothenburg, Umeå, Luleå and all other places with these ambitions.

Lund Municipal Board Chairman Anders Almgren is also involved in the work with the Lund Innovation District, including as a member of the steering group together with the event's moderator Pia Kinhult and the university's vice rector Kristina Eneroth. He highlighted the importance of political unity in research and innovation policy.

- I think we as local political representatives need to get much better at carrying these issues inward into our parties and into politics nationally. It is the overall structure that we benefit from no matter where we are in Sweden that we must lift. Perhaps no politician believes that one wins an election on research and innovation policy and that is precisely why it would be possible for the parties to hook their arms in this to give Sweden the best possible conditions in this area.

The conversation around Sweden's research and innovation policy also touched on the possibility of action.

- I think many people think they have a small space for movement — less than it really is, says Ingrid Petersson. Many employees are afraid that they are approaching the limits of what they are allowed to do, when in fact they get to do more.

The rector of Lund University was on the same line:

- I believe that the world in general and Sweden in particular suffers from too much strategy building and too many policy documents. I don't disregard the importance of policies but we need people who do something, in our own organization and in everyone else's organizations. So stop thinking so much about whether it was right or wrong, as long as something happens!

This is of course of great importance for Lund Innovation District.

- Sometimes the context becomes too big and it passivates, says Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth, CEO of Future by Lund. So even if we have these big plans together, we must not forget that it is important to also have an interesting playing field in an innovation district. We need a myriad of entrepreneurial initiatives and I would like to see a little more mess that creates attractiveness and signals that in Lund you can do things. There is a need for greater mobility and greater opportunity to interact between different initiatives and elements.

The conversation about Swedish research and innovation policy lasted two hours and only a very small part of the conversation can be reproduced in this article.

Read more

Research Funding Inquiry was completed in 2023 and has resulted in a proposal for three new authorities to finance innovation and research instead of the current system of around 20 funders. The three proposed authorities are the Swedish Agency for Science, the Swedish Agency for Strategic Research and Innovation and the Swedish Innovation Authority. This would mean the disappearance of many of today's financiers.

State aid rules