OP-ED: We need to recognize the problems in the innovation system – do we want to lead or watch?

Sara Wallin is the CEO of the Chalmers University of Technology Foundation and has extensive experience of working with innovation and collaboration between academia, business and society. In this opinion piece, she highlights three crucial areas that Sweden must strengthen to maintain its position as a leading innovation and knowledge nation.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) recently named structural battery composites – carbon fiber-based materials that can store energy while providing load-bearing structures – as the top new breakthrough technology for 2025. Sweden is a world leader in this field through a research group at Chalmers University of Technology, which recently presented the world’s most powerful structural battery to date. The WEF award is a testament to Sweden’s position as a nation of innovation and knowledge. But it also raises the question: is our innovation system rigged to keep us ahead?

We need the courage to admit the problems and the power to solve them.

Swedish universities and colleges are undoubtedly creating groundbreaking technologies. But beneath the surface, our innovation system is struggling with structural problems in three key areas: long-term conditions, collaboration and deep knowledge. These challenges affect everything from our international competitiveness to the development of Swedish healthcare and the quality of the education system. For Sweden to continue to assert itself in global competition, we need both the courage to recognize the problems and the power to solve them.

Long-term thinking must replace quarterly economics

We say we want innovation – but we fund research as if everything were a quarterly economy. Higher education institutions are largely funded by short-term project grants from public actors, which steer research in a short-term direction. However, the research that leads to truly groundbreaking progress is rarely short-term and top-down, but long-term and curiosity-driven. A larger share of research funding should therefore be given as core funding that HEIs can use themselves – and this in turn requires clear leadership and accountability from HEIs, so that the funds are used strategically to build quality over time.

The business community also needs long-term rules of the game in nationally strategic areas. Today, our four-year terms of office limit the ability of politics to provide industry with stable conditions over time. Without cross-bloc agreements with a long-term perspective on strategically important issues, both confidence in the future and investments are at risk.

Collaboration needs leadership and structure

We say that collaboration is crucial – but we lack systems that keep healthcare, academia, politics and business together. Take the life sciences sector as an example: Sweden has world-leading research and great potential to develop new treatment methods, but the path from the laboratory to healthcare is often long and fragmented. Innovations in medical technology and pharmaceuticals, for example, get stuck along the way. The reason is that there is a lack of clear structures for collaboration, and no one actor takes overall responsibility for implementing new solutions in healthcare.

The result is that patients have to wait unnecessarily long to benefit from new findings, and that Swedish discoveries are sometimes forced to move abroad to be realized. What is needed here is clearer leadership and better coordination – both from politicians and within the welfare system – so that promising innovations can be put into practice more quickly. Encouragingly, we are already seeing positive examples: a strategic partnership between Chalmers and Sahlgrenska was recently launched, and more long-term collaborations with industry are being discussed. This shows that we are moving in the right direction – but we need to keep up the momentum.

Trust in deep knowledge in an age of quick answers

We say we believe in education – but we are reluctant to invest in deep knowledge in an age where superficiality and quick results are rewarded. Swedish universities and colleges are of a high international standard in many areas, but the quest for immediate results and easy answers risks crowding out long-term knowledge building. In a polarized social climate, expertise and the role of research are also sometimes questioned.

Without cross-bloc agreements with a long-term perspective on strategically important issues, both confidence in the future and investments are at risk.

Trust in research and expert knowledge cannot be taken for granted – it must be actively nurtured. This means both that the education system encourages analytical thinking and deepening, and that we as a society value scientifically based knowledge even when it is complex or uncomfortable. If we do not dare to make room for the profound and difficult, we will not be able to nurture the next generation of scientists, engineers and decision-makers who can solve the great challenges of the future.

How Sweden can continue to lead

It is time to move from words to action. To meet these challenges, concrete actions are needed:

• Long-term rules: Increase the share of core funding to higher education institutions and promote long-term political agreements.
• Strengthening collaboration: Establish stronger national structures for collaboration in strategically important areas such as Life Science.
• Valuing deep knowledge: Strengthen the focus of education on deepening and critical thinking. Invest in initiatives that increase public trust in research.

Our competitors in the rest of the world are not standing still and waiting for us. Sweden has unique strengths to build on – outstanding universities and colleges and innovative companies. The foundation we have is a fantastic asset, but it must not be taken for granted.

If we are to maintain our position as a world-class knowledge nation, we need courage, responsibility and a shared vision for the future. We need to act with commitment, speed and a long-term approach. This will be crucial for our competitiveness, for the development of Swedish healthcare and for the opportunities of the next generation. The choice is ours: to lead the development – or to stand aside and watch.

Sara Wallin

CEO, Chalmers University of Technology Foundation