IVA’s Gold Medal 2023: Anders Blom

Engineer Anders Blom has been decisive for Sweden's ability to maintain its position as one of the world's most prominent aviation nations, through more than 40 years of work in Swedish aviation. Not least by his contribution to building the strategic innovation program that has given Sweden a place at the table when it comes to international cooperation in the aviation industry.

IVA’s Gold Medal 2023: Anna Wedell

Medic and research leader Anna Wedell has created completely new conditions for discovering and treating thousands of rare diseases. By developing new tools for mapping individual patients' genes and establishing unique collaborations between research and healthcare, she has made ground-breaking breakthroughs in individually tailored so-called precision medicine.

IVA gets a boost with 40 new Fellows – here is the list

A further 40 prominent researchers and experts from the business and public sector were today elected as new Fellows of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA). They all possess leading expertise in the fields of technology, economics and business.

IVA’s Great Gold Medal 2023: Håkan Samuelsson

In ten years civil engineer Håkan Samuelsson managed to reverse the negative trend for the Swedish national treasure Volvo. Under Samuelsson's unifying leadership, reputation and international competitiveness were regained, cultural challenges linked to Chinese ownership were bridged, and production could be kept in Sweden. In addition, Volvo took a prominent position in the most important transition for the automotive industry in 100 years – the transition to electric.

IVA’s Gold medallists 2023

The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) awards Håkan Samuelsson, Anders Blom, Annica Bresky and Anna Wedell with gold medals. They receive the award for their outstanding achievements in technology, economics, business and society. IVA's Gold Medal has been awarded since 1921.

IVA spotlight on: EU's goals for critical metals and minerals

Last week, the European Parliament and the European Council agreed to pass the Critical Raw Materials Act, the EU's plan to secure the future supply of critical raw materials. This includes rare metals that could be crucial for Sweden's and the EU's ability to keep up with the green and digital transition. Researcher and IVA member Magnus Ericsson is one of the initiators of IVA's ongoing project 'Roadmap for Metals and Minerals,' which aims to provide answers on how the goals in the EU's plan can be achieved.

Report: Challenges for meeting increased demand for metals and minerals

Observations about conditions and challenges, as well as measures required to ensure access to metals and minerals to cope with the transition to a fossil-free society. One conclusion is that the demand for metals and minerals will increase sharply, and that Sweden and the Swedish mining cluster play an important role in meeting the needs.

Call for proposals for IVA's 100 list 2024

Research should benefit business and society. This is the background to IVA's 100 list, which highlights current and promising research projects. We are now looking for candidates for the 2024 100 list, the sixth in a row. The theme is innovation through interdisciplinarity.

Textiles – from waste to resource by 2030

The demand for fibres is expected to increase by 150 percent by 2050. This type of increase is not sustainable in the long term, as most of the fibres today are synthetic and come from fossil-based raw materials and water-intensive cotton. This IVA report focuses on the challenges in the textile sector – and on possible pathways forward.

Attractive Living Environments and Flows – Eight themes in planning good cities of the future

The Attractive Living Environments and Flows subproject has a people-centric focus and has aimed to define important themes to find ways to face the challenges identified domestically and internationally in, for example, the UN’s Global Sustainability Goals.

IVA Business Executives Council| Summer Session 2026

IVA's President: some thoughts on AI

When the 2025 edition of the Global AI Index is released after the summer, I hope Sweden will have made a significant climb from last year’s ranking of 25th. The United States topped the list in 2024 (no surprise there), followed by China.

Sweden a potential front-runner in AI

AI is fundamentally transforming how we work, produce and create value. However, while the technology is advancing at an exponential pace, changes in productivity and societal structures are occurring much more slowly. In this shift, Stanford professor Erik Brynjolfsson sees Sweden as a potential front-runner.

IVA's President: some thoughts on Greenhushing

At this time last year, the U.S. election campaign was in full swing. Joe Biden had stepped aside to make way for Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate. Donald Trump had survived an assassination attempt and was now dominating the agenda. Trump was—and is—a force the whole world must reckon with.

IVA's President: some thoughts on China

While Europe is fully preoccupied with President Trump’s various initiatives, a very deliberate movement is under way in another corner of the world—namely, China’s scientific and technological advancement.

Open AI research the only way forward

Recently, the US non-profit Future of Life Institute called on all ‘AI labs’ around the world to take a six-month break in the development of advanced AI technology. How good an idea is it to pause the development of AI, and what should this break involve? We asked IVA Fellow Sara Mazur.

Challenges of extracting rare earth elements

Just after New Year, LKAB announced that it has made the largest rare earth discovery in Europe to date. The elements are vital for building batteries, wind turbines and other technology that can enable a rapid transition to a fossil-free society. However, extracting the in-demand elements comes with some major challenges that need to be resolved, according to Jenny Greberg, Vice President Technology at LKAB and a Fellow of IVA.

IVA’s Great Gold Medal 2022: Lars Samuelson – a Swedish nano pioneer

IVA’s Great Gold Medal is awarded to Lars Samuelson – the pioneer who has made a name for himself as one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology.

IVA’s 100 List 2024: Sweden’s Most Promising Research Projects

A simple hair test for early cancer detection, a healthy sugar substitute, and a rapid test for tuberculosis. These are some of the research projects selected for this year’s 100 List, focusing on innovation through interdisciplinary research, compiled by IVA. All research projects are considered to have great potential to benefit society.

Cable breaks in the Baltic Sea part of a bigger challenge

Protecting internet cables is just one piece of the much larger challenge of building more resilient solutions for the entire digital infrastructure that our society depends on. Achieving a solution requires many efforts, according to cybersecurity expert Johan Malmliden and IVA Fellow Daniel Akenine, both involved in IVA's Resilient Digital Infrastructure project.