IVAs President - Some thoughts on Surviving Chaos

2026 Hans Werthén Scholars

Eight young researchers and students resident in Sweden have been awarded this year's scholarships from the Hans Werthén Fund for study and research abroad. The scholarships are awarded with the aim of giving young academics the opportunity to develop in other countries and to return with new knowledge and experience that can benefit Sweden.

IVA's President: The Government as the Lead Customer

Public procurement accounts for nearly one-fifth of Sweden’s economy, amounting to approximately 1,200 billion Swedish kronor per year. EU-wide, the corresponding share is 14 percent. Given its scale and the nature of the purchases, public procurement could serve as a powerful driver of technological development, innovation, and, consequently, growth in Sweden and Europe.

Some thoughts on Economic Growth in Europe, or the Lack of It

Report: Advanced manufacturing

Every lorry that rolls out of Gothenburg. Every fighter aircraft that takes off from Linköping. Every industrial robot assembled in Västerås. Advanced manufacturing is today one of Sweden’s most important assets – a world-class sector that employs hundreds of thousands of people and accounts for a significant share of Sweden’s export revenues. But international competition is intensifying. A new report from Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences shows what Sweden needs to do to maintain its lead in an increasingly competitive world.

The John and Margaretha Aspegren Scholarship

In 2004, the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) established the John and Margaretha Aspegren Memorial Foundation to promote a better understanding between engineering sciences and the humanities.

What Sweden Can Learn from Ukraine’s Drone Industry

Sweden needs to reform its public procurement regulations and innovation system to better foster innovation and address future crises, according to a new study produced on behalf of IVA. The review examines how Ukraine has rapidly developed a dynamic drone industry in the midst of ongoing war.

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 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’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.

Anders Ynnerman and Jonas Unger recieve the Chester Carlson Research Award

Researchers Anders Ynnerman and Jonas Unger recieve the Chester Carlson Research Award of 50,000 Swedish Kronor each for their contributions to research in visualization and computer graphics. The prize has been awarded since 1985 to promote scientific research in the field of information science.

Insufficient EU support for Ukraine

One year on from Russia’s invasion, Ukraine is a country in need of huge support from the outside world, and not just in military form. It is already estimated that the costs of rebuilding the country will be many times higher than the value of the entire Ukrainian economy. And the help that the EU is currently providing is far from sufficient. So says Torbjörn Becker, Director of the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) at the Stockholm School of Economics, and Fellow of IVA.

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.

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.

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.

She is set to transform the world’s oldest academy of engineering sciences

Today, Newspaper Dagens Industri publishes an interview with IVA's incoming CEO, Sylvia Schwaag Serger. Here you can read an excerpt from the interview about driving forces, choices and visions.

Embedl awarded for groundbreaking AI technology

Embedl wins IVA's Smart Industry 2024 Business Competition. The company develops innovative software tools and technologies that optimize machine learning models, with a focus on making AI models more efficient and energy-efficient.