IVA Gold Medal 2024: Xiaodong Zou

Xiaodong Zou is a chemist who fell in love with electron microscopes and who has succeeded in developing completely new methods for creating 3D images of atomic structures in porous materials.

IVA's Great Gold Medal 2024: Anne L'Huillier

Swedish-French Anne L'Huillier is the physicist and Nobel Prize winner who, against all odds, has succeeded in revolutionizing the possibilities of seeing into the world of atoms and molecules.

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.

Sylvia Schwaag Serger new president of IVA

Today, the Assembly of the Academy decided to appoint Sylvia Schwaag Serger as the new president of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA). Sylvia Schwaag Serger is a professor at the School of Economics, University of Lund, and since 2019 an elected fellow of IVA's Division Education and Research Policy.

IVA's 105th Annual Meeting

Many thanks to all fellows and friends of IVA who contributed to the festivities during this year's evening in honour of the art of engineering sciences!

IVA's President: Some thoughts on the times we’re in

It is never easy to analyze the present or to put events into context and perspective. But New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman recently proffered the idea that we are now living in the “Polycene” era – a time in which the world can no longer be understood in binary terms, but is shaped by many closely interlinked forces.

IVA's President: Some thoughts on Uncertainty

The World Uncertainty Index (WUI) has remained steady at an average of 30,000 over the past 17 years, with a temporary peak of 50,000 during the pandemic years. The latest index from October shows the remarkable figure of 122,000. The responsibility to take ownership of our own future is particularly important in times of great uncertainty.

IVA’s Gold Medal 2025: Daniel Stenberg

From Huddinge to the Moon. Through his work with open-source software, Daniel Stenberg has built a technological foundation that quite literally reaches into space. With curl, he has created a tool that has become an indispensable part of digital communication – not only on Earth, but also between our planet and other celestial bodies.

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.

IVA's 106th Annual Meeting Festivities

Many thanks to all fellows and friends of IVA who contributed to the festivities during this year's Annual Meeting - an evening to celebrate the art of engineering sciences!

Opinion piece: EU’s peace project threatened by outdated research policy

Current research policy within the EU peace project excludes funding for technologies that can be used both for civilian and military purposes. However, the framework program was developed before the war in Ukraine and the rise of AI. Today’s technologies are cross-sectoral. Therefore, the expert group Esir proposes in a new report that the European Commission should change course, writes Sylvia Schwaag Serger, President of IVA and lead author of the report, in DN Debatt on July 6, 2025.

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.

“Lessons of history are almost completely useless!”

Joel Mokyr received the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in Stockholm on Wednesday – but visited IVA beforehand. Watch the film where Joel Mokyr and IVA’s President Sylvia Schwaag Serger, both professors of economic history, meet for a conversation about technology and growth.

IVA Business Executives Council| Summer Session 2026

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.

IVA's President: some thoughts on dual use

Europe is ramping up its defense investments. This is, of course, a response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the radically altered geopolitical stance of the White House. Europe can no longer rely on the United States to guarantee its security.

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.

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.

"United, swift and wise" IVA's President comments on the EU Commission's roadmap

Today, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, presented the five-year plan for the EU's future competitiveness. "It is absolutely crucial for the future of our continent that the European Commission vigorously addresses competitiveness issues," says Sylvia Schwaag Serger, President of IVA.