How can the Swedish mining cluster strengthen Europe's supply of metals and minerals?

Sweden is one of Europe's most important mining countries, and the Swedish mining cluster is world-leading. But what role can Sweden, together with Finland, play in securing the supply of metals and minerals in Europe? Welcome to an international seminar where leading experts from the IVA project's international reference group, with participants from the USA, Latin America, Australia, and Europe, will discuss how we can strengthen our supply chains.

PhD Education: A Key to Swedish Entrepreneurship and Industrial Innovation

Seminar with Professor Geoffrey Hinton

Climate Urgency and the Nordic Response

With respect to climate policy, Sweden was an early mover in introducing a tax on CO2 emissions from fossil fuels already in 1991. By the end of the 1990s the Swedish electricity sector was almost decarbonised. The remaining sectors, industry and transport, are curerntly the targets of ambitious decarbonization efforts, in Sweden and in the EU.

Global Tech Diplomacy as a Guardrail for AI and Other Disruptive Technologies

The Future of Solar Energy – research and development of Solar Cells

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.

New launch site makes Sweden a major space nation

Europe’s first satellite launch site has now been inaugurated – and it is Swedish. Just in time for Sweden’s presidency of the EU, Friday 13 January saw the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new launch site at Spaceport Esrange outside Kiruna. As the first of its kind in Europe, this marks a major step towards making Sweden a more significant space nation globally, says Anna Rathsman, Director-General of the Swedish National Space Agency and Fellow of IVA.

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.

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.

Innovation the Swedish way

No other country has produced as many revolutionary innovations per capita as Sweden. In the book Innovation the Swedish way, produced at the initiative of IVA, authors Eva Krutmeijer and Henrik Berggren delve into the structures that created Sweden’s favourable innovation climate. Read four of the chapters here!

Cybersecurity for increased competitiveness

The Cybersecurity for Competitiveness project aims to contribute to a broad and nuanced discussion on the importance of a solid and coordinated effort to strengthen Sweden's cyber security. The project started in 2021 and runs until June 2023. This report is part of this work.

Global Outlook: Asia #4

In subverting the choice between accommodating the global AI industry and building AI independence, South Korea offers examples of creative possibilities in technology policy.

Europe's role in the "Age of Electricity"

Fresh figures show that global electricity demand is accelerating, and that the world is standing on the threshold of "the age of electricity". This presents Europe with an opportunity to reclaim its leadership in the green transition and to secure its future — a chance we cannot afford to miss. That was the message from Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), during a fully booked seminar at IVA.

IVA's President: Some thoughts on the Self-confident China

When the world feels overwhelming, I find valuable insights in history – most recently from the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and his “Meditations.”  Can Stoicism help us understand what is happening, why it is happening, and guide us forward? Perhaps.

IVA's President: Some thoughts on Lifelong Learning

The need for continuous upskilling and reskilling of professionals – not least engineers – is growing rapidly, driven by technological transformation as well as major societal challenges such as climate change and a deteriorating security environment.