Sweden in focus of Innovation Parliament at Ideon
Swedish Parliament for Innovation It is an annual event of SISP (Swedish Incubators and Science Parks), the innovation support system's trade association. In March 2023, Ideon hosts the event. That it is precisely this year that Ideon The organizer is due to the fact that Ideon, which was Sweden's first Science park, also turns 40 years old this year.
- This year's angle is “Where is 'Aktiebolaget Sverige' in 40 years?”. We want to see what strong innovation areas Sweden has and how we can switch up and cooperate to be globally competitive,” says Lotta Wessfeldt, acting CEO at Ideon and responsible for the arrangement.
Innovation Risk Day also works with themes such as “Future society”, “Energy transition” and “Planetary resources”, innovation areas that are some of Sweden's strengths. During the Innovation Riksdag, many discussions will be about how the Swedish support system should work.
- We challenge ourselves to see what we can do better and how we can develop together, continues Lotta Wessfeldt. We will have experience tracks that go into depth in areas such as competence, talent attraction and new forms of cooperation. We will also talk about how we work closer to authorities and how we can deliver on the demands of developing Sweden.
Sweden is a relatively small country that has so far been very strong in innovation and development.
- This is not an obvious position, but we need to see how we as a country can cope with increased competition and attract more money, says Lotta Wessfeldt. We are good at different things in different parts of the country, and in order to respond to funds at European level, extensive cooperation is needed. I see great opportunities, because we have all the components needed to strongly push forward our positions.
The conference is for both the support system and other interested parties. Among the 400 expected visitors, there will be representatives from science parks, incubators, industry associations, cluster organizations but also academia, startups and large corporations. In addition, there is an international audience, both on site but above all as digital listeners to Sweden Innovation Days, Vinovas showcase showcasing Innovations-Sweden to the world. This means that some program points are broadcast via the web to about 5,000 people in over 100 countries.
- This is the first time that we do the arrangements together. Sweden Innovation Days is Vinnova's event and deals with Sweden's innovation power. In this article, we talk about Sweden's capabilities and strengths globally.
The main stage will be in Inspira, Medicon Village's restaurant. But before that, the event begins with techsafaris in Lund where participants can choose between visiting AXIS, ESS, MAX IV, Volvo Cars, Elonroad and others. An important part of the conference is that participants will be able to exchange experiences with each other in four parallel tracks in different areas of interest.
In addition to the opportunity to visit ESS and MAX IV, it will also be a program point that deals with the usefulness of the research facilities. This will also be available to the international audience.
- We will discuss how together we can create something with greater value for the facilities and what comes out of them. If we do well together, it will benefit the whole country.
Some of the other program points will be about how to take care of scale ups, how to make test beds available, how the public sector can work with procurement, how to attract investment capital to Sweden and Skåne, how Sweden can connect to solve complex challenges with international impact, as well as, for example, innovation management, life science and municipal climate contracts.
What do you hope will be the outcome of the Innovation Parliament?
- I want the days to do so that we can see what areas we in Sweden need to develop. It is an annual conference and we will document carefully. We will know what needs to be done and make sure that it also gets done during the year, so that when we meet in Luleå next year we have moved forward our positions.
How important is the conference for Lund?
That's pretty important. This is a way for us in Lund to position ourselves in the Swedish innovation support system. Ideon is a strong brand in the Swedish support system and we must manage that well. We have a lot of quality in Skåne and we want to put Lund on the map as Sweden's innovation capital!