Joint forces for innovation strengthens Sweden's ports

The port is a transport hub where nearly 90 percent of Sweden's imports and exports pass through. Both industry and society depend on a competitive and sustainable import and export flow.

At the same time, today's and tomorrow's eligibility requirements for a sustainable transport system are difficult to handle for individual ports and individual actors in and around the port. Vinnova and RISE want to create conditions for increased innovative capacity in the Swedish port industry with a cross-sector system demonstrator, where a wide range of actors from business, the public sector and academia can collaborate on solutions in a real environment.

- Ports as transport nodes in the world are crucial for both safety and sustainable transition. Att RISE takes on the role of coordinating and mobilizing actors around an ambitious goal and with a system perspective can have great significance for Sweden, and is completely in line with Vinnova's strategy for how we can together tackle major societal challenges, says Darja Isaksson, director general at Vinnova.

- RISE drives innovation within the entire transport system and the fact that we are now further strengthening Sweden's ability in the transition from sea to land is absolutely crucial to being able to drive sustainable development for all ports in the country, says Pia Sandvik, CEO of RISE.

The project Power collection for the sustainable port is led by RISE with support from Vinnova and runs until September 2023. The goal is to rig a long-term power collection to strengthen Sweden's ports in their sustainable development.

In the project, RISE will drive the work of gathering actors to strengthen port cooperation, where the suppliers in the transport system can contribute to developing methodological knowledge that is expected to raise the state of knowledge and strengthen the innovation capacity in the Swedish port industry. Needs, challenges and solutions must be identified in order to be scaled up and tested in real port environments in the next step - so-called system demonstrators. These can include sustainable energy solutions, seamless transitions between different modes of transport and information sharing between transport operators.

- This project will further strengthen the central role that Sweden's ports have in supporting the transition that is taking place towards a more fossil-free transport system and the transfer that is taking place from road to rail and sea, says Marcus Dahlsten, CEO of Transportföretagen.

The project builds on results from previous and ongoing initiatives funded via Lighthouse, which is Sweden's collaboration platform for maritime research and innovation.

- RISE has for a long time worked together with ports and other actors in developing the concept of the Sustainable Port and now we see an opportunity to take another step towards realizing the concept, says Mikael Lind, senior strategic research advisor at RISE.