Evaluation shows clear effects of strategic innovation programs

Vinnova, the Swedish Energy Agency and Formas finance 17 strategic innovation programme for collaboration in research and innovation. The programs must contribute to creating the conditions for sustainable solutions to global societal challenges and increased international competitiveness.

All programme undergo a comprehensive evaluation every three years, which forms the basis for the authorities' decision on continued funding of the programs.

The third round of five programme that started in 2015 has undergone an evaluation nine years after the start. The programs evaluated are Drive Sweden (mobility solutions), InfraSweden (transport infrastructure), Medtech4Health (medical technology), RE:Source (circular material flows) and Smart Built Environmnent (community building).

Conclusions in the evaluation

All programme that have been evaluated are judged to generate added value in the form of activities and results that would not otherwise have occurred, but also added value at the system level in the form of coordination, agenda setting and cross-industry collaborations.

Some of the conclusions

Increased collaboration: The programs create platforms for collaboration between different actors, including SMEs, public organisations, academia and industry, promoting knowledge exchange and innovation.

Knowledge transfer and competence development: The programs contribute to competence development and knowledge transfer through, among other things, research and development, training programs and courses, network building, mentoring and communication.

Results in companies: For the companies, the effects of the participation are primarily an increased ability to be able to solve specific problems linked to research and innovation, funding of research and innovation projects, increased competence and access to external expertise and infrastructure.

Industry relevance in research: Researchers state that the projects they have participated in have contributed to a more industry-relevant orientation in research environments.

Project results: Among results from project within the programs are new solutions, prototypes and demonstrators, where there are great expectations for future effects. At the same time, the evaluation states that the project results generally require significant further development and verification in order to be translated into commercial products.

The evaluations have been carried out by Sweco (Medtech4Health and RE:Source), Beval AB (Smart Built Environment), Faugert & Co Utvärdering AB (Infra Sweden) and Åström analys AB (Drive Sweden). Sweco has produced a report which on an overall level presents the results from the five the evaluations.

Don't miss the seminar on the five program evaluations on December 11 at 13-15

The programs' individual reports

The individual nine-year evaluations of the five strategic innovation programs are listed below, as well as a method report on the entire evaluation.

Drive Sweden nine-year evaluation 241129InfraSweden nine-year evaluation 241129Medtech4Health nine-year evaluation 241129Re:Source nine-year evaluation 241129Smart Built Environment nine-year evaluation 241129

Methodology report 2024 for nine-year evaluation of strategic innovation programs