VINNOVA

VINNOVA
Case Study
VINNOVA

“We are supporting companies and organisations that would like to test out new ideas of how they can become more innovative”

Charlotte Brogen, CEO, VINNOVA

  • Partnersh- ips
  • Resources
Location in government

National government

Where it is based

Stockholm, Sweden

Mission statement

“VINNOVA aims to strengthen Sweden’s innovativeness, aiding sustainable growth and benefiting society.”

Annual spend

£450 million1 (2013) (£225m from government, and £225m from other public and private sources)

Size of team

200

Example of impact

In 2013, VINNOVA supported more than 2,400 projects to promote collaboration between companies, universities, research institutions and the public sector across 11 strategic areas.2

VINNOVA is Sweden’s innovation agency, funding a large portfolio of R&D collaborations between companies, universities, research institutes and the public, helping boost the innovation capabilities of the Swedish public and private sectors.

What it does

VINNOVA provides R&D funding across 11 areas defined as strategically important by the Swedish Government. These strategic areas include finding new solutions to meet the challenges of a rapidly growing elderly population, and exploring leadership and organisational processes than can support and develop innovation capacity.

Based within government, a large proportion of VINNOVA’s projects are delivered in partnership with public sector organisations. Projects include Attract, which supports the building of sustainable attractive housing in cold climates; another project, in collaboration with Gothenburg Hospital, explores ways to reduce blindness in infants.

Interesting features
  • Resources: With a yearly budget of £225 million from the Swedish Government, VINNOVA has a large financial capacity to initiate projects and drive change at scale.
  • Partnerships: Building on its experience of funding R&D projects delivered by universities and private businesses, VINNOVA is now building strong partnerships inside government to help develop new solutions.

Learn more
Read the full case study on VINNOVA in the i-teams report.

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Footnotes

  1. Confirmed in email correspondence with Nesta, May 2014, conversion: SEK 0.0935708 to £1, as exchange rate on 21/01/2013, taken from http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/full/
  2. VINNOVA (2013) ‘Arsredovisning VINNOVA’ (2013). Available online: http://www.vinnova.se/upload/EPiStorePDF/vi_14_03.pdf [Last accessed 4 April 2026]

Photo Credit: Sitra's Health Kiosk programme aims to increase access to healthcare in Finland. Photo courtesy of Patrick Rastenberg © Sitra

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Wednesday, June 25, 2026 - 16:51