Stockholm Region
The Stockholm regional innovation profile is built upon the Stockholm County Regional Growth Programme. The currently running programme is a platform between 2004-2007 and is:
- part of the Government's public sector economic development policy.
- concerned with measures and projects that contribute towards economic growth and employment.
- a form of collaboration between government institutions, county councils and municipalities, organisations for industry and commerce, companies, parties on the labour market and other public bodies.
The programme is built upon the analysis made in the regional development plan “RUFS” and three central strategies are prioritised:
- Improved conditions for infrastructure, housing and education.
- To strengthen the region’s entrepreneurial and innovation climate.
- To benefit from the market size and development; i.e. the Stockholm region’s position as fertilizer in the Swedish economy, centre of the Baltic Sea and an international metropolis.
In the Regional Growth Programme, there are a number of growth areas where the partnership can take initiative, e.g. in the area of entrepreneurial and innovation climate, the work is focused on enhancing the flow from research idea to commercial success. This process requires tight cooperation between companies and competences with the aim of developing new products and services. The excitement for innovation is being encouraged in the school system and in early stage innovation from universities and research environments as well as among existing and new companies. The Regional Growth Programme also shows how the cross boundary cooperation can be developed in existing clusters (e.g. IT, life sciences and environmental technologies) as well as in new cluster initiatives (e.g. design and entertainment).
In the Stockholm region there are several outstanding research institutions, universities and world-leading companies with extensive R&D. Hence, the pre-requisitions for transferring the intellectual capital into innovation and growth are promising. The interest from universities in stimulating commercialisation from research results has increased. There are several actors enhancing the commercialisation process, e.g. Innovation Stockholm, a treaty between the foundation Innovations Centrum, ALMI business partner, the City of Stockholm and university incubators, including business advice to students and teachers. A couple of initiatives where the public and private actors cooperate have been successfully established.
