Top Swiss delegation to Innovation and Cleantech Forum in Stockholm

A Swiss delegation of 65 people led by Federal Councilor Doris Leuthard, Swiss Minister for Economic Affairs, visited Sweden 29-30th of October on the invitation of the Swedish Minister of Trade Ewa Björling.

Ewa Björling and Doris Leuthard 

The Swiss tripartite delegation with representatives from businesses, R&D organisations and political institutions met with some 80 Swedish counterparts.

Ewa Björling had never before experienced so many participants at a bilateral meeting, saying that it was very nice with a "Swiss invasion"! The Swedish Minister of Trade commented that Sweden and Switzerland have very much in common, not least within research, innovation and cleantech. She knows Doris Leuthard relatively well from OECD- and WTO meetings and took the opportunity to discuss JAS Gripen since Switzerland is planning to renew its air force.    

Research and innovation have high priority in both Sweden and Switzerland. The two delegations discussed innovation solutions for clean technologies and the focus of the InnoForum SE+CH was on science, technology and innovation in the following three major topics:

• Sustainable Energy/Power Systems
• Sustainable Building and Urban Planning
• Sustainable Transport

The objective of the forum was to increase the impact of research, innovation and business in both Switzerland and Sweden by facilitating the transfer of ideas, knowledge and technology. This is achieved by building awareness, know-how and networks to optimize the framework conditions for innovation and by matchmaking between scientific or business partners with complementary resources or expertise.

"It was repeatedly noticed and confirmed by both politicians and industry representatives throughout the forum how much Switzerland and Sweden have in common for example when it comes to market size and industry sectors" says Anna Nordström, Area Manager Switzerland within the Swedish Trade Council. "This is no news", she continues, "however it is good to have it confirmed and it is obvious that both countries can benefit from interesting cooperation in the future".

The conference  programme

Panel innovation

The programme of the 29^th of October included two panel discussions on the topics of "Research and Education" and "Innovation" respectively. These were followed by policy statements by Doris Leuthard and Ewa Björling. After a networking lunch three thematic workshops were held on the themes of sustainable Energy/Power systems, sustainable building/urban planning and sustainable transport. During these workshops, one representative from each country gave a thematic overview of the area from the viewpoint of each respective country after which five representatives from each country were invited to give short presentations of different cleantech innovations.

One-to-one meetings in World Trade Center, Stockholm

The day was concluded by a choice of three study visits arranged by Vattenfall, Kungsbrohuset  and  Scania.

The programme of the 30^th was dedicated to "the cleantech investment climate" followed by pre-arranged one-to-one meetings. The conference was concluded by key-note speech held by Jan-Eric Sundgren, SVP Public  Environment and Affairs, AB Volvo followed by a wrap-up session at which amongst others Mauro Dell´Ambrogio, Swiss Secretary of State for Education and Research and Lena Gustafsson, Deputy Director General participated.

In the afternoon, the Swiss delegation visited Hammarby sjöstad.