Swedish Innovations – SWINNO

The SWINNO project is an ongoing series of research projects into Swedish innovations and the Swedish innovation system. Many of these projects are based on the SWINNO database of Swedish innovations, often with additional data from for example surveys, interviews and policy documents. The project is currently headed by Josef Taalbi, and funded by VINNOVA, with additional funding from LUSEM.

SWINNO 3. Significant New Products and Processes in Sweden 1970 to the present

In 2020, the SWINNO project has gone into its third phase (SWINNO 3). This phase focuses on the themes of the impact of innovations and social, environmental and economic sustainability. Basic questions and topics are the long-run trends of innovation across different fields; assessing the drivers and obstacles of innovation, e.g., in environmental transitions; network analysis of collaboration patterns and industry ties; and the role of public funding and STI policies.

Besides the research projects, SWINNO 3 continues and expands the data collection of the previous phases. From 2010 onwards, the database has grown from a single spreadsheet into a full-blown relational database that has been developed according to the needs of the SWINNO project and its research. The initial dataset comprised the years 1970–2007. SWINNO 2 extended this to 2019 and SWINNO 3 will continue to update for the duration of the project. A historical extension is being added, going back to 1909 and is planned to go further back to the late 19th century.

The richness of the SWINNO data allows it to be linked to for example particular regions, the innovating companies (from Sweden's statistical office) and patents. Patent data is being added to the innovations from 1970 to 2015.

SWINNO data and metadata are publicly available (as far as privacy and copyright allow) as a spreadsheet that can be downloaded from this page. See the top-right corner.

The SWINNO project has resulted in a number of papers in high-impact academic journals, two PhD theses, a number of student papers, working papers and policy documents. See below for a complete list.

Privacy and GDPR

Swinno and the privacy regulations arranged in the GDPR

How to cite the data

Please cite SWINNO 1970–2022 as:

Sjöö, K., Taalbi, J., Kander, A. and Ljungberg, J. (2014) ”SWINNO: A Database of Swedish Innovations, 1970–2007.”  Lund Papers in Economic History, 2014:133.  

Please cite the Historical collection 1889–1969 as:

Taalbi, J. (2021) 'Innovation in the long run: Perspectives on technological transitions in Sweden 1908–2016'. Environmental Innovations and Societal Transitions, Vol. 40, pp. 222-248

UDIT project

From 2015 until spring 2017, the SWINNO data is also further developed as part of a collaborative project called Understanding Diverging Innovation Trends (UDIT) in Finland and Sweden. As the title suggests, researchers from VTT in Finland and the Department of Economic History compare trends in innovation output between the two countries. The project is headed by Juha Oksanen and Astrid Kander, and is jointly funded by VINNOVA and Tekes. At the Department of Economic History, the post-doctoral researchers Sara Torregrosa-Hetland, Gergei Farkas and Josef Taalbi take care of the research within this project.

Description and Documentation

Sjöö, Karolin, Taalbi, J., Kander, A. and Ljungberg, J. (2014) ”SWINNO: A Database of Swedish Innovations, 1970–2007.”  Lund Papers in Economic History, 2014:133. pub. details pdf