Swedish higher education institutions excel in patents from academia, with Sweden ranking fifth in Europe. Lund University claims top spot on the Swedish list.
A new report from the European Patent Office (EPO) released today provides a detailed insight into the role of universities in patenting and innovation. According to the study, Sweden ranks fifth in Europe in terms of the total number of patents, after Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Italy. In terms of patents per capita, Sweden ranks third after Denmark and Switzerland.
"We are enormously proud of both Sweden's and Lund University's placement in the European Patent Office's report. It underlines our commitment to innovation and our ability to transform research into patents. However, it's important to note that rankings like this don't always reflect the full innovation picture. Innovation happens when new insights actually creates a meaningful difference and value," says Niclas Nilsson, Director of Innovation at LU Innovation, Lund University's innovation office.
Lund University, Chalmers University of Technology, and Uppsala University are the leading Swedish higher educational institutions when it comes to patents from academia. Between 2000 and 2020, researchers at Lund University submitted a total of 2,064 applications, followed by Chalmers University of Technology with 1,044 and Uppsala University with 890.
Sweden also has four higher education institutions among the top 25 universities in Europe in terms of the number of startups submitting patent applications linked to academia:
- Lund University (3rd place, 92 startups)
- Karolinska Institute (15th place, 47 startups)
- Chalmers University of Technology (18th place, 42 startups)
- Uppsala University (22nd place, 39 startups)
However, patent applications only provide part of the picture when it comes to universities' contribution to innovation. The EPO itself points to challenges in giving a complete picture , as patents shared between multiple actors can make it difficult to determine each party's specific contribution. Not all collaborations lead to patents either.
This past summer, a new report by the innovation offices at Lund University, Uppsala University, and KTH also showed that innovations from the three institutions have laid the foundation for more than a thousand new limited companies (LC's) since 2010. In 2022, these companies together had 3,836 employees, a turnover of 6.7 billion SEK, and are estimated to have generated almost 2 billion SEK in tax revenue.
