Research and innovation: what Sweden spends and what it gets

Research and development, R&D, is measured the same way in all EU countries according to the OECD Frascati Manual. The sector is the one doing the work: companies, universities and university colleges, or government agencies. The private non-profit sector is too small to show in the chart. Before 2005, R&D was only measured every other year.

R&D as a share of GDP, latest year with Eurostat data. Countries outside the EU come from OECD statistics reproduced by Eurostat. The United Kingdom is missing because Eurostat has no data for it after 2019.

Companies pay for almost two thirds of all R&D in Sweden, and nearly all of it goes to their own research. The state pays just over a fifth, mostly as appropriations to universities and research councils.

The block grant is money the Riksdag gives the institutions directly for research and doctoral education, which they decide over themselves. The rest researchers apply for in competition, from the Swedish Research Council, Vinnova, Formas and Forte, from foundations, the EU and companies, or receive as ALF funding for clinical research in the regions. How large the block-grant share should be is one of the big questions in research policy. Amounts are in current prices.

R&D expenditure 2025 in SEK million, and how much of it is block grant. Included are institutions with at least SEK 300 million. The Stockholm School of Economics is private and receives no block grant for research, and Chalmers and Jönköping are run as foundations but receive state funding by agreement.

R&D as a share of regional GDP in the eight national areas. R&D is no longer reported at a finer level: Statistics Sweden's county figures end in 2017. West Sweden is highest because large industrial companies have their research there; East Central Sweden has Uppsala and Linköping.

Every four years the government presents a research bill setting the direction and frames for the coming years. Each year Statistics Sweden calculates how much of the central government budget goes to R&D, in current prices. Defence research is included.

The bill Research and innovation for the future, curiosity and benefit takes excellence as its starting point. The increase goes to the institutions, to the research councils and Vinnova, and among other things to just over SEK 1.2 billion a year from 2028 for excellence clusters in breakthrough technology. The Riksdag approved it on 22 May 2025 (committee report 2024/25:UbU15).

Applications to the European Patent Office, EPO, in 2025, by the country of the first-named applicant. Sweden accounted for 4,724 of 201,974 applications, 4.3 per cent fewer than in 2024. Swedish inventions patented only in Sweden, at the Swedish Intellectual Property Office, are not included.

The European Innovation Scoreboard combines 32 indicators of research, business innovation and results into an index where the EU level in 2019 is 100. Sweden scores 139.0 and ranks first in the EU. Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands are the three Innovation Leaders, averaging 133.7. Since 2019 Sweden has gained 7.6 points, less than the EU as a whole (11.6).

Summarised from the government bill and the parties' reservations in the Committee on Education's report 2024/25:UbU15, spring 2025. The report has 110 reservations; these are the ones about how much money research should get and who should allocate it.

The Riksdag approved the bill. Against the government's wishes, the Riksdag also stated that the announced inquiry into the institutions' status as government agencies should not be carried out; M, C, KD and L entered a reservation against this (reservation 92).