Response to interpellation 2024/25:194 on cuts to the national incubator program

Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)

Madam Speaker! Daniel Vencu Velasquez Castro has asked me whether, in my assessment of the means, I have conducted a consequence analysis of the instructions to Vinnova and how they affect the national incubator program. He has also asked me whether, in the work with Sweden's innovation policy, I have identified the national incubator program as an important part of the Swedish innovation ecosystem and Sweden's innovative power. Finally, I have also been asked what measures I intend to take to strengthen the national incubator program's ability to support incubators throughout Sweden and create conditions for innovations to be commercialized even outside the major cities.

I would like to start by thanking the member for the questions and the opportunity to discuss startup companies and innovation once again. These are truly important issues.

Innovative companies play a key role for Sweden's innovative power, economic growth, and green and digital transition. Some of these companies are also in Vinnova's incubator program. It is important to continue with measures so that these companies can contribute not only to the entrepreneurial spirit throughout Sweden but also to maintaining our position as a leading innovation nation. I want to be clear about that initially.

Vinnova has had the government's mandate since 2015 to be responsible for providing state support for incubation. In 2021, Vinnova developed the incubation support. Today, there are 32 incubators (so-called excellence incubators) around the country that have qualified through Vinnova's selection process, meaning that funds are allocated in open competition.

In March, the Financial Times published a list of Europe's 125 leading startup hubs. Sweden qualified with seven of them, with a spread from Luleå in the north to Gothenburg in the south. This shows that we and Vinnova have done something really good with the incubation support.

The Government's support for incubation is not synonymous with support for incubators, and Vinnova's mandate is to carry out measures to support incubation. The Government has not given Vinnova any instruction to scale back the incubator programs.

The incubator activities have their own local and regional priorities, and the ownership structure differs between incubators. It is the owners who have full responsibility for the financing and operation of the activities. The state does not own any incubators, and Vinnova's incubator program does not finance the operation either.

The 32 incubators that today receive funding from Vinnova are only a part of all incubators in Sweden. These are judged to have the ability to support the commercialization of research results and ideas that can have a great potential to contribute to social benefit.

The Government considers that high-quality research and innovation is a key to achieving higher growth and strengthening Swedish competitiveness. In the budget bill for 2025, the Government proposes that the appropriations to the state research funders be increased significantly. This represents the largest ever increase in resources for research and innovation.

The Government proposes an investment of 1.36 billion SEK to Vinnova from 2028 onwards, focusing on excellent research as well as research and innovation for breakthrough technology. The investments will be presented in the upcoming research and innovation bill at the end of 2024. It is not that far away, and I am counting down myself.

Research and innovation are completely central issues for Sweden's competitiveness, for our welfare and for the green transition. Innovative startup companies and incubation are an important ingredient in precisely this.

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Daniel Vencu Velasquez Castro (S)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister Ebba Busch, for the opportunity to discuss innovation policy. It has been a while since we did so. We did it much more last year, but I believe there will be reason to continue doing so.

The Minister mentioned the FoI-proposition which I and many others with me are very eager to see. We are waiting with anticipation to see the government's plan to take Sweden back to being a leading nation within the innovation field and to ensure that we manage through the many crises we face by investing in our innovations.

Madam Speaker! I shall return briefly to the national incubator program and the origin of my question. Since taking office, the Government has unfortunately not established itself as credible when it comes to innovation policy.

The answer to my question regarding cuts to the national incubator program is somewhat of a proof of it. It is not without reason that the question has been asked, Madam Speaker. At the risk of sounding a bit complicated, I nevertheless wish to provide an account of the origin of my question and why the question is being asked.

Vinnova is our innovation agency that allocates funds to various support programs. The Government, in turn, gives the agency assignments and usually includes a budget for each initiative that the Government wants the agency to carry out.

If it does not involve a budget, the authority, in the assignment that the government has given, can use what might be somewhat sloppily called free money – money that the authority has which is not specifically linked to a project or a program.

The national incubator program is a program that does not have an allocated budget. This means that Vinnova uses the free funds that are available to finance the national incubator program.

It was a mandate from the government, which has now been backtracked on, that caused the free funds to be fewer, and the national incubator program risked suffering because of that. It is not without reason that the question is asked, Ebba Busch.

Now the government has given the authority new instructions, which means that for the time being, the funding of the national incubator program will be maintained. This is welcome. Otherwise, it would have hit particularly hard on startup companies outside our major cities.

As the Minister also mentioned, incubators are crucial for research results to be able to be commercialized, and above all throughout the country outside of Stockholm, Gothenburg or Malmö.

Ny Teknik's list of the 33 most promising technology startups in Sweden shows that the incubators have had an effect. It is 23 of the companies on the list that have gone through incubation at some of the incubators mentioned by the Minister himself. It is a confirmation that it works.

One underestimates the importance of the state's active support so that these incubators can continue to provide support to our highly innovative companies. To completely separate the state's active role and Vinnova from the incubators shows a bit of a misunderstanding of how it works.

It is of course the case that they are independent organizations, and many of them are partially owned by municipalities, regions, and various educational institutions. But the support from Vinnova is crucial for them to be viable.

I believe that the state should show with pride its co-responsibility for this important part of our innovation ecosystem and not distance itself from it, as the Minister did in the response to my interpellation.

For many who are listening to the debate, this matter of innovation policy may sound complicated. But in reality, it is about the state supporting companies so that they can create jobs and welfare in our nation.

I would therefore like to ask Minister Ebba Busch if she can present some form of long-term financing solutions for precisely that national incubator program and how we shall ensure that innovations continue to be promoted in Sweden.

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Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)

Madam Speaker! I have tried to keep up with taking notes in order to be able to answer some of the follow-up questions.

I thank you for the interpellation and the opportunity to debate. The Member emphasizes that the question is not asked without reason, and I understand and respect that. I welcome that the question is asked. The Member gave a good account of the great value of both incubation as a way of working and the incubators that have received support from Vinnova.

Innovative companies are, and have almost always been, Sweden's growth engine. We work hard, we are curious, we overcome difficult problems and we invent new things. That is what has built Swedish prosperity. The genius companies laid the foundation for today's prosperity in many ways.

It is almost December and Nobel time. We can look back at Alfred Nobel, who revolutionized blasting technology. Many at the time wondered what would become of it. But the dynamite itself meant that we could then also blast through rock and build transport networks with railways and canals. This, in turn, led to increased trade, entrepreneurship, and nation-building. That is how ecosystems are interconnected.

But we cannot live on old merits, and here I perceive that there is a shared ambition that Sweden, which today is a world leader in many ways, shall continue to be so in a fierce competition. Then we cannot rest on our laurels. New genius companies, new startups and other innovative companies renew entire industries and value chains and ensure that we stand prepared for tomorrow.

I accounted in detail for how the management of the agency Vinnova is conducted, and I perceive it as Daniel Vencu Velasquez Castro describing a similar picture in all material respects.

The government, of course, has a close and good dialogue with the agency; it is our responsibility to have it. Regarding answering as concretely as I can to the follow-up question that was asked: When we now signal so clearly in the research and innovation bill and have announced the largest support ever to Vinnova from 2028 onwards, it means that it is possible for Vinnova to have a different long-term planning.

Of course, we have a close dialogue regarding the effects of the tough prioritization that took place during the past two years. I am pleased that we can now present the largest investment to date in Vinnova and in this area moving forward.

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Daniel Vencu Velasquez Castro (S)

Madam Speaker! There are still some questions remaining. I would like to delve a bit into the facts regarding the innovation policy. When this government took office, one of the first things that happened was that the current chairman of the Committee on Industry, Sverigedemokraterna, stated that they would welcome the abolition of Vinnova. Subsequently, the government presented a budget which in fact had entailed a reduction of 1 billion kronor for our innovation agency until 2026. The fears that existed when the statement was made were thus confirmed when the government presented its previous budget.

This year, the government chose, after a late but welcome reprimand, to increase the appropriations to Vinnova. They now call it a historic investment, despite having caused the cuts themselves from the beginning.

It is a bit the same thing with the national incubator program. First, the government signals that they will probably cut back, and then they say that they will not do it. Ebba Busch likes to make comparisons. This is a bit like tearing down a Lego tower and then building it up again, and thereafter wanting to be praised for having solved a problem that one has caused oneself.

I think it is a bit strange, and it is clear that it creates incredibly large trust problems for both the incubators and all of innovative Sweden regarding the government's initiatives, as they call them, in the innovation area.

Madam Speaker! I have several times in this speaker's chair asked the government to present long-term investments to promote innovation. But it has not happened. There are several issues that we can disagree on, and there are countless issues that the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats do not agree on. But I do not think that innovation policy should need to be such an area.

Madam Speaker! The government has, unfortunately, created a jerkiness in the innovation system that hampers Swedish innovations and startups. Every budget and every regulatory letter creates a knot in the stomach of the country's incubators and thus among our highly innovative companies, because one does not know what is coming. There is a jerkiness in the system caused by the government, Madam Speaker, and it is something that needs to be addressed.

I have visited countless incubators, and I cannot emphasize enough the importance of their presence, especially in smaller towns. Throughout the country, we have committed people who want to create equal conditions for people to have their ideas tested. One should be able to test research results and investigate if more Swedish companies can see their products commercialized on a global market. But with this government, these incubators need to justify their raison d'être. I do not think they should have to do that; rather, they have an obvious part in the innovative ecosystem that Sweden has.

Madam Speaker! In comparable countries, we see innovation strategies emerging, and we see incubators with long-term funding. We see an insight that the task of politics in promoting innovation is to create long-term perspective by ensuring support, clarifying strategies, and creating conditions and long-term rules of the game for companies to be able to adhere to.

I would like to clarify some of the questions I asked in the previous post. What does Ebba Busch intend to do to create robustness in the Swedish innovation system and remove the instability that has unfortunately arisen with this government? Does the Minister consider it relevant to further increase the support to Vinnova to compensate for, among other things, inflation increases? Does the Minister consider the national incubator program to be important? And can she imagine ensuring a fixed budget for it in order to be able to plan and have long-term perspective for our incubators moving forward?

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Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)

Madam Speaker! I will begin by addressing the follow-up questions at the end. The Government considers the national incubator program to be important, but I emphasize again that what is important is incubation and not individual incubators. That is the general mandate. We naturally have a dialogue with the agency regarding this, and if there is a need for clarification, I am always open to it.

I like the concept of robustness. I often use it as Minister for Energy. As Minister for Innovation, I might have to steal the idea from Daniel Vencu Velasquez Castro. This easily becomes an area that is difficult to justify moving forward in tough times. I have no problem being open and standing by the cuts that occurred at the beginning of the mandate period, because they occurred in the light of total defense times. They occurred in the light of prioritizing defense issues and innovation that can be used in what is called in English dual use, i.e., both for defense and military purposes and for civilian purposes. We reprioritized some of the money then.

It has also been a tough prioritization in budgets generally in a situation where we had an inflation of 10 percent. All the money that was spent somewhere was eaten up by inflation. That is why it is so good that the current government has succeeded in getting a grip on inflation and brought it down from 10 percent. It was also a situation where the price increases just continued to spiral. Now prices are still high, but they do not continue to spiral upwards. We have gone from 10 percent to 2 percent in inflation, which is very important. It also paves the way for another type of robustness moving forward.

What is truly important for creating robustness, however, is the research and innovation bill. As I mentioned earlier, in the budget bill for 2025, we have proposed that the grants to the state research funders be increased powerfully, and that means, as mentioned, the largest increase in resources for research and innovation ever. It is a very clear steering signal.

The Government also proposes an investment of 1.36 billion SEK to Vinnova from 2028 onwards, specifically aimed at excellent research. Furthermore, we are to present the entirety of the research and innovation bill, hopefully before Christmas – that is the objective.

I liked the analogy with the Lego tower. I do think, however, that those who have listened can understand that a reprioritization did indeed take place, particularly regarding defense matters. Now we are laying a long-term foundation both for Vinnova as an agency and for Forsknings- och innovationssverige, not least by additionally making a prioritization of the engineering nation Sweden in order to increase the civil engineering programs and the programs within natural sciences and technology.

We will at the end of the year present a STEM strategy that spans the entire education system, from preschool to doctoral studies, to get more people to seek out these industries and professions. We have a specific investigator to review the R&D deduction and the expert tax rules. We have decided that a new, internationally competitive tax incentive for R&D in Sweden shall be investigated so that more companies place their R&D activities in Sweden specifically. We are also working to make it easier for companies to attract and retain key competence.

Here there is long-term perspective for more robust research and innovation.

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Daniel Vencu Velasquez Castro (S)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, Ebba Busch, for the opportunity for this debate!

As I said initially, many of us look forward to the FoI bill and are eagerly waiting to see how the government intends to take Sweden back to a leading position within the innovation field. We must remember that Sweden is one of the world's most innovative countries. Our companies are all over the world, and if we are to create new companies, this robustness is required.

I will return to the point of robustness, because with this government, a jerkiness has been created. I fully understand that one sometimes needs to make reprioritizations, Madam Speaker, but I still want to mean that Innovationssverige is part of our foundation as a welfare society. How are we to invest ourselves into wealth if we do not invest in the innovations that will create growth, that will create jobs, that will ensure we solve the climate challenge, and that will ensure we are a nation at the forefront when it comes to groundbreaking technology?

If one is to speak about total defense, Madam Speaker, our innovation ecosystem is central to that concept.

I also want to return to this with long-term perspective. I believe it is incredibly important. If we create long-term perspective for our innovations by giving clear signals to, for example, incubators all around the country, we also ensure that we create the conditions that allow us to get these groundbreaking technologies.

Madam Speaker! We will certainly have reason to discuss this again in connection with the FoI proposal. I can only state that the government has always woken up a little late. I am, however, glad that the government mostly wakes up and sees to it that a little, little more security is created for our innovations - but much, much more is needed.

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Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)

Madam Speaker! We look forward to continuing to compare budget items and the conditions for long-term perspective and robustness. If it is something one should compete in, it is well just this.

I have many times said that difficult problems are best solved together. Now Sweden and our society face truly tough and difficult problems ahead. We have a good starting position. On the Financial Times and Statista's top list in the spring of 2024, Handelshögskolan's incubator SSE Business Lab is ranked number one in Europe in the category best track record, in competition with over 2,000 other international startup hubs.

Daniel Vencu Velasquez Castro referred to Ny Teknik's list of 33. As stated, there are 23 companies that have been in or are in incubator environments on it. We also have good ground for what is called unicorns, unicorns, and which are therefore not free fantasies but very competitive and powerful companies. We have 41 such, several within fintech, heltech, cleantech, music and entertainment as well as transport and logistics, and there will be more.

I mean that we have indeed demonstrated the reprioritization we have made in a tough economic situation for Sweden, where we have prioritized defense and the total defense aspect, and where we now also have the opportunity, when we have gained control over inflation, to signal the value of research and innovation moving forward by making the largest increase of resources to research and innovation ever.

Then we will meet again, the members and I, when the research and innovation bill is presented as a whole. It may perhaps become an early Christmas present, hopefully.

The interpellation debate was hereby concluded.

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