Many activities and initiatives are carried out, with an emphasis on our collaboration. Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the Swedish economy. 99.9% of Swedish companies are SME and they represent about 60% of the national annual industrial turnover.
Companies face major challenges related to increased global competition, short-time horizons for product planning, and disruptions in supply chains, for example. The area of sustainability is also one of the challenges and is one of the most important areas of development to meet the requirements of environmental standards and to ensure a healthy working environment for employees as well as build long-term financial stability.
To support and help manufacturing companies with these challenges, established players with a collaborative perspective and extensive experience and expertise in areas such as production development, change management and digital transformation are needed. The partners within the consortium for ShiftLabs have for over 10 years accumulated both this experience and expertise while also being involved in many different types of businesses.
The experts involved are impressed by these strengths and the close contact with the manufacturing industry as well as the breadth of the service portfolio that the players within ShiftLabs have today. We at ShiftLabs are still not satisfied with this and continue to build and develop the national structure for the future, with an emphasis on collaboration. We have all the conditions required and with our joint, engaging and collaborative work, we create results in both the short and long term.
ShiftLabs Value Proposition
The purpose of ShiftLabs European Digital Innovation Hub is to provide four different types of value propositions that include services to support the manufacturing industry in their digital transformation and sustainable development.
The services are available through ShiftLabs Service Portal. We call this a “One Stop Shop”, where you can see for yourself, which services can best help your business move forward. Feel free to visit our Service Portal to discover what could bring added value to your company.
Test before investing
Enable companies to test products and technology before costly investments are made.
Support in finding investments
Helping companies secure key funding for investments in digital tools and technologies.
Skills and training
Develop and attract key competencies needed to manufacture goods using the latest technology.
Innovation ecosystem and networking
Create events and facilitate matchmaking between manufacturers, technology providers, and system integrators.
What’s next for ShiftLabs
Today, we can state that ShiftLabs has taken previous EU initiatives in the Swedish innovation system to a new level. The target group has been broadened to include national and international partners. We continue to lift and build on the brand – ShiftLabs.
We have jointly created new networks between other EDIHs in Europe and collaborated on activities with important partners in digitalization and sustainability.
We also continue to continuously evaluate our events and activities to ensure and develop interesting content, maintain good quality and meet the needs of companies and industry.
“Sweden has a culture of collaboration that makes it easier to create ecosystems for innovation. Society is also not so hierarchical, which gives people at different levels in an organization more mandate to try new things.”
– Johan Kostela, Mälardalen University
EDIH – European Digital Innovation Hubs
These digital innovation hubs and the work being done to build broad networks within Sweden’s innovation sector provide great opportunities to gather expertise and innovation aimed at Swedish small and medium-sized companies, industry and the public sector and at the same time gain access to a European network. EDHI – contributes for example through:
- “Sweet spots” in the Swedish ecosystem – fill a void within the current university and department structures.
- Effective transformation of academic knowledge into business value.
- Efficient use of small and medium-sized companies’ access to Swedish testbeds/labs/hubs.
- Technical expertise at scale to a significant number of small and medium-sized businesses.
- Network and collaboration to deliver advanced services.