Lund - home to world’s top 100 “Global Innovators”

Three of the world’s “top 100 Global Innovators” are Swedish companies based in Lund, according to the 2011 Thompsons Reuters Top 100 Global Innovators report released last week. The three Lund-based companies are:

• Tetra Pak (within Tetra Laval) - a world leader in liquid food processing and packaging
• Alfa Laval - a leader in developing heat transfer, separation and fluid handling technologies.
• Ericsson - a world-leading provider of tele equipment and related services to mobile and fixed network operators and has a major research unit located in Lund.

Researchers and students at Lund University have for many years enjoyed a close cooperation with these and other top 100 Global Innovator companies, for example through research development, industry guest lecturers, internships and opportunities for students to undertake their thesis studies for these companies.

That three of the world’s top 100 Global Innovators are located in Lund, a city of just 110,000 people and home of Lund University, reflects the city’s unique, world-class environment for technology, knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Lund has a long tradition of ground-breaking research and entrepreneurship, giving rise to many innovative companies. Lund University, where ultrasound, dialysis and Bluetooth were created, has always been a dominant force within the city’s innovative history, alongside the Ideon Science Park. Lund’s strong research and innovation base is currently being further expanded with the building of three major research facilities: Max-Lab IV, which will be the world’s foremost synchrotron radiation source; the European Spallation Source (ESS) for materials research ; and Ideon Medicon Village, a unique environment for life sciences.

The 2011 Top 100 Global Innovators are described as “companies that invent on a significant scale; are working on developments which are acknowledged as innovative by patent offices across the world, and by their peers; and, whose inventions are so important that they seek global protection for them.”

By geographic distribution, Sweden has the 4th highest percentage of Top 100 Global Innovator companies in the world, endorsing Sweden’s long-standing reputation as a country of innovation and creativity.

Other Swedish companies named in the world’s top 100 Global Innovators include: ABB, Atlas Copco, Sandvik Intellectual Property AB, Scania and Volvo.

The report notes that Europe leads the world in Machinery Manufacturing: “63% of the Top 100 Global Innovators in machinery Manufacturing are in Europe, with more than half of them in Sweden.”

The Global Innovators report follows on from last month’s report in which Sweden was named "the most creative country in the world" , referring to a study that found great correlations between creativity and economic progress, human development, and happiness.