KTH ramps up efforts creating deep-tech companies of the future

KTH is one of Europe's leading technical universities and accounts for a large proportion of Sweden's most promising research-based companies. 

Conditions in Sweden are good for commercialising deep tech, or technologies requiring intensive research and development. Nevertheless, there is a gap between research-based innovations and the entrepreneurial resources needed to scale them up into global companies.

Closer collaboration, faster

With Pioneer, researchers are now given the opportunity to work more closely with entrepreneurs right from the start.

"We want to allocate the right resources to research projects at KTH as early as possible, and create investable companies that can scale both nationally and internationally."

Lisa Ericsson , head of KTH Innovation and CEO of KTH Holding.

The response from the launch has been incredible, Ericsson says. One reason is the “teacher’s exemption”, which refers to Swedish legislation and customs allowing university researchers to retain rights to academic inventions. This makes it much easier to develop research-based startups compared to many other countries.

“It has been great to see the high level of interest in the programme. We received many applications from exactly the type of people we were looking for, and we have now selected 10 venture builders to collaborate on 12 research projects. It will be exciting to follow their journey together,” Ericsson says.

Better support from the start

Importantly, Pioneer  does not require established teams from the start. The programme has been designed to create the right conditions for venture builders to join research projects as co-founders.

Pioneer focuses not only on business development, but also on the psychological aspects of entrepreneurship. It provides tools and methods to help participants prioritise and run their businesses in a sustainable way while also pursuing a research career. 

Hannes Eder Öhrström, business development coach at KTH Innovation, says: “The participating researchers already have extremely busy schedules. We do not want to increase the workload, but rather integrate entrepreneurship into their everyday lives in a long-term sustainable way.”

Are you a researcher at KTH or an entrepreneur who would like to contribute to the programme? Learn more about Pioneer here

About KTH Innovation & KTH Holding

KTH Innovation  is part of the operational support at KTH, supporting over 100 research projects. The support includes coaching, help with patents, intellectual property rights and agreements, building a well-functioning team and funding. The support is free of charge and KTH takes no ownership in IP or companies.

KTH Holding  is a state-owned company that invests at a very early stage in companies originating from KTH. KTH Holding invests long-term and helps researchers and students to build companies from ideas, research results and intellectual property (e.g. patents).

Text: Sturle Hauge Simonsen ( sturle@kth.se )