Crisis Lab

What does a crisis mean to you?

The word “crisis” can mean different things depending on who you ask. In the Crisis Lab, we think of crises as situations where external factors (such as extreme weather, disrupted supply chains, or cyberattacks) negatively affect how societal functions operate. These external pressures are often outside our control. Still, we can decide how our societal functions are prepared. If we can prepare our societal functions for anticipated external pressures, we can avoid the crisis all together.

What is the Crisis Lab?

We think of it as an interdisciplinary initiative for exploring how critical societal functions, such as water, transport and healthcare, can become more resilient to external pressures. So, our focus is not “what should we do during a crisis?” but rather “how can we prepare societal functions to avoid one?” We want to bring researchers, students, public authorities, industry and civil society together around this question, starting from the challenges these actors face and from the expertise and interests we have at KTH.

How does it fit into the work of the Center for Total Defence?

The Center for Total Defence brings together KTH’s research and education on societal security and resilience. With the Crisis Lab we want to strengthen the hands-on, preventive perspective. The lab is a joint initiative with the KTH Global Development Hub, which also brings a global perspective. In many parts of the world, societal functions keep running under conditions that would create a crisis in Sweden, and there is a lot to learn from that.

What are your plans for the coming year?

We are planning our activities for 2027 right now, and much of it will be shaped by the input and interest we receive this autumn. At the moment, we are currently thinking of three interconnected categories of activities:

For KTH faculty and researchers
We want to run a number of experiments where public-sector actors and KTH researchers explore together how a critical function could be made better prepared. Ideally, both sides gain something: public actors get new insights, and researchers get to think about real-world problems. Which challenges we take on will depend a lot on who wants to get involved, and we have already gotten interest from municipalities, regions, and government agencies in Sweden that we need to match with KTH expertise for these experiments. These could be in the form of full-day workshops with clear outcome deliverables for the public sector part.

For doctoral students
We want to organize a PhD course on total defense during 2027, with speakers from both the public sector and academia. The idea is for doctoral students to explore what preparedness and total defence mean in their own research field. Many are closer to these questions than they might think.

For undergraduate students
To complement existing KTH courses, we think there is demand for more extracurricular activities for students interested in system questions and societal crisis preparedness. We are currently hiring an amanuensis together with the Global Development Hub who will help shape these activities. Ideally, we also find a physical place for students to gather and self-organize activities around crisis preparedness and total defense.

What are you working on right now?

This autumn is about getting started. We are shaping the Crisis Lab activities for 2027 through conversations with researchers, public actors and students. We also aim to find a physical space on the KTH campus where we can based.

Formally we will kick-off the lab in conjunction with the immersive crisis exercise in Reaktorhallen on 25–26 November initiated by Johan von Schreeb and co-organized by KTH and Karolinska Institutet. Experiencing what happens when things break down (the purpose of the exercise) is a good starting point for talking about how to prevent it (the purpose of the Crisis Lab).

Since we are shaping the lab right now, this is a good time to give us suggestions. If you have ideas or would like to contribute, whether you are a researcher, a doctoral student, a student or an external organization, please get in touch with me!