With around 45 universities and university colleges, five of them ranked in the top 150 globally, Sweden's tertiary education system plays a significant role in the R&D landscape.
Institutions like Karolinska Institutet, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Lund University, Uppsala University, and Stockholm University have internationally recognised R&D programmes and attract international academics and students from all over the world.
These universities among others are complemented by innovation offices, which provide space for the exchange of ideas, experiences, and information, and foster collaboration to solve some of society’s greatest social, environmental, and technological challenges.
What academic freedom means in Sweden
Sweden’s approximately thirty publicly funded higher education institutions are almost entirely autonomous and make their own decisions about the organisation, the internal allocation of resources, the range of subjects offered, and the contents and design of the education.
Researchers have the right to freely choose their research subjects and research methods, and the right to freely publish their research results, without any influence from political and commercial interests.
A unique feature of Sweden is the ‘teacher exception’, which means that researchers, instead of their employers, own the right to inventions and discoveries made by themselves. So when you conduct research at a Swedish university, you own the right to the results of your research.
Sweden leads the way in gender equality
Sweden is the most gender-equal country in Europe in terms of research and innovation. This is shown in the annual research report SheFigures from the European Commission.
Some of our most prominent universities
Specialised universities
Karolinska Institutet (medicine)
External link.
Chalmers University of Technology External link.
KTH Royal Institute of Technology External link.
Luleå University of Technology External link.
Stockholm School of Economics External link.
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences External link.
Stockholm University of the Arts External link.
Universities with a broad profile
Linköping University External link.
Lund University External link.
Stockholm University External link.
Umeå University External link.
University of Gothenburg External link.
Uppsala University External link.
See a list of all higher education institutions in Sweden (uka.se) External link.
70 per cent of all Swedish publications are co-authored with researchers from other countries
The degree of international collaboration depends on the field of study. The United States is the country with which Swedish researchers collaborate the most. In recent years, researchers from the United States have contributed to one in five Swedish publications.
(Statistics from The Swedish Research Barometer 2025, to be published later this year.)
The Swedish Research Council's centres of excellence
The 15 centres of excellence, funded by the Swedish Research Council, offer programme activities within an overarching thematic area, and give researchers from different established research disciplines the opportunity to work there for short or long periods.
See a full list of the different excellence centres and their contact details
Advanced research infrastructures – resources for you
As a researcher in Sweden, you will have access to several advanced research infrastructures, irrespective of the research field you work in. We strongly believe that access to research infrastructures is a prerequisite for conducting top-quality innovative research. Read about a few examples below.
Data driven research
As a world leading nation in e-science and digital technology, Sweden is investing in both competence and supporting infrastructure. With strong network connectivity, storage capabilities provided by the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) data node hosted in Kalix, in the far north, and user support, we enable cutting-edge, data-driven research across all disciplines.
Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program, WASP, is a forceful initiative in basic research, education and recruitment within autonomous systems and software development. WASP's vision is excellent research and competence in artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous systems, and software for the benefit of Swedish industry. Linköping University is home to several leading research environments in fields central to WASP.
Learn more about WASP (Linköping University website) External link.
Current strategic initiatives by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (kwa.se) External link.
Soon to host the supercomputer Arrhenius and AI factory Mimer, Sweden supports large-scale simulations and AI applications in fields such as medicine, new materials, and climate. Arrhenius is set to significantly boost the computing resources available to Swedish researchers and academic users. It will be capable of performing the most advanced simulations in science and technology as well as tasks such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and other demanding applications.
Swedish researchers have access to high-quality support, locally through NAISS, as well as free access to and usage of more than ten European large-scale supercomputers through ENCCS.
The EuroCC National Competence Center Sweden (ENCCS) website External link.
Other examples are the EuroHPC-funded Centres of excellence in areas such as life science, medicine discovery, engineering, manufacturing and plasma physics, and InfraVis, a national research infrastructure for data visualisation.
InfraVis – National Research Infrastructure For Data Visualization website External link.
Unique registers open for research
Sweden has a long tradition of population registration, which provides unique historical continuity. Sweden’s population registers, such as socio-economic and health data registers, biobanks, as well as population-based surveys and studies, constitute an invaluable resource for researchers in many scientific fields. Each citizen has a personal identity number, a unique identifier that enables combinations of data from different registers and data sources.
Health data registers at the National Board of Health and Welfare External link.
Finding statistics – Statistics Sweden External link.
Dataguiden.se (in Swedish) External link.
Researchdata.se External link.
The Swedish Twin Registry – Karolinska Institutet External link.
Swedish life science research hubs
Hanseatic Life Science Research Infrastructure Consortium, HALRIC External link.
Testa Center – A Testbed For Biological Production External link.
MAX IV - a Swedish national synchrotron light facility in Lund
At MAX IV, researchers from business and higher education institutions in areas as widely differing as biology, physics, chemistry, environmental science, geology, engineering, pharmaceuticals, and cultural heritage can study different materials down to atomic level.
MAX IV Laboratory website External link.
ESS – a world-leading research facility
The European Spallation Source (ESS) is a unique materials science research facility in Lund, based on the world’s most powerful neutron source. The facility is under construction, and will open for researchers at the end of 2027.
At ESS, researchers from around the world will be able to study different types of material at atomic and molecular level, in order to understand their structure and function. Research using neutrons is particularly suitable for fragile samples, such as proteins and living materials, and for investigating magnetic properties. A unique feature of neutrons is also that they can ‘see’ hydrogen, which plays a crucial role in nearly all biological processes.
European Spallation Source, ESS, website External link.
Research into climate and environment
Sweden offers a unique and integrated platform for climate and environmental research. Large-scale research facilities for experimental ecology, coordinated by the Swedish Infrastructure for Ecosystem Science, SITES, give support for both long-term and short-term experiments across the entire north-south climate gradient of the Boreal zone. The research stations are strategically located, enabling a combination of ecological experiments with measurements of carbon fluxes and aerosols, integrated with the European large-scale programmes ICOS and Actris.
SITES – Swedish Infrastructure for Ecosystem Science website External link.
ICOS – Integrated Carbon Observation System website External link.
ACTRIS – Aerosols, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure website External link.
Exploring the Arctic
Polar researchers have unique access to Arctic research infrastructures provided by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat. External link.
There are many more research infrastructures in Sweden than those listed above
See a list of accessible research infrastructures funded by the Swedish Research Council
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