– Highlights from Almedalen –
Innovation starts with a problem worth solving. But for breakthrough innovation to succeed, someone must be able to define the challenge.
That was the message from Sara Myrdal, Head of Department at the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency’s new Agency for Civil Defence (Myndigheten för civilt försvar), who joined the discussion on challenge-driven innovation following the presentation by Vinnova and Germany’s breakthrough innovation agency, SPRIND.
As a representative of a public-sector “need’s owner [behovsägare],” Myrdal offered a perspective on what it takes to turn innovation competitions into real-world capabilities.
The importance of the challenge owner
According to Myrdal, successful challenge-driven innovation begins with a clearly defined problem.
The role of the challenge owner is not to specify the solution,” she explained. “It is to describe the problem and the capability that is missing.”
That distinction is critical. If public authorities define the solution too early, they risk limiting creativity and overlooking entirely new approaches. Instead, needs’ owners should articulate the outcome they want to achieve and allow innovators to explore how best to get there.
For a society facing increasingly complex security threats, this approach may become essential.
We need new ways of working for the reality we find ourselves in today, somewhere between peace and war,” said Myrdal. “That is why we are excited to see Vinnova opening up new methods and new ways of engaging innovators.”
The drone challenge is a perfect example
One example highlighted during the session was the Anti-Drone Challenge recently launched by Vinnova and SPRIN-D.
For Myrdal, it illustrates exactly the type of societal challenge that requires new approaches.
Across Europe, drones are transforming both civilian and military operations. The war in Ukraine has demonstrated how inexpensive unmanned systems can change the dynamics of the battlefield, creating what many defence analysts refer to as the “transparent battlefield”, the new war environment where movements can be observed and targeted in real time.
At the same time, drones are creating new security challenges for civilian infrastructure and public safety.
We hear discussions across Europe about creating a drone shield or a drone wall,” Myrdal noted. “The challenge is not only to detect drones but also to neutralize them in ways that are safe for the population.”
Recent incidents involving unauthorized drones in sensitive airspace have highlighted the need for more effective and agile responses.
This is a threat we all share,” she said. “We need better ways of managing these situations than the approaches we have today.”
Learning from Ukraine
Ukraine emerged repeatedly during the discussion as a source of inspiration for rapid innovation.
Ukraine has become a large innovation workshop,” Myrdal said. “Many radical innovations are being developed and tested there in real time.”
The Agency for Civil Defense is closely following developments and has personnel working on lessons learned and capability transfer. One area of particular interest is the ability to rapidly create and share situational awareness across organizations during crises and emergencies.
Systems for real-time information sharing, operational coordination, and incident management are proving critical in both civilian and military contexts.
The same applies to other priority areas, including supply preparedness, population protection, emergency warning systems, and the development of future civil-defence infrastructure.
Reward performance, not track record
A recurring theme throughout the session was how to identify and support innovators capable of delivering breakthrough solutions.
For Myrdal, challenge-driven innovation requires organizations to focus less on established credentials and more on demonstrated results.
We need people who can describe capabilities that do not yet exist and frame future needs,” she said. “Then we need mechanisms that reward performance rather than track record.”
That means giving opportunities not only to established players but also to startups, researchers, and new teams with unconventional ideas.
The goal is not simply to fund innovation but to build new capabilities that strengthen society’s resilience.
Building capability together
Myrdal also stressed that many of today’s challenges cannot be solved within national or organizational silos.
Security threats, infrastructure vulnerabilities, and technological dependencies increasingly cut across sectors and borders. To address them effectively, governments, industry, academia, and innovators must work together.
We cannot afford fragmented approaches,” she said. “What I am most proud of is our ability to work in a federated way, to build shared capability across organizations.”
This aligns closely with the challenge-driven model promoted by SPRIND and Vinnova, where diverse actors collaborate around a common goal while contributing different expertise and perspectives.
Scaling innovation for civil defense
Looking ahead, Myrdal identified deeper collaboration with Vinnova as a key priority.
Particular emphasis is being placed on the Civil Innovation Program (CIP), which aims to strengthen innovation within Sweden’s civil-defense ecosystem. The ambition is to scale the programme, engage more actors, and tackle a broader range of emerging challenges.
Examples include solutions for disrupted navigation and GNSS signals at sea, resilient communication systems, supply-chain preparedness, and future population protection capabilities.
These are not hypothetical scenarios, Myrdal stressed; they are real operational challenges that require solutions today.
As Sweden and other European countries significantly increase defence and security investments, innovation will play an increasingly important role.
One of our most important tasks now is developing a shared ability to formulate relevant and ambitious goals for innovation,” she concluded.
Because before breakthrough innovations can emerge, society must first define the challenges worth solving.
