At the seminar Mr. Gårdebäck will provide an overview of the Vinnova financed national strategic innovation program “Medtech 4 Health” and details about its ten different activities. In June 2015 Vinnova approved 97 MSEK to the program for the first 3 year period. Most of this funding will be available through calls, starting in the beginning of 2016.

• The ultimate objective of the program is to elevate the research and innovation system within biomedical engineering (BME) to the highest possible level in order to achieve a sustainable top ranking for Sweden in the development of innovative health-care solutions.
  Through the program, in 2020 Sweden will:
• have a world-leading innovation system in BME that efficiently integrates the efforts of the health-care sector with those of the industry and the academic community
• be the country in Europe with the strongest growth in BME-innovations and in the number of companies with medical technology applications or product
• be the country in Europe that has the best BME-management and outcome of BME research and development in relation to the needs of the health-care sector
• be the country in Europe with the highest return on investment in quality-adjusted years of BME life/investment
• have developed medical technology in a number of strategic product categories that generate particularly high value in the health-care sector
• and have a national BME-forum with an internationally recognized track record of excellence and a high level of expertise that make Swedish partners highly attractive within EU programs such as Horizon 2020 and EIT KIC

Goals of the program
BME is the driver of an excellent health-care system as measured in terms of health outcome per cost-unit
to strengthen national and international business opportunities for the medtech industry in Sweden
Sweden is to be internationally recognized for excellence and expertise in needs-based BME innovation, research and education