International Innovation Challenge

As part of the global outreach, Swedish Mining Innovation supports the industry by identifying the broad range of challenges facing large mining companies, many of which require innovative solutions often found outside the established mining cluster.

Since Swedish small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face challenges in connecting with major players and rarely learn about their needs, Swedish Mining Innovation work with the existing innovation mining arena and invites global actors.

Their clearly defined needs are then shared through Swedish Mining Innovation’s channels—such as the web, LinkedIn, and newsletters—and extended networks, including industry organizations, science parks, and incubators. 
 
Internally, organizations allocate resources to handle incoming solutions, and a designated person is put in charge of overseeing the challenge and managing its requirements. The incoming innovations are then compiled and further dialog is between the mining company and the innovative SMEs with no involvement from Swedish Mining Innovation, our role is to open up the mining innovation arena.

This approach opens new ways for large mining companies and SMEs to collaborate, fosters innovation and open doors hard to find or open as a small SME and ultimately ensures that both sides can benefit from sustainable and groundbreaking ideas. 

Questions and Answers

What kind of companies can join the International Innovation Challenge?
This opportunity is open to all potential suppliers of solutions and innovations that can solve the challenges of the mining industry. A supplier could be a company that has already supplied mining customers, but it could equally be a supplier of solutions that is not in the traditional mining industry and that may never have seen a mining company as a potential customer. The challenges may be in what we traditionally see as part of the mining industry, but could just as easily be in areas such as AI, e-mobility or be about sustainability.

The network is thus open to all Swedish SME companies that currently see themselves as suppliers or potential suppliers to the mining industry, who may have solutions or innovations that solve future or current challenges to other sectors of the industry.

What does it mean to join the challenge?
The purpose of the network is to create a meeting arena between SME companies and the major players in the global mining industry. We will publish cases or challenges coming from the major players in the mining industry and by joining the network you will have access to all the challenges and info about them, so nothing risks getting lost. The SME will also have access to other business relevant information through newsletters and social media from Swedish Mining Innovation. The idea is also for the network to include other channels and opportunities to meet and in this way also build relationships between the larger and smaller players and really create a meeting arena.

What is the role of the Swedish Mining Innovation towards the participating mining companies (case owners)?

The role of the SME network and Swedish Mining Innovation towards the participating mining-related companies is to help them formulate their challenges and create clear packages, and then present these to the network so that not only will the companies find new, innovative solutions but also that the SME companies at the same time get a unique chance to get in touch with, and create and build relationships with the case-owning companies.

Swedish Mining Innovation through the International Mining Coordinator is the interface during the initial phases of the work, ensuring that this gateway works so that the information coming in from the potential innovative solutions is in a comparable format, and that the interested SME companies are just that,  SMEs as defined by the European Union. EU definition, with a maximum turnover of 500 MSEK and a maximum of 249 employees, and with a Swedish company registration number.