page_title: Sweden
section_title: Science and technology
hierarchical_section_title: Sweden / Economy / Science and technology
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Alfred Nobel (1833–1896) by Gösta Florman (1831–1900) Eesti: Foto Alfred Nobelist (1833–1895) Português: Foto de Alfred Nobel a mais de cem anos (1833–1896) Русский: Данный рисунок был также использован для иллюстрирования статьи «Нобель, Альфред» опубликованной в семнадцатом томе «Военной энциклопедии», который был издан книгоиздательским товариществом Ивана Дмитриевича Сытина в 1914 году в столице Российской империи городе Санкт-Петербурге. Подробное описание к этой фотографии можно прочесть в указанной выше статье на сайте Русской Викитеки.
context_page_description: Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, Finland to the east, and is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund Strait. At 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the largest country in Northern Europe, the third-largest country in the European Union and the fifth largest country in Europe by area. The capital city is Stockholm. Sweden has a total population of 10.3 million of which 2.6 million have a foreign background. Persons with foreign backgrounds are defined as persons who are foreign born, or born in Sweden with foreign born parents. It has a low population density of 25 inhabitants per square kilometre, with 1 437 persons per km² in localities. 87% of Swedes live in urban areas, which cover 1.5% of the entire land area. The highest concentration is in the central and southern half of the country.
  Sweden is part of the geographical area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in general mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence.
context_section_description: In the 18th century Sweden's scientific revolution took off. Previously, technical progress had mainly come from mainland Europe.
  In 1739, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was founded, with people such as Carl Linnaeus and Anders Celsius as early members. Many of the companies founded by early pioneers still remain major international brands. Gustaf Dalén founded AGA, and received the Nobel Prize for his sun valve. Alfred Nobel invented dynamite and instituted the Nobel Prizes. Lars Magnus Ericsson started the company bearing his name, Ericsson, still one of the largest telecom companies in the world. Jonas Wenström was an early pioneer in alternating current and is along with Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla credited as one of the inventors of the three-phase electrical system.
  The traditional engineering industry is still a major source of Swedish inventions, but pharmaceuticals, electronics and other high-tech industries are gaining ground. Tetra Pak was an invention for storing liquid foods, invented by Erik Wallenberg. Losec, an ulcer medicine, was the world's best-selling drug in the 1990s and was developed by AstraZeneca. More recently Håkan Lans invented the Automatic Identification System, a worldwide standard for shipping and civil aviation navigation. A large portion of the Swedish economy is to this day based on the export of technical inventions, and many large multinational corporations from Sweden have their origins in the ingenuity of Swedish inventors.
  Swedish inventors held 47,112 patents in the United States in 2014, according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. As a nation, only ten other countries hold more patents than Sweden.
  Combined, the public and the private sector in Sweden allocate over 3.5% of GDP to research & development (R&D) per year, making Sweden's investment in R&D as a percentage of GDP the second-highest in the world. For several decades the Swedish government has prioritised scientific and R&D activities. As a percentage of GDP, the Swedish government spends the most of any nation on research and development. Sweden tops other European countries in the number of published scientific works per capita.
  In 2009, the decisions to construct Sweden's two largest scientific installations, the synchrotron radiation facility MAX IV Laboratory and the European Spallation Source (ESS), were taken. Both installations will be built in Lund. The European Spallation Source, costing some SEK 14 billion to construct, will begin initial operations in 2019 with construction completion scheduled for 2025. The ESS will give an approximately 30 times stronger neutron beam than any of today's existing neutron source installations. The MAX IV, costing some SEK 3 billion, was inaugurated on 21 June 2016. Both facilities have strong implications on material research.
caption: Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite and institutor of the Nobel Prize
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