Social Innovation in Health in the Swedish Context

Earlier this year, Sweden formally joined the Social Innovation in Health Initiative (SIHI).

With the engagement of the World Health Organization and over thirty other international institutions, SIHI aims to build global capacity and research evidence on social innovations in health.‘SIHI Sweden’ is a platform for actors interested in exploring innovative ways to promote sustainable health to team up and work on new research ideas and research-based implementation of social innovations.

As an inaugural activity for SIHI Sweden, the hub will host a conference in Autumn 2023.

The vision for the conference, and the broader SIHI Sweden activities, closely aligns with that of Forte – to contribute through research to a society with good health.

The conference will promote knowledge exchange on the topic of social innovations in health, with a particular focus on the four ‘pillars’ of the initiative – implementation research, reducing inequity, co-creation of knowledge and entrepreneurship.

The conference days will commence with international keynote speakers addressing the concept of ‘social innovations in health’.

Following this, each of the four themes will be introduced by research teams and non-academic partners representing social innovation projects within Sweden that align with the theme. Delegates will be invited to submit posters on further projects relevant to SIHI Sweden.

After initial knowledge sharing, the conference will move to a knowledge generation phase whereby pertinent issues within each pillar will be tackled collaboratively in a workshop format.

The conference will run over two days and targets researchers, students, entrepreneurs, policymakers and implementers in the private and public sectors, civil society and non-profits. Around 100 participants are anticipated to attend. International knowledge exchange is fundamental to ensure research drives social advancement.

For this reason, global SIHI hubs will be invited to participate online.