- 16 Oct 2025
Hybrid event organised by Jerkontoret and Swedish Metals and Minerals (Stockholm, 16 October 2025)
On 16 October 2025, Swedish stakeholders working together with the Innovation Centre for Industrial Transformation and Emissions (INCITE) gathered in Stockholm to take stock of the INCITE project activities / progress after one full year of operation. The event was hosted by Jernkontoret (Swedish steel industry association) together with the Swedish Metals & Minerals network, it brought together representatives from industry, research and technology organisations, technology providers and public authorities. The objectives was to reflect on INCITE achievements so far, raise awareness of the importance of INCITE for promoting the uptake of innovative technologies during the industrial transition, to identify lessons learned, and provide an outlook for 2026.
In the opening session, Eva Blixt (Senior Adviser, Jernkontoret) and Annika Roos (CEO Jernkontoret) together with Sussie Gylesjö (Programme Manager, Swedish Metals & Minerals) welcomed the participants and emphasised the importance of maintaining momentum and keep building on INCITE’s success. Professor Lars J. Nilsson from Lund University set the scene with insights into industrial transformation for energy intensive industries and explained how INCITE can fill an important gap in the innovation pipeline to accelerate industrial transformation across Europe.
INCITE (Eric Aries, EU-BRITE, Joint Research Centre - Seville) presented the project’s achievements since its inception, emphasising excellent collaboration between national authorities, industry, technology providers and research and technology organisations. The procedure for submitting information to INCITE was highlighted to all participants including an overview of the INCITE information platform where innovative technologies are showcased. A very lively Q&A session took place afterwards with other members of the INCITE team, Vanessa Ferreira (in charge of the pulp and paper / glass sectors) and Jose Andres Gonzalez (in charge of the Chemicals Sector).
Presentation of the IMPACT INCITE project was provided by Jill Sunberg and Tova Jarnerud Orell showcasing tangible outcomes from collaborative projects involving Swedish stakeholders such as Swerim, Teknikföretagen, LKAB, SSAB, Lund University, Kanthal and Jernkontoret. The discussion illustrated how INCITE supports participants in demonstrating their progress, sharing best practices and addressing common challenges.
Izabela Tyrka Petterson explained in detail the links between the ‘’Sevilla Process’’ for development of environmental norms across Europe and the work of INCITE.
A very important session focused on expanding the collaboration of INCITE with environmental and innovation authorities. This panel session included high-level participation from the Swedish EPA (Johan Kuylenstierna, Director-General), FORMAS (Emma Gretzer, Acting Director-General), Vinnova (Remy Kolessar, Deputy Director-General), Swedish Energy Agency (Klara Helstad, Head of R&I) and the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Bjorn Langbeck, Senior policy expert). Building an ecosystem where INCITE could facilitate collaboration on innovative technologies between industry, research and technology organisations, governmental authorities and technology providers was identified as key. In addition, the activities of INCITE were considered as very important for supporting small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and it was identified that further collaboration between INCITE and the Enterprise Europe Network could be beneficial.
The last panel discussion gathered technology providers who already took part and submitted information to INCITE including Kanthal (Nicolai Schaaf, Sustainability Manager), Greeniron (Linda Ahl, Chief Technology Officer) and Kobolde (Rutger Gylleram, Founder and CEO), together with Swedish Research and technology institutes including SWERIM (Pontus Sjoberg, CEO) and RISE. Positive feedback were received from the technology providers on the experience of collaborating with INCITE and the need to strengthen and pursue collaboration was highlighted.
The closing discussion, “Action Needed and Next Steps” focused on how Sweden—and Europe more broadly—can build on INCITE’s foundation by broadening participation, deepening collaboration and ensuring that industrial innovation remains aligned with environmental objectives.
The event concluded with a networking session, highlighting that significant work was already achieved after one year of operation by INCITE and reaffirming INCITE’s role as a catalyst for cooperation and a visible platform for showcasing Europe’s collective progress toward a sustainable, competitive industrial future.
The event was recorded and is available on YouTube and the presentations are available here!