Pre-study: Test bed for safe practice and innovation

What problem(s) does the project want to solve?

In a rapidly digitalized and globalized world, society is facing new and complex security challenges. The rapid development in technology and globalization has led to an increasingly changing security landscape, which places higher demands on both civil and military defense. This was not least evident in Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

RISE has several innovation projects underway together with actors in civil and total defense, and in that work we have identified a clear need. For example, we have had an innovation project for authorities in collaboration for secure innovation and several innovation projects together with MSB, MPF, the Public Service Administration, the Security Service, etc. And often we need premises with a high security class, and they are not to be found. Although there are security-classified premises at all authorities, they often have problems with:

1. They are made for ordering and not innovation, and especially not for collaboration

2. They are only for the authority's own meetings, or require someone from the authority to participate.

In addition, more actors are now joining (municipalities, civil society actors and other authorities) who also have a need for security-classified premises, in a way that they did not have before the world situation changed. Not all of these actors have the conditions to acquire the premises they would need.

Why does it need to be secure? In order to be able to conduct exercises and innovation effectively, participating organizations need to be able to transfer information and expose vulnerabilities between each other without the information being passed on to third parties. This is particularly important since the purpose of exercises and innovation is about Sweden's total defense and, in special cases, also national security. The need for increased collaboration around societal challenges in secure environments is increasing. In order to meet the complex challenges, a cross-sectoral approach is required, where authorities, companies, research institutions and other societal actors can collaborate and exchange knowledge and experiences. Despite the increased need for collaboration, functional innovation environments that take into account security and efficiency in collaboration between different actors are currently lacking.

The need also arises in connection with crises, when several actors need to quickly solve a challenge together where the security issue is also a factor. We have started to ask the question to more actors (see above) with whom we collaborate and the need is becoming more and more clear, but this needs to be investigated and clarified more in terms of where the needs lie, what extent, what security classification, etc.

Karlstad has high ambitions when it comes to their contribution to Swedish resilience, civil preparedness and has been working for several years to establish the municipality and surrounding area as a center for community safety. The Center for Community Safety is of great importance for Sweden and for regional development, since the ambition of the Municipality's work encompasses several initiatives that build an interesting whole that can ultimately lead to Karlstad becoming a central actor for Swedish general capacity building in the area and taking more extensive responsibility for meeting the consequences of the external situation and the effects on Sweden. The municipality is actively working towards this, among other things, by preparing capacity to host a new rescue school, establishing relevant contact areas and collaborations with business, academia and authorities. Karlstad also wants to strengthen its academic offering with a focus on civil preparedness, and develop a digital communication structure in the region that in turn generates increased national redundancy. The hope with Karlstad's investment is to create knowledge, expertise and growth, and a test bed for safe practice and innovation is in line with that ambition.

We see that the feasibility study is an important first step in being able to establish a center for safe practice and innovation with a location in Karlstad. Through a center of this kind, we enable increased collaboration and innovation capacity for increased crisis preparedness not only for Värmland but also the rest of Sweden. An accessible environment where public organizations, authorities and business meet, where Värmland's innovation environments can strongly contribute to faster, more robust and more innovation-driven development.