The Swedish national innovation strategy highlights an ambition to make innovation “more natural and relevant for more people”. This comes from a realisation that the innovation system has traditionally focused on and promoted the high-tech industries in Sweden such as biotechnology and information and communication technologies (ICT). This has led to a marginalization of a number of groups including females, immigrants, and non-technological business and academic sectors in the innovation system.

Social innovation is about challenging norms and finding solutions that lead to new and better social structures and relations, and therefore, adopting a social innovation perspective in innovation policy and research has the potential to open up for more inclusive policies, processes, networks, and innovation research. With Sweden’s long tradition of analysing gender patterns in society and organizations, there is a possibility for Sweden to become a frontrunner in the discipline.