Building a Shared Nordic Model for Public Innovation

“The Nordics are too small not to collaborate.” For Niklas Sikström, Project Manager at Ignite Nordic, that simple statement captures why the Nordic GovTech Alliance was created in the first place, and why its work is only just beginning.

Almost two years ago, Ignite Nordic, Fjársýsla (the Financial Management Authority of Iceland), and Business Finland, supported by VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland), came together around a shared observation: despite differences in procurement systems and organizational structures, public organizations across the Nordics face similar challenges. An aging population, increasing pressure on healthcare systems, climate adaptation, civil preparedness, resilience, and the energy transition are challenges no country can solve alone.

Funded by the Nordic Council and supported by Vinnova, the Nordic GovTech Alliance was launched as a preparatory project to explore whether the Nordics could develop a shared approach to identifying, testing, and procuring innovative startup solutions.

“The Nordics face mutual societal challenges that are heavily dependent on successful public sector disruption in service delivery and operating efficiency. To facilitate this change, we must rely on true international cooperation and commitment to deploy effective solutions, and Ignite Nordic is well suited to lead us there,” says Sveinbjörn Ingi Grímsson, from the Financial Management Authority of Iceland.

Breaking Down Barriers to Public Innovation

Throughout the project, participants repeatedly returned to the same conclusion: innovation is rarely limited by the availability of technology. Instead, the biggest barriers are organizational.

The Nordic Govtech Alliance project conferences held in 2025 alongside Iceland Innovation Week, Uppsala Innovation Night, and Slush highlighted the importance of involving procurement teams early, defining needs before searching for solutions, building trust between stakeholders, and committing to implementation before launching pilots.

Participants included representatives from the municipalities of Helsinki, Espoo, Uppsala, and Norrköping, HUS Helsinki University Hospital, Senate Properties, Landspítali University Hospital, HBV, Maria 01, Demola, Health360, KLAK, and Drift, among other organizations from across the Nordics.

Shared Challenges Require Shared Solutions

Over the course of the project, several approaches were developed and tested, together forming a scalable model for public innovation. These included a common process for helping public organizations discover and procure innovative startup solutions, international workshops bringing together public need owners from across the Nordics, curated matchmaking sessions between public organizations and startups, and a multi-stakeholder needs assessment methodology designed around shared societal challenges.

One of these challenges became the focus of the project’s final workshop in Helsinki, centered on how to enhance quality of life and prolong independent living at home for senior citizens.

Before looking for specific solutions within a single organization or country, the participants worked together to map common needs and explore how startup collaboration could help address them.

The workshop confirmed something the project had already begun to demonstrate: the similarities between Nordic public organizations are far greater than the differences.

As Niklas Sikström summarizes: “We moved from ‘We must do something to make it easier for Nordic public organizations to jointly explore and procure innovative startup solutions’ to ‘This is how we can make it happen.'”

Turning Conversations Into Collaboration

Beyond developing methods and testing new ways of working, the project also led to concrete collaborations between public organizations and startups.

Throughout the project, public organizations —including the Swedish municipalities of Uppsala and Norrköping, and Region Dalarna— were matched with more than 35 Nordic startups and scaleups. Many of the curated matchmaking meetings continued beyond the initial conversations, resulting in seven startup collaborations.

Region Dalarna was looking for a way to optimize stock management and ordering of low-cost medical supplies. The solution they needed was not readily available through existing procurement channels, and the region lacked access to companies working on this type of technology.

The region was matched with relevant startups through Ignite Nordic’s curated matchmaking process. The dialogue continued after the initial meetings, eventually leading to Proof of Concept projects with two companies.

One of them is Sensative, whose hardware and software are now being tested in a pilot project to determine whether they can improve inventory management across the region. If successful, the solution has the potential to scale not only within Region Dalarna but also to other regions facing the same challenge.

For Oskar Baggens-Callenås, Process Owner Logistics at Region Dalarna, the value of the collaboration went far beyond finding potential suppliers: “Without Ignite Nordic’s support and extensive network, the region would most likely still have been struggling to figure out how to move the challenge forward. The professional matchmaking process, with its clear structure, well-prepared presentations, and carefully selected companies, has significantly facilitated the process and enabled Region Dalarna to continue developing its ideas for more efficiently monitoring and managing the consumption of its supplies.”

A Scalable Model for Public Innovation

Through nearly two years of testing, the alliance has demonstrated that public organizations across the Nordics share enough common challenges to call for a coordinated approach to identifying needs, scouting startups, testing solutions, and scaling successful innovations across borders.

“The Nordic GovTech Alliance has given us at Ignite Nordic valuable partners and a much deeper understanding of the needs within the Nordic public sector. Although each country has its own way of organizing public services, the similarities are much greater than the differences. It has also shown that Ignite Nordic’s way of working with public sector challenges works remarkably well across borders,” says Niklas Sikström.

The first phase of the Nordic GovTech Alliance has recently concluded, but the work is far from over. The project’s partners are now exploring how to expand the initiative by welcoming additional ecosystem partners, public organizations, stakeholders, and funders. Organizations in Denmark and the Baltics have also expressed interest in joining the Nordic GovTech Alliance.

If you are also interested in shaping the next chapter of the Nordic GovTech Alliance, please contact Project Manager Niklas Sikström at niklas@ignitenordic.org.