Selection criteria for IVA’s 100 List

IVA’s 100 List promotes researchers who wish to make greater contact with the business community and social actors. The selection is therefore not based on the scientific excellence of the research, but primarily on its potential for commercial development, innovation and social benefit. However, high scientific quality is a prerequisite for publication on the 100 List.

The selection is based on five criteria. If applications with a similar research focus are competing for a place on the 100 List, the research judged to have the greatest potential to add value is chosen. The overall variety and breadth of the 100 List is also taken into account.

Selection criteria:

  1. Potential for business development and/or innovation that could generate:
    1. Competitiveness
      Competitiveness is determined by a number of structural factors that provide particularly good conditions for producing and selling goods or services. The efficacy of companies’ production and their goods and services plays an important role in the overall competitiveness of a country. In commercial terms, this can mean access to expertise, infrastructure, capital, legal certainty and predictability in terms of legislation and application of the law. As a vital factor in a company’s competitiveness, knowledge might come from research and development at the company itself or from an academic institution. The question is: Could your research provide a competitive advantage for a company, or perhaps Sweden as a country, because it gives an edge in terms of knowledge or boosts competitiveness in some other way?
    2. Social benefit
      The concept of social benefit is based on values that benefit everyone in society. In economic terms, social benefit is defined as something that increases society’s overall welfare and makes a positive contribution to the country’s GDP. In other words, it is separate from the fact that individuals or companies do better, but is linked to the development of the nation as a whole. The question is: Can your research contribute social benefit and increase Sweden’s overall prosperity?
  2. Capacity for implementation (the team/researcher)
    Particular emphasis is placed on the researchers themselves having the drive to develop and apply their research through commercial development, or to translate their knowledge into other forms of benefit.
  3. Readiness (maturity and time factor)
    How ‘finished’ the research idea and results are in relation to the market, i.e. the project’s commercial or social maturity. Maturity may, for example, be described according to the EU’s Technology Readiness Level (TRL) model. In this model, which can also be applied to projects of a non-technological nature, the degree of maturity is stated on a scale from 1–9, where TRL1 indicates that the basic principles have been observed and can be proven, and TRL9 means fully tested and ready for the market. IVAs self-assessment model may also be helpful in dealing with the questions you will face.
  4. Novelty
    The unique features. What is unique, novel and innovative about the research?
  5. Sustainability
    The research project’s approach to sustainability and its impact on the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
    We recommend a review using the SDG Impact Assessment Tool.

In the selection process, scores are awarded on a scale of 1–5 for the points listed above. The potential (1) and capacity (2) criteria are given greater weight in the selection process.

IVA’s 100 List

IVA’s annual 100 List pulls together a wide range of research projects from Swedish higher education institutions on topical themes – all with the potential to create value, through commercialisation, business and method development or societal impact. 

By building bridges between the research and business communities, we offer greater opportunities for potentially world-changing research to realise its commercial and social value.

To IVA’s 100 List