Nordic Countries Join Forces to Map and Strengthen Their Innovation Ecosystems

Six innovation ecosystem organisations across Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, and Estonia are pooling their knowledge to produce a structured, comparative analysis of Nordic startup ecosystems – with findings to be presented at TechBBQ in August 2026. SISP is proud to be the Swedish counterpart and project managing country.

SISP is part of a new collaborative project together with five other innovation ecosystem organisations from across the Nordic and Baltic region. The project, Nordic Innovation Ecosystem Mobilisation, is commissioned and funded by Nordic Innovation and sets out to map, benchmark, and strengthen startup ecosystems across the Nordics.

The consortium brings together six organisations that are themselves active parts of their national innovation ecosystems – not external analysts, but organisations with years of accumulated domain knowledge and established relationships across government, academia, capital, and industry – also bringing unique strengths into the project:

• SISP (Sweden): Nordic coordination and overall project management, system-level insight, policy relevance.
• Smart Innovation Norway (Norway): Overall contractual responsibility, financial administration, governance and coordination towards Nordic Innovation.
• TechBBQ (Denmark): Direct access to startup, scaleup, investor, corporate, and international innovation communities.
• Maria 01 (Finland): The Nordics’ largest startup hub, contributing with strong international networks and facilitating collaboration across startups, investors, corporates, and ecosystem actors.
• KLAK – Icelandic Startups (Iceland): Insights from a small, highly connected ecosystem with rapid feedback loops and high international exposure.
• Startup Estonia (Estonia): National startup ecosystem development, strong public–private coordination, and deep experience in digital governance, scaleup policy, and international talent attraction.

The mix is intentional. Rather than bringing in outside expertise, Nordic Innovation has assembled a group of organisations that already sit at the centre of their respective ecosystems – and that brings a different kind of value to the analysis.

A new analytical framework

The project applies an updated, startup-centric model of the Quadruple Helix framework, extended with two additional stakeholder groups to form more of a “Hexuple Helix” – reflecting the full range of actors shaping how startups emerge, grow, and scale in the Nordic region. Each country is analysed across six dimensions: Policy & Governance, Finance & Capital, Research & Knowledge, Innovation Support, Industry & Corporates, and Startups & Scaleups, covering the full journey from pre-seed to unicorn.

“The Nordic and Baltic countries each have genuine strengths in innovation, but we rarely look at ourselves together as a coherent region. What makes this project different is that the analysis is being done by organisations that live inside these ecosystems every day. Each partner brings a level of contextual understanding and trusted access that no outside consultancy could replicate. We are not just mapping the Nordic innovation landscape – we are mobilising it.” says Ellinor Bokedal, Project Manager, and Policy Director at SISP.

Results to be presented at TechBBQ in August

The project’s findings – including a consolidated Nordic ecosystem overview, identified systemic gaps and leverage points, and a prioritised coordination architecture for future cross-border collaboration – will be presented at TechBBQ in Copenhagen in August. TechBBQ, itself a consortium partner, is one of the Nordic region’s most significant gatherings of startups, investors, corporates, and ecosystem builders, making it a natural stage for results aimed at mobilising the region’s innovation actors.

More information: nordicinnovation.org/programs/nordic-innovation-ecosystem-mobilisation