Sylvia Schwaag Serger

Professor Schwaag Serger has spent 20 years designing, implementing, and analysing innovation policy.

She has worked for the Swedish government as Science Counselor (Beijing), Senior Advisor at the Prime Minister’s Office for Strategic Development, and coordinator of the government’s efforts to mitigate the effects of Ericsson’s layoffs. She was Executive Director International Strategy for the Government Agency for Innovation (Vinnova) and currently advises the government on how to cooperate with China in research and innovation.

She chaired a European Union expert group on international research and innovation cooperation, was member of the Expert Group on the Economic and Societal Impact of Research and Innovation (ESIR), was an external expert in the recent OECD innovation reviews of Finland and Norway, and is currently evaluating Denmark’s Innovation Fund.

She is a member of the Austrian Council for Research and Technological Development and the International Advisory Board of the Norwegian Research Council, and is chair of the Swedish Foundation for Internationalization of Higher Education and Research (STINT).

She has an MA in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a PhD in economic history from the London School of Economics and Political Science.