The Swedish Mining Innovations SME network exists to create meetings through an innovation arena between the major mining companies and SMEs across the country.
The feedback we have received is that SMEs lack collaboration and business opportunities from the larger players in the mining and metals industry. A key issue identified is the lack of infrastructure and forums for SMEs and other players to interact which also slows down innovation in the industry.
The mission of the network is therefore to create this innovation arena for the mining sector to facilitate this meeting and to be the link between the challenges of the companies and the sustainable and innovative solutions of the SMEs. By helping companies to formulate their challenges and create clear packages, and then presenting these to the network, not only will the companies find new, innovative solutions. At the same time, the SME companies will have a unique opportunity to connect with, and create business opportunities with, the major mining-related companies. These two perspectives form the basis for generating interest and a willingness to participate from both SMEs and the larger players. If there is a functioning meeting arena, there is also the potential to build an SME network over time. A win-win solution, quite simply.
Erik Hagenrud, from Swedish Mining Innovation, is leading the network. Erik has nearly 20 years of experience in export and business development of SME companies in northern Sweden, and the last ten years largely focused on subcontractors to mining companies.
Erik Hagenrud
Copperstone: Inspection of water-filled shaft – 300 m underground
Copperstone: Pumping water from water-filled mine underground – with tilted borehole
What kind of companies can join the SME network?
The SME network is open to all potential suppliers of solutions and innovations that can solve the challenges of the mining industry. A supplier could be a company that has already supplied mining customers, but it could equally be a supplier of solutions that is not in the traditional mining industry and that may never have seen a mining company as a potential customer. The challenges may be in what we traditionally see as part of the Swedish mining industry, but could just as easily be in areas such as AI, e-mobility or be about sustainability.
The network is thus open to all Swedish SME companies that currently see themselves as suppliers or potential suppliers to the mining industry, who may have solutions or innovations that solve future or current challenges to other sectors of the industry.
What does it mean to join the network?
The purpose of the network is to create a meeting arena between SME companies and the major players in the Swedish mining industry. We will publish cases or challenges coming from the major players in the mining industry and by joining the network you will have access to all the challenges and info about them, so nothing risks getting lost. The SME will also have access to other business relevant information through newsletters and social media from Swedish Mining Innovation. The idea is also for the network to include other channels and opportunities to meet and in this way also build relationships between the larger and smaller players and really create a meeting arena.
What is the role of the SME network towards the six companies?
The role of the SME network and Swedish Mining Innovation towards the six major participating mining-related companies is to help them formulate their challenges and create clear packages, and then present these to the network so that not only will the companies find new, innovative solutions but also that the SME companies at the same time get a unique chance to get in touch with, and create and build relationships with the major mining-related companies. The designated role of Swedish Mining Innovations and the SME network from the six major participating mining-related companies is also to be the interface during the initial phases of the work, and to ensure that this gateway works so that the information coming in from the potential innovative solutions is in a comparable format, and that the interested SME companies are just that, SMEs as defined by the European Union. EU definition, with a maximum turnover of 500 MSEK and a maximum of 249 employees, and with a Swedish company registration number.
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