Vision, mission and history

Vision

The Interactive Institute’s vision is a creative and sustainable society where people participate and engage in improving everyday life. 

Mission

With pioneering spirit and courage, our research challenges prevailing norms in technology, business, art and design. Through creative processes we motivate and empower partners and people to participate in creating new ways of doing and thinking. 

History

The creation of the Interactive Institute originated in an initiative from the IT group of the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research. This was a reaction against the at the time one-sided focus on technology as a driver for innovation. The Interactive Institute was created in order to focus on the creative, collaborative and social drivers of innovation, where technology is regarded an enabler but not a driver. A number of proposals were made and submitted to this group by Swedish universities and university colleges. 

This resulted in a two-day seminar in Stockholm, January 15-16, 1998, with more than 200 participants. The seminar was followed by a phase of planning for such a laboratory carried out by a small group consisting of representatives from Swedish industry, universities and university colleges. The planning phase eventually resulted in a formal application, and the decision to start the Interactive Institute was made by the Foundation for Strategic Research on May 27, 1998. The first researcher was employed August 1, 1998.

In the autumn of 2005 the Interactive Institute got new owners, The Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS), and became part of a consortium of research institutes called Swedish ICT Research, all within the area of applied IT research. Since 2009, the ownership of the Interactive Institute is held directly by Swedish ICT Research.