Vision and Strategy
Our vision and strategy set out the overall direction, priorities and objectives for our activities in education, research, collaboration and innovation.
Vision
In 2025, the Board of the Swedish Defence University adopted the vision and strategy for 2026–2030.
The introduction states:
"The Swedish Defence University’s vision is to be a leading university, nationally and internationally, in the fields of defence, crisis management, and security.
We are a unique civil military meeting place that deals with uncertainty in the world by producing the knowledge required for the decisive moments in Sweden’s security and total defence. Through a strategy of growth and development, the Swedish Defence University is to take a leading role in competence provision and the development of knowledge across the defence and security sector."
Overall objectives of the strategy
Education
The Swedish Defence University’s primary objective for education in the coming years is growth, in order to meet skills needs in the following order of priority: the Swedish Armed Forces, the civilian components of Sweden’s total defence, the wider public sector and the private sector. High quality and relevance in education are essential, as the University’s graduates will go on to serve in important professions and positions both nationally and internationally. The University is to be the first choice for large parts of the total defence sector for skills provision and lifelong learning. Its education must be sufficiently flexible to allow adaptations that ensure continued growth, quality and relevance, including at a time of changes in the security policy landscape and rapid technological development.
Research
The Swedish Defence University’s research environments are to be nationally and internationally leading, with extensive research output of the highest quality and relevance in the fields of defence, crisis management and security. The University’s research generates new knowledge that is disseminated both within the academic community and across Sweden’s total defence. The research contributes to capability development within the Swedish Armed Forces and the wider total defence, strengthens the research basis of the University’s educational programmes, and advances the international research frontier.
Collaboration and innovation
The Swedish Defence University’s role as a forum provides a unique opportunity for collaboration and support for innovation processes. The purpose of collaboration is to enhance the quality and relevance of research and education while providing external partners with access to research-based knowledge. The University thus serves as a knowledge hub, making vital contributions to skills provision and knowledge development through research and education that meet the needs of stakeholders within Sweden’s total defence, the wider security sector and the business community.
Experts from the Swedish Defence University will continue to participate regularly in the media and other external forums, thereby playing an important role in promoting public understanding within the University’s areas of expertise.
Read the vision and strategy in full
The strategy also sets out the conditions underpinning the Swedish Defence University’s growth and development, as well as strategies and interim objectives for education, research, collaboration and innovation.
The Swedish Defence University’s role and strengths
The demands placed on Sweden, the EU and NATO to strengthen total defence and defence capabilities create significant needs for skills provision, knowledge development and innovation. The Swedish Defence University has an important role to play in meeting these needs.
- The Swedish Defence University creates and disseminates new knowledge that strengthens the warfighting capabilities of the Swedish Armed Forces and Sweden’s allies, the resilience of civil defence and society’s ability to manage crises.
- Officer training of the highest international standard, underpinned by a strong research base, contributes to the quality of the officer corps and to the Swedish Armed Forces’ warfighting and capability development.
- One of the Swedish Defence University’s key strengths is its role as a civil-military forum where theory and practice come together, and where national and international perspectives meet insights from civil society and the public and private sectors.
- Democratic values, professionalism, good leadership and an ethical approach based on the principles of the rule of law are to characterise the activities of the Swedish Defence University.