Centre for Innovation Research – CIRCLE – is an interdisciplinary centre which connects innovation researchers from different faculties at Lund University as well as other Swedish and international universities. The meaning of the term innovation has transformed and is now tightly linked to sustainable development goals including climate change, social sustainability and food security. CIRCLE’s aim is to understand and explain how innovation can contribute to a good society and tackle its challenges. This calls for not only technological and business innovations but also for an understanding of how innovations impact societies, communities and households.

Research at CIRCLE is currently organised in nine thematic areas and each theme hosts a number of interdisciplinary innovation research projects. CIRCLE research themes: (1) Corporate venturing and innovation, (2) Entrepreneurial experimentation, (3) Functional public procurement, (4) Geography, innovation, and the long-term transformation of society, (5) Innovation in the Global South, (6) International business, technology and innovation, (7) New perspectives on innovation policy, (8) Sustainability transitions, and (9) Public sector innovation.