This year’s Östergötland SKAPA award winners have now been announced. LEAD alumni Polar Light Technologies is awarded SKAPA 2025 and FluentPal is the winner of SKAPA Talent. – “It’s incredibly gratifying to see two companies emerge from research at Linköping University,” says Catharina Sandberg, CEO of LEAD.
The SKAPA Prize is Sweden’s largest innovation prize and aims to support inventors in developing new ideas. This year’s regional winner is LEAD alumni Polar Light Technologies.
Polar Light Technologies receives the award for its groundbreaking microLED technology. Rooted in research from Linköping University, the company has created a solution that is both extremely compact and bright – while being energy efficient. An innovation with the potential to revolutionize future displays and portable electronics.
– It is an extra honor to receive this award in Europe’s most innovative city, where competition is fierce but encourages greatness. We also had the privilege of participating in an accelerator program at Berkeley in the US. What struck me there, in addition to all the new experiences, is how far ahead we are at LiU in Linköping – absolutely world class, says Ivan Martinovic in a comment.
The winner of SKAPA Talang, FluentPal, has in turn developed an AI-based platform that makes language learning more accessible, effective and inclusive by enabling real conversations in real time.
Founder Mariana Gil Corona participated in LEAD’s early-stage startup program, BootUp, in spring 2024.
– The BootUp program has really helped us understand how to validate an idea in the right way. The knowledge and support we received from LEAD was invaluable and has helped us get to this point,” she says.
The winners received the awards from County Governor Gunilla Svantorp and Almi’s Head of Credit Gunilla Byström, as well as receiving attention from Linköping Municipality, at a ceremony at Linköping Castle on September 24.
The SKAPA Prize is awarded in memory of Alfred Nobel and is Sweden’s largest innovation prize. The regional winners receive SEK 10 000 each and go on to the national final, where the maximum prize is SEK 500 000.
