Dr Per Frankelius, PhD, is Chief Initiative Officer Innovation at Agtech Sweden, Operation Manager (together with Karolina Muhrman) for the National knowledge hub for the digitization of agriculture (Kunskapsnav för jordbrukets digitalisering) in Sweden, and Associate professor in business administration at the Department of Business Administration at Linköping University.
His research about invention and innovation in relation to agriculture is published in e.g. Journal of High Technology Management Research, the Lancet, and Agronomy Journal.
He is member of the Royal Economic Society, member of Earthworm Society of Britain and member of American Society of Agronomy, member of Agricultural Industry Electronics Foundation (AEF), Fellow of the Linnean Society of London and Fellow of The Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry. He is also a member of the Board of AgroÖst. In 2006 he was elected to the Swedish Broadcasting Commission and during 2004-10 he was on the board of the Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum.
His project “Linnaeus in new light” (Linné i nytt ljus) included the first translation of Linnaeus’ most important book, Systema Naturae. His book “Environmental Analysis” became standard literature on the subject at Swedish universities and the book “The company & the outside world” was chosen “best marketing book of the year”.
In 2013–2019 he was responsible for the project, “Greenovation Sweden” committed to bring cutting-edge knowledge on how innovation can be stimulated in green sectors, not least by means of integrating users into innovation processes. The project was hosted by Linköping University, Sweden. Among the partners were 3M, Lantmännen, SSAB, SMHI, SLU Holding and Elmia. Since 2015 he has been a member of the jury for the Elmia Agriculture Innovation Award (Swedish tradeshow).
At the end of 2018, Sweden’s Innovation Agency, Vinnova, granted funding for the Agtech 2030 innovation initiative with Frankelius as process leader. This is an investment in agricultural technology and an expected budget of approximately Euro 20 million over 10 years. The initiative involves about 100 companies and organizations. Today this initiative has changes name to Agtech Sweden and is led by Per (as Innovation leader) and Karolina Muhrman (Organization leader).
Frankelius has conducted several government missions. For example, he was Principal Secretary of the inquiry on innovation appointed by the Swedish Government (SOU Innovative processes) and key-note speaker at two of the EU agriculture-focused conferences during the Swedish presidency 2023.
Research background: Frankelius began his research career in 1988 at the DM Center hosted by Örebro University. It was a time when the first Apple computers were recently launched and would have significant implications for both marketing practice and theory. The DM Center was one of Europe’s first research initiatives to analyze the development of how computers could be used for customer search and relationship marketing. Strategic information management and external analysis, not least the search of external databases, were the net research topics. The center was financed by Apple, IBM and The Swedish Post. Among the studies conducted was “Strategic information management in biotechnology companies” that included companies active in biological water treatment and soil remediation.
Besides teaching in many own courses Frankelius, over the years, has been invited as a guest lecturer at several educational institutions such as Arts and Crafts (Konstfack), Stockholm University, Turku Academy, Royal Institute of Technology, Uppsala University, University of San Francisco, Linnaeus University and Karolinska Institutet. His research has been presented at conferences in USA, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Iceland, Italy, Russia, Dubai, Belgium, Finland, United Arab Emirates, the Neatherlands, Israel, Georgia, Denmark, Luxembourg and the UK.
In addition to research and teaching, he has worked as an advisor to the government, regions and the business community. The creation of high-performance environments is also a central theme, which he has also worked on in a “sharp position”. He led the project that led to the formation of the Swedish Business School at Örebro University.
Among the clients over the years are organizations such as Saab, John Deere, Pearson Education, Väderstad, Kinnarps, The Regional Hospital in Linköping, Gothia Redskap, Sweden’s Agricultural University, Volvo, Ericsson, Trondheim Municipality, Ministry of Trade, Industry, Eka Nobel, Saab, Nordea, Bofors Defense, Electrolux, KF, Länsförsäkringar, Norrköping symphony orchestra, Swedish Volkswagen, Statistics Sweden, County Administrative Board of Västra Götaland County, Holmen, Landshypotek, Swedbank, Berwaldhallen, Government Offices of Competence, Posten and several municipalities and regional associations, eg. Växjö Municipality and the Regional Association of Southern Småland.
As part of understanding innovation processes more in depth than what is possible by just studying others, he has tried to develop inventions on his own. In 2012, he was granted a patent for one of these inventions; a new type of precision harrow. He currently has two more patents, one about a robot system and one about soil compaction management. Parts of the innovation experiments are conducted at the family’s farm Hollstad. The farm also includes horse facility including indoor and outdoor riding arenas.
Per has received the Agritechnica Innovation Award, the Stora Hagdahl Prize (gastronomy) and won the Silverbill. He is also nominated in the prestigious international prize Agrifutures, which is awarded by the German Academy of Agriculture.