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Digital Förvaltning is a research consortium uniting public sector organizations and universities to advance purposeful digitalization in Swedish public administration through clinical research, evaluation tools, and actionable methodological support.
2011
Forskningskonsortiet Digital Förvaltning is a research consortium organized within the Swedish Center for Digital Innovation (SCDI) at the University of Gothenburg. Since 2016, it has worked at the intersection of research and practice to strengthen purposeful digitalization in Swedish public sector organizations — municipalities, regions, and government agencies. The consortium operates through a clinical research model in which assignments from public organizations generate both practical recommendations and generalizable knowledge, creating a feedback loop between academia and practice. Its central contribution is the DiMiOS framework: a scientifically validated model and tool for measuring and governing digital maturity across two dimensions — digital capability and digital legacy. The consortium also runs an executive doctoral school (Forskarskolan Digital Förvaltning), publishes open research reports, and develops practical tools including PIOS (portfolio governance) and DIOS (digital infrastructure inventory). To date, the current average digital maturity of Swedish public sector organizations is measured at 51%, with significant variation across municipalities, regions, and agencies.
Digital maturity, DiMiOS, IT governance, portfolio governance, digital legacy, purposeful digitalization, public administration, benefits realization, digital strategy, clinical research, collective digitalization, twin transition
Swedish public sector organizations face persistent structural barriers to purposeful digitalization — including fragmented governance, imbalanced investment portfolios skewed toward internal efficiency over innovation, constraining digital legacies, and a lack of evidence-based tools for measuring and steering digitalization. The gap between political ambition and organizational capacity has widened, and existing governance models were not designed to enable digital transformation at the pace and scale now required.
The consortium uses a clinical research model: individual assignments from public organizations are conducted as structured studies that generate both case-specific recommendations and broader, replicable insights. Findings are published openly as reports and peer-reviewed articles. The DiMiOS tool operationalizes the consortium's maturity model into a measurement instrument used across hundreds of public organizations. The doctoral school (Forskarskolan Digital Förvaltning) integrates senior practitioners as collaborative doctoral candidates, simultaneously advancing knowledge and building leadership capacity. A key methodological commitment is measuring the degree to which research recommendations are actually implemented in practice (with individual case impact rates ranging from 0% to 100%).
The consortium has produced over 40 open research reports and published numerous peer-reviewed articles. DiMiOS has been adopted by a wide range of Swedish public organizations, with national status reports published annually since 2019. The doctoral school has produced its first doctoral graduates (Kristian Norling, 2024; Per Persson, 2026; Marcus Mattteby, 2026). Partner organizations include Sundsvall, Göteborgs stad, Kungsbacka, Eskilstuna, VGR, Socialstyrelsen, Trafikverket, Försäkringskassan, Finansdepartementet, Skatteverket, Halmstad, Trollhättan, Adda/SKR, and others. Sundsvall municipality achieved an increase in dedicated digital investment funds from 2 to 140 MSEK following consortium recommendations, and one analysis estimated the cost of unrealized digitalization potential at 5.4% of a municipality's annual turnover.
The consortium has influenced national policy (including input to the creation of DIGG, the Swedish Agency for Digital Government), contributed to Sweden's national digital infrastructure debate, and created openly accessible tools and curricula used by public sector organizations across the country. It has also shaped the academic field of public sector IS in Sweden through doctoral training, peer-reviewed publications, and the development of a distinctive Gothenburg School approach to digital governance research.
Contact our team to learn more or explore collaboration opportunities.
