Its objective is to "support research in natural science, engineering and medicine that strengthens Sweden’s competitiveness".

[5] SSF was founded in 1994 by the Swedish government when the employee funds was discontinued under the Bildt Cabinet.

SSF also supports young scientists through programs as "future research leaders" and "Ingvar Carlsson Award".

[6] In August 2012, it was revealed by the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter that the foundation had spent large sums of its money on a party and pr rather than research grants.

During the Almedalen 2014 the Foundation held a seminar entitled "Busy Doing Nothing" with the same theme and with Andrew Mcafee, author of the book "The Second Machine Age", as the main speaker, which also received great attention in the media.