The civil defense in Sweden is under rapid growth. The authorities that are responsible for constructing a civil defence need research in order to succeed with building capacity to mitigate various threats. The Swedish Defence Research Agency, FOI, has a key role to play regarding filling such research needs. In this report, a research agenda for FOI on civil defence is proposed. We have sought a structure for our research agenda through exploring firstly, how research on civil defence has been operationalised historically, and secondly, how challenges, structure and goals for the civil defence are evolving today. The research agenda aims to make research on the field's depth and width possible through approaching the field from two axis - research areas and system levels within which research should be made. The research areas we suggest are; Civil defence as a comprehensive system, Civil protection, Security of supply, Societal functions and critical infrastructure, and lastly, Civil-military relations. Within each research area, relevant research problems and possible research perspectives are described. The system levels we suggest are; Social, economic and technological development, Threats and vulnerabilities, Strategy, doctrines and concepts, Evaluation and assessment, Governance, public administration and law, and lastly, Operations and civil defence practices. With these levels we aim to shed light on the complex system that make up the civil defence, with many different actors, from different perspectives.