Universities gather to strengthen Swedish industry

New knowledge, inspiration and innovation is needed to keep abreast of developments when digitalisation changes the conditions and possibilities of the industry. Now, five universities are gathering around a new national industry research school in the field of Smart Industry.

In the spring of 2020, the new industry research school starts at Högskolan Väst, Högskolan in Skövde, Jönköping University, Högskolan in Halmstad and Mittuniversitetet in close cooperation with the KK Foundation. It will be the largest corporate research school in Sweden in the field of Smart Industry. It is aimed at companies that want to strengthen their competitiveness by shaping future key people for industrial development with new valuable expertise linked to this field.

Through the graduate school, companies can build strong networks between their line of business and higher education institutions, as well as take advantage of a large volume of research results. The purpose is to build a close collaboration between industry and academia. In total, there is place for about 40 doctoral students distributed among the five higher education institutions. Companies from all over the country can collaborate with doctoral students from any of the five institutions, regardless of their respective geographical locations.

Five specializations

The research width in the graduate school has unique potential, since it combines the top ten institutions of excellence within the smart industry. The company and the university will formulate the research assignment together. The industry research school will focus on five development areas that are of great importance for the future of the industry:

• Smart and durable materials and manufacturing methods
• Smart products and processes
• Smart production technology for flexible, agile and changeable production systems
• Smart working methods for fast and efficient product realization / industrialization
• Efficient quality, maintenance and productivity development for smart production.

New business opportunities

With 40 research projects running in parallel and overlapping other's areas, both the companies and higher education institutions will have access to an extensive amount of research. This will also provide a valuable network where companies and doctoral students will create new contacts, new collaborations and perhaps even new business opportunities. Experiences from previous industry research schools show that most of the doctoral students continue their employment at the cooperating company after graduation.

Read more here.

For more information, contact:

Mats Jackson, Jönköping University, pro-rector and program director for SPARK, mats.jackson@ju.se, 036-10 10 96