New strategic partnership paves way for greater collaboration with basic Swedish industries
Urban Wiklund, manager of the new partnership with with Allleima. Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt.
“In the long run, other parts of the University will cherry-pick and share the forms of collaboration that have worked best in the strategic partnerships,” says Urban Wiklund, manager of the new partnership with the steel company Alleima at Uppsala University.
How do strategic partnerships affect the University?
“Working with external partners has always contributed in various ways to the development of research and education at the University. Our development in materials science, for example, has in some areas gone hand in hand with the progress made by Alleima, formerly the Sandvik Group, in its operations. But we can do even better.”
How do partnerships make us better?
“For me, the long-term perspective of the partnerships offers a space to develop new forms of collaboration in both research and education. Therefore, in the short term the strategic partnerships allow us to work more with Alleima, and more effectively. In the long run, other parts of the University will cherry-pick and share the forms of collaboration that have worked best in the strategic partnerships.”
Why Alleima specifically?
“We already have a great exchange with Alleima. They are among the best in the world at what they do and are geographically luxuriously close to us. Collaborating with Alleima has also proven to be very positive.”
In practical terms, what work is under way right now?
“The collaboration is based on people with common interests coming together and engaging with each other’s challenges. Among other things, we are planning for an ‘AIMday’, where researchers at the University and employees at Alleima take on each other’s challenges without preconceptions. Our aim with this is to develop the work already under way today, for example in my area of activity – materials science – but also to pinpoint new areas such as sustainable economics and urban management.”
How do you want the University’s role in the partnerships to develop in the long term?
“I think we can do better at highlighting all the things that are actually happening in the strategic partnerships, as there is a lot going on all the time. We need to do this both to further strengthen the areas we see as successful and to give more people the chance to take up the new forms of exchange in research and education that we are developing via the partnerships. I hope we will succeed in increasing mobility through visiting professorships and doctoral students employed in industry, as well as greater direct knowledge exchange through study visits and guest lectures. Alleima also brings a clear industry perspective to the design of programmes at the University, enabling us to best meet labour market demand.”
Marie-Louise Olsen
Facts about the partnerships
Uppsala University has strategic partnerships with a number of companies and organisations. The ambition is to continuously develop these collaborations to contribute to societal benefit and innovation while strengthening the university's research and education. The strategic partnerships also work to spread the experiences from previous projects, develop and establish new forms of collaboration and find new areas within the university for collaboration.
Partnerships are concluded with larger companies or public organizations to enrich the university's research and education. They are characterized by a large breadth that includes several fields of science and subjects. The initiative for a partnership can either be taken from Uppsala University's management or from an external partner.
How you as a researcher can benefit from the partnership
One of the purposes of the partnerships is to make it easier for researchers and students at the university to get in touch and collaborate with these partners.