External engagement at its best

The Higher Education Act stipulates that higher education institutions must co-operate with the surrounding society for mutual exchange and in order to ensure that the knowledge and skills available at the University benefit society.

As the Faculty of Engineering at Lund University, it is natural for LTH to collaborate with industry and other stakeholders in society in both research and education, while it is also important for us to safeguard freedom and curiosity in research.

External engagement takes place in many different ways and to varying extents. Some collaborations are based on occasional exchanges whereas others are regular, long term and involve several different parts of the organisation.

In the latter case, we are talking about strategic partnerships. These are characterised by a diversity of cross-border collaboration forms in which jointly set goals enable the parties to open up, create and provide mutual benefit and value that cannot be achieved by one party alone. For both parties it is a question of long-term commitment and exchange.

In the strategic partnerships we see that LTH’s collaboration partners appreciate working with our world-leading researchers and our skilled students in order to manage the provision of expertise in the future.

Many of our strategic partnerships lead to research results that can be used in different ways to advance research and enable our collaboration partners to develop products and services at the leading edge of technology. Very often these solutions strive towards a more sustainable future – a hallmark also of the research we conduct at LTH to benefit the world.

Regarding the technology strategies forSweden outlined by Vinnova, we see these as a good starting point for setting joint long-term goals with our partners, as LTH conducts both teaching and research in all the areas covered by the technology strategies.

A good example of strategic, long-term external engagement is when we, after a long collaboration with Tetra Pak, recently signed an agreement between Lund University and Tetra Pak as initiators and opened up the Biotech Heights innovation platform.

The aim of the platform is to enable more stakeholders and researchers to develop and produce biotechnology-based innovations for tomorrow’s alternative food products and materials. This is completely in line with the national technology strategy for biotechnology.

It is very pleasing after having identified a common vision and completed a project to set joint long-term goals to now be able to open an important infrastructure for tomorrow’s food and biotechnological processes here at LTH’s Kemicentrum.

The Biotech Heights innovation platform is a clear example of when external engagement works at its best – and I am now looking forward with confidence and great anticipation to all the exciting outcomes than can emerge from this open innovation platform.

I am also looking forward to continuing good cooperation with all our collaboration partners and also welcoming new companies and organisations that want to explore and create with our students and researchers.

Annika Olsson

Dean of LTH