Malmö University’s innovation forum begins new collaboration and receives 1,5 million SEK funding
Research funder Forte initiates a co-creation collaboration with the Forum for Social Innovation Sweden at Malmö University. The forum is also to receive 1,5 million SEK from the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems, Vinnova.
European research policy calls for research in collaboration with societal actors because it is assumed that this contributes to the quality, relevance and utility of research. An in-depth form of collaboration is what Forte calls co-creation, where societal actors and those who will use or benefit from the research results are actively involved in several parts of the research process.
To increase knowledge about how co-creation is implemented in practice, Forte has initiated a collaboration with Malmö University’s innovation forum, which will run until 2026.
“Researchers, higher education institutions and funders need more knowledge about how co-creation can be implemented in practice while safeguarding the statutory freedom of research,’ says Malin Lindberg, a visiting professor of social innovation, who is leading the learning process together with Anna Tengqvist, coordinator of the forum.
Kettil Nordesjö, associate professor of social work, will also participate from Malmö University.
The 1,5 million SEK funding will be used for a research project on academic policy support for social innovation for the transition to sustainable societies.
In the one-year research project, all six centres of the forum – at Borås, Jönköping, Malmö, Umeå and Örebro Universities, and Luleå University of Technology – will join forces to investigate and improve academic policy support for social innovation for sustainable transition.
The project aims to increase knowledge about the role that academia can play in sustainable societal development.
“More and more universities are trying to move from being so-called ‘entrepreneurial’ universities with a focus on technical and commercial development, to what is called ‘engaged and developing’ universities with a focus on societal challenges and sustainable development,” says Lindberg.
