New Agreement to Strengthen education and research in Oskarshamn
Participants from JU were Måns Svensson, President; Eleonor Fransson, Executive Vice President, Jesper Boesen, Head of Collaboration and Internationalisation at HLK; and from Oskarshamn Municipality: Andreas Erlandsson, Municipal Councillor, KSO, Lucas Lodge, councillor; Henrik Andersson, chief executive; Bengt Karlsson Moberg, principal; Elin Bergstrand, coordinator; and Sofie Bladström, coordinator.
Jönköping University (JU) and Oskarshamn Municipality have signed a new agreement to develop education, research, and innovation together. The initiative is intended to help meet the region’s growing need for technical expertise, amongst other things, and to create more opportunities for collaboration between academia and industry.
Nova Education, R&D & Business Development, which is Oskarshamn Municipality’s hub for higher education, research, and skills development, has been collaborating with JU since 2020. The new agreement deepens this collaboration with a clearer focus on education programmes, research, and innovation projects relevant to the business sector.
“We want to help ensure the right skills are available for the business sector and the public sector. Through this agreement, we are enhancing opportunities for residents and businesses in the Oskarshamn region, whilst also contributing to Sweden’s development as a knowledge-based nation,” says Lucas Lodge, Municipal Councillor for Oskarshamn.
Aiming to strengthen the supply of skills
For JU, this initiative forms part of its efforts to make higher education accessible outside traditional university towns, whilst also enabling JU to forge closer links with businesses and organisations across the country.
“There are many leading companies in the region that require technical expertise. By being closer to these companies, we can collaborate on education, research, and innovation that will strengthen both the Oskarshamn region and ourselves. We want to help ensure that higher education is available outside the major university towns as well,” says Måns Svensson, President of Jönköping University.
Link to the needs of industry
The expanded collaboration will also create better conditions for joint research and development projects directly linked to the needs of industry.
“For our degree programmes and research initiatives to be relevant, we need close dialogue with both the business sector and the public sector. There is great potential here for collaborations that can contribute to development both for the Oskarshamn region and for JU,” says Måns Svensson.
