Strategic development of the university´s ability to drive socially responsible collaboration and utilization

Purpose and goal

The overall goal has been to develop a platform for the strategic development of the university´s ability for societal challenge-driven innovation and utilization. A sub-goal has been to verify if we in a meaningful way can divide innovation and utilization in two forms: idéa- and knowledge-driven innovation and a societal challenge-driven. Our project made it clear, as a result of several empirical subprojects, that the division is a relevant foundation for the university´s development efforts in the area of innovation and utilization.

Expected results and effects

The project has resulted in a general model for the strategic development of the university as regards societal challenge-driven innovation and utilization work. It is noted that there is a lack of challenge-bearing structures and capacity to manage and support innovation and utilization regarding social challenges. The organizational capacity is therefore needed to be strengthened. If the task of innovation and utilization successfully should be integrated in the academia´s research and education, researchers and others need to clearly understand the priority of the task.

Planned approach and implementation

Our three universities - Umeå, Linköping and Göteborg University - have been working closely together during the business development work. We experience that a successful business transformation at universities requires several universities to work together, because it involves a relatively large change, both organizational and norm-wise. Experience from existing innovation and utilization channels, such as centers, networks and clusters, can and should be the basis for the stages a broader innovation and utilization requires.