Grant for research on competitive procurement

Senior Lecturer Jenny Bäckstrand at the School of Engineering has been awarded SEK 400,000 to conduct guest research at Technical University of Eindhoven and Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Jenny Bäckstrand will spend one year deepening and then spreading her knowledge on how purchasing strategies can help increase the competitiveness of manufacturing companies. The project also aims to build a long-term cooperation between School of Engineering and the two universities in the Netherlands.

Swedish research in the purchasing area currently focuses on contracts, purchases of services and public procurement. Research on purchase in manufacturing companies and how a strategic procurement can contribute to competitive enterprises is however lacking almost completely.

“We will build a long-term research and education cooperation with leading research groups in the Netherlands. In this way, we will be able to establish a research group at the School of Engineering which focuses on competitive procurement in manufacturing companies”, says Jenny Bäckstrand.

The scholarship was awarded by the foundation Familjen Knut & Ragnvi Jacobsson.