Four large companies enter into strategic partnerships with Jönköping University

“For us, this will be the beginning of a more long-term and strategic collaboration with Jönköping University,” says Roger Blezell, Site Manager at Scania Oskarshamn, one of the four companies that now choose to strengthen their cooperation with the university. The three other companies are Husqvarna, Kongsberg Automotive and Fagerhult.

Since a year, Jönköping University is running the research and educational environment SPARK with a focus on knowledge intensive product realization. One of the goals of SPARK is to support industry in their development of knowledge intensive products and processes. The strategic partnerships enable a long-term work together with the companies to develop both research and education.

“We are very proud and glad that these companies choose our university as their strategic partner. Their engagement is important to us and this is also an acknowledgement that we are attractive as education provider and researching environment,” says Mats Jägstam, Vice President at Jönköping University.

The companies that now forge closer links with Jönköping University and SPARK have very good relations with the university since earlier, both through research projects and through students doing their internship or thesis work in their organizations.

“We have positive experiences from working with the university, and now we are looking forward to develop our cooperation further,” says Andreas Rangert, VP Product Management & Development at Husqvarna. ”It is of great value for us to have knowledge and competence so close to our unit in Huskvarna, where our largest department for product development is located,” he continues.

Ahmad Mansouri, Senior Engineering Manager at Kongsberg Automotive, thinks that technology-based companies that want to be in the forefront need good collaboration with the academy:

“Research is a cornerstone in the creation of new innovations. It is also important for our success to be able to employ people with the right competence and the right educations, and to be able to give our staff relevant supplementary training. Therefore, the cooperation with Jönköping University strengthens our possibilities to stay competitive.