Kickoff for major initiative on green transition in industry

On 14-15 October the School of Engineering (JTH) at Jönköping University (JU) held the inauguration and kickoff for its research profile GRACE, which is about the green transition in the manufacturing industry. Eleven companies and six network partners collaborate with JTH in the research profile.

"Through GRACE, we can come together with industry in a new way and make a difference," says Ingrid Wadskog, Managing Director and Dean at JTH, who inaugurated GRACE together with Mattias Jarl, Programme Manager at the Knowledge Foundation.

The purpose of the event, which took place at Hooks Herrgård, was for the approximately 55 participants to meet and get to know each other.

"We want to create a sense of belonging within GRACE, to make people feel part of GRACE, regardless of which of the individual research projects they work in. To achieve this, you need to meet, for real!" says Kristina Säfsten, Professor of Production Systems at JTH and profile leader of GRACE.

"Everyone was in the starting blocks"

She is very pleased with the turnout at the kickoff and the great commitment to the research profile.

"It really felt like everyone was ready to roll up their sleeves and start realizing our plans," says Kristina Säfsten.

The overall goal of GRACE is to support the manufacturing industry's long-term ability to succeed in the green transition through integrated and platform-based product development.

"We are gathering strength"

Ingrid Wadskog emphasizes that through GRACE, JTH has the opportunity for long-term work on developing new knowledge together with the manufacturing industry.

"GRACE means that we are gathering strength for the green transition that the manufacturing industry is facing. This is particularly important for our region, which has so many manufacturing companies," says Ingrid Wadskog.

GRACE is supported by the Knowledge Foundation (KK-stiftelsen) with SEK 49,200,000 and will run for eight years, until 2032. Mattias Jarl describes GRACE as an important long-term investment in collaboration between a strong research environment and a number of major business partners, who have extensive experience of working together.

"We want to build strong research environments and we also expect the project to strengthen companies' operations and competitiveness. I look forward to following this research profile," says Mattias Jarl.

Expected success factors

During the kickoff, participants presented their expectations and objectives for GRACE. They discussed the initial projects within the research profile and addressed expected success factors and possible obstacles that may arise along the way. Mattias Jarl highlighted, among other things, that GRACE should stick to its research agenda and that strategies and goals are linked to daily work. He sees GRACE as a tool to support young researchers in their career development. Other key elements for the successful implementation of GRACE were emphasized by the participating companies. They raised topics such as transparency and communication, concrete results, collaboration between all parties and daring to choose new paths.

"Very important and difficult topic"

On October 17, JTH also met with the industrial network partners of GRACE for a kickoff in Science Park Towers in Jönköping. They are nodes for different groupings of small and medium-sized enterprises. They will help disseminate the results of the research profile, but also highlight the needs of their member companies regarding the green transition. Mikael Ronder, chairman of Automation Småland, was one of the participants.

"This is a very important and difficult topic for the future that we have to deal with in the business community. So to collaborate on this and jointly try to find out how we can solve these issues is incredibly urgent," says Mikael Ronder.

He believes that GRACE can benefit their members by giving them insight into important topics and enabling them to contribute to various issues.

Read more about GRACE here