LNU Innovation

One part in this is LNU Innovation, which, through professional support in the early development of an idea, helps researchers, other employees and students realise and disseminate their ideas and research results, regardless of whether this is done commercially or non-commercially.

We work continuously with new ideas from researchers and driven students within different disciplines. The ideas are often closely linked to research, the major societal challenges and the global sustainability goals.

You can contribute to realising ideas and innovations

In order for good ideas and research results to reach the market, additional resources, competences, and people are often needed, which can complement the team behind the idea. Regardless of whether you are an entrepreneur, business developer or investor, there are many opportunities to collaborate directly with researchers and become engaged in new ideas, innovations, methods, and technologies at an early stage, to contribute with your competence and driving force to help realise the ideas to the benefit of people and society.

So, are you interested in ideas and innovations at the frontier of research and want to contribute to making them reality? Then contact us!

Example: Interactive Picture Book for Babies

“We have had an idea for many years to make a children's book that is suitable for interactive reading with babies. The grant has made it possible to develop the idea and that might never have happened if we hadn't been given this opportunity.”

That's what Anna Bratt, associate professor of psychology, says. Together with her colleague Emma Bergström, she applied for and received a grant from Linnaeus University's Innovation Call for 2023. They used the funds they received to finance their own time; to have time to think things through and create material. They use part of the money for an illustrator and hope to find a book publisher willing to publish the book.

“There aren't that many books that are inviting to talk about. Our goal is to build relationships between parents and children and make them more interactive with each other. Today's parents face competition from smartphones, YouTube, 'babblarna' and so much more.”

“There will be small films for the children's book, where we talk about the child's development and show how to read in a fun way, also with gestures and sounds to get the child involved.”

“Those who participated in Emma's research find this very rewarding and are surprised by what the little child can do. It is only when the child starts talking that the parent understands how much he or she has actually understood!”

Example: Students and companies in collaboration

The Växjö-based company ABENA came up with the idea of organising an innovation competition to get help with managing the waste material from its production. To this end, they invited students from the master’s programme Innovation through Business, Engineering and Design at Linnaeus University to participate in the competition.

Both the students and ABENA staff appreciated the idea and committed fully to the project. The students had 24 hours to solve the challenge, and the winning group included four international students from India, Ghana, China, and Indonesia.

“Our solution is about reusing the waste material to package fruit and vegetables. Today, a lot of plastic is used, and by replacing it with paper, the environmental impact could be significantly reduced. Additionally, the paper would keep the produce fresher as it absorbs the moisture often present during transport”, explains one of the winning students.

“This is not just a new product. It’s also a step towards a sustainable future!” says Fredrik Moe, CEO of ABENA.

Together we are strong

LNU Innovation is part of Linnaeus University, but also part of the Innovation Office Fyrklövern, which is a collaboration between four higher education institutions:

• Linnaeus University
• Karlstad University
• Mid Sweden University
• Örebro University

Through the collaboration between the higher education institutions, we get access to a larger network, more ideas and more areas of competence.

LNU Innovation is also part of the Swedish support system for innovations. We work closely with other actors like incubators, Science Parks, Drivhus and ALMI in both Kalmar and Växjö. We offer close contact and it is easy to reach us – to make sure that we can support our entrepreneurs and innovators in the best way possible.

As a researcher, employee or student at Linnaeus University, you can learn more about LNU Innovation on our internal webpages (in Swedish).