KK-stiftelsens profilsatsning

KK-stiftelsens profilsatsning
1 Executive summary
1.1 Final evaluation of three research profiles
The Knowledge Foundation has invested in the development of research
profiles at Swedish universities and university colleges since the late 1990s.
About ten research profiles have each received 36 MSEK for a period of six
years. The purpose has been to promote qualitative, long-term research
environments of a high international standard. In the autumn of 2008, the
Knowledge Foundation commissioned the consultancy company FBA to
carry out the final evaluation of three of the research profiles.
• Blekinge Engineering Software Qualities (Blekinge Institute of
Technology)
• The New Service Economy (Karlstad University)
• Applied Autonomous Sensor Systems (Örebro University)
The Knowledge Foundation has laid down a number of criteria for the
investment. The criteria run like a red thread from the universities’
applications to the contracts, the annual reports and the mid-term and final
evaluations. The criteria illustrate the programme logic, which includes both
the results (what) and the process (how) and that the investment in research
profiles is aiming at strengthening results and working procedures in both
academia and industry.
Results
• Scientific quality and alignment with the university’s priorities
• Influence on the university’s basic education
• Industrial relevance
• Commercial motives for co-financing companies
Process
• The research profile’s competitiveness (personnel, management, ways of working)
• Cooperation with other universities and university colleges
• Information and communication
• The research profile’s growth potential
• The research profile’s sustainability
The three evaluated research profiles have been successful in developing
strong research environments. In several aspects, they have been exposed to
critical events, mainly related to the industry’s ability to participate as
partners and co-financiers. Despite these incidents, the research profiles
have been able to correspond to the Knowledge Foundation’s criteria and
have also fulfilled, and sometimes surpassed, their own objectives. They
must now be judged even better than in the mid-term evaluation.
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