The industrial graduate school EXACT at Karlstad University will continue its work, despite the planned expansion EXACT+ not receiving funding in the next stage. At the end of May, the Knowledge Foundation announced that the initiative would not be granted funding for 2026. At the same time, the foundation is encouraging a new application ahead of 2027.
In its current form, the industrial graduate school is funded by the Knowledge Foundation and runs from June 2023 to May 2029. During the spring, an application was submitted for additional funding for an expanded initiative – EXACT+. This application was thus rejected in this year’s decision.
Jörgen Samuelsson, Director of the graduate school, nevertheless remains positive about the future.
“We will take valuable lessons with us and prepare for the next opportunity. The graduate school has strong support from both academia and industry, and we will apply again next year,” says Jörgen Samuelsson.
Work within the ongoing graduate school will continue as planned, with a focus on collaboration between the university and industry to develop sustainable and competitive solutions for the process industry of the future.
EXACT is a collaboration between two strong research groups at Karlstad University – Pro2BE and DAMI – together with eight companies and several industry partners. The initiative aims to combine process engineering and systems analysis with expertise in digitalisation to develop energy-efficient, digitalised production processes and high-quality bio-based products. The vision is to contribute to the circular transition and strengthen the future readiness of the Swedish process industry through needs-driven research.
