Collaboration with regional and municipal actors are crucial for triggering social innovation – says sustainability scientist Avit Bhowmik. He was awarded with two research grants from Vinnova and Swedish Energy Agency for collaboratively driving sustainability transformation in Värmland.
Research has to break boundaries and engage in collboration with regional and local actors to make societal impacts, particularly for navigating sustainability transformation. Sustainability researcher Avit Bhowmik was awarded with two research grants for collaboratively driving sustainability transformation in the Värmland region during 2025-2027.
The first granted project - Development of sustainability Indicators to drive innovation for Energy Transition in Värmland – DIET - aims to co-develop targets and indicators with the political actors and county government and regional development authority in Värmland, to drive and monitor innovation for sustainable energy transition. The project is funded by Vinnova and is a collaboration among Karlstad University Grants and Innovation Office, Academy for Smart Specialization and Glava Energy Centre. Participating researchers are Erica Åkerberg and James Lees from Grants and Innovation Office and Lisa Gärdt from Glava Energy Centre.
The second project – Climate Neutral Arvika 2030 – is funded by Swedish Energy Agency as a part of the European Union Initiative "Net Zero Cities". This project, through close collaboration with Arvika municipality and several regional actors, will develop a roadmap for rapid decarbonization of Arvika by 2030. The project will also contribute to the development of a Climate Contract for Arvika municipality similar to the one already developed for Karlstad municipality.
Academy for Smart Specialization
