"Loneliness is not only about who you live with or how many people you meet," says Malin Knutz, researcher in public health science at Karlstad University. "And young adults stand out in our study."
Many people experience loneliness despite not living alone. This is one of the key findings of a new study conducted by Karlstad University and Region Värmland.
For several decades, singing and music have occupied a diminishing place in Swedish schools, despite scientific evidence demonstrating numerous health benefits, including reduced stress, increased levels of the “feel-good hormone” oxytocin, and strengthened social cohesion. Against this background, the research project Singing for Health in School – A Matter of Social Concern was launched.
Pain management in people with dementia is complex. Pain can manifest itself in many different ways, and changes in behaviour may have several different causes. New research indicate that the solution is not a single assessment tool, but rather a more structured and person-centred care process that helps healthcare staff identify, assess and follow up on pain.
“Small deviations from a person’s usual behaviour can be important signs of pain.
Screen time is often associated with concerns about declining reading habits and lower educational attainment. A new doctoral thesis by Sofia Oldin Cederwall, new PhD in Comparative Literature at Karlstad University, shows that upper secondary school students who watch television series are doing more than simply consuming entertainment.
Digital technology can strengthen contact with family and friends across national borders, but it can also create new barriers for older people with a migrant background.
On 15 October, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Karlstad University invites staff, students, and members of the public to attend this year’s open associate professor lectures.
When a video call stutters, an online game lags, or a webpage feels slow, internet speed is not always the problem. More often, the issue is network delays, known as latency. In his doctoral thesis, Simon Sundberg investigates how such delays arise and develops new methods for measuring them.
Most people associate network performance with bandwidth, that is, the amount of data that can be transferred per second.
When you enter a web address into your browser and arrive at the correct website a second later, a process takes place that most people never notice. Behind the scenes, one of the internet's most important systems is at work: DNS, the Domain Name System.
What if your heat pump knew when you were about to take a shower or use large amounts of hot water? It could then produce hot water at the right time instead of heating unnecessarily. This idea lies at the heart of the research conducted by industrial PhD student Manal Rahal at Thermia, where machine learning is being used to make heat pumps smarter and more energy efficient.
Today, many heat pumps are controlled using fixed rules and pre-set threshold values.
It has now been decided which innovators will represent Värmland at the national SKAPA Award ceremony in Stockholm in November. Birgitta Persdotter, a researcher in social work and creator of Vaves®, has been named the winner of the 2026 SKAPA Award Värmland.
Many companies in Sweden and Norway are already testing circular solutions such as take-back systems, repair and reuse, but few succeed in scaling them up. A new project at the Service Research Center (CTF) at Karlstad University will help companies move from pilot initiatives to viable business models.
– What is missing today is not technology, but workable business arrangements around it.
Karlstad University is participating in the new EU-funded project SPECTRA, coordinated by Ergang Wang at Chalmers University of Technology. SPECTRA aims to develop new technologies in which solar energy is used to convert plastic waste into valuable resources.
Within the project, Karlstad University will develop computational and AI-assisted tools to accelerate the discovery and optimisation of materials and processes.
How can gifted students be both challenged and supported in developing their skills in technology studies? A new study at Karlstad University shows that the subject of technology has strong potential to meet gifted students’ needs through modeling using digital tools.
