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Håkan Spjuth, Head of Grants and Innovation Office

Håkan Spjuth is the Head of Grants and Innovation Office (GIO). Håkan is also the CEO of KaU Holding AB and KaU Innovation AB.

Håkan is the Chairman of the Board for Sting Bioeconomy, an incubator and accelerator with focus on startups and innovation in the bioeconomy field. Håkan is also in the board of DigitalWell Ventures AB, an incubator and accelerator with focus on scale-up of companies in the field of digital health solutions.

As being the Head of Grants and Innovation Office, Håkan is coordinating several of the University’s external activities and initiatives, for instance

• Part of the management team for the Innovation Office Fyrklövern.
• Coordinator of the strategic partnership with Region Värmland regarding research and innovation, the Academy for smart specialization.
• Part of the steering group for Digital Well Arena, the Vinnväxt program regarding digitalization of health care services in Värmland led by Compare.

Håkan Spjuth joined Karlstad University in 2006 before that he worked for more than 20 years in the IT-business sector, in various management positions in both large companies and startups.

+46 (0)70 683 10 40
hakan.spjuth@kau.se
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Sofia Andersson, Research Advisor

Sofia works primarily with research administrative processes, research quality assurance and open data. She is the coordinator for the development of infrastructure and support for research data management and open data at the university. Sofia is responsible for the development of the Research Handbook and contributes to the quality assurance of research administrative processes. Sofia is also part of the Quality Council at Karlstad University and coordinates the evaluations of research at the University. She is also the organisation supervisor for Prisma.

+46 (0)73 460 65 46
sofia.andersson@kau.se
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Cindy Bråtenfeldt, Innovation Advisor

Cindy provides support to researchers, students and university staff regarding their innovative ideas. She assists in verification of the ideas as regards uniqueness, utilization, market relevance, prototyping and testing. Cindy is part of the team at Innovation Office Fyrklövern, where she coordinates the PhD-course ”Impact and the Utilisation of Research”. She is in charge of the innovation competition CRE8® which is arranged regionally, nationally and internationally. Cindy is a member of the board of Drivhuset Värmland and a member of SNITS 'competence network SIG Student. Cindy is involved in the following projects: ARIES4 (Erasmus +).

+46 (0)73 089 64 32
cindy.bratenfeldt@kau.se
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Patrik Bångerius, Innovation Advisor

Patrik provides support to researchers, students and university staff regarding their innovative ideas. He assists in verification of the ideas as regards uniqueness, utilization, market relevance, prototyping and testing. Patrik is part of the team at Innovation Office Fyrklövern and in charge of the Verification Council. Patrik is a member of the board of Paper Province, Kau Holding Company, Kau Innovation AB. He participates in the project ARIES4 (Erasmus+), and has previously participated in the projects Social Impact Innovation Support (Vinnova), CRE8® Europe (Erasmus+) och DigiTerri (Horizon 2020). 

+46 (0)73 068 43 00
patrik.bangerius@kau.se
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Anna Eriksson, Financial Advisor

Working as a financial advisor regarding external research funding, mainly EU-funding and its financial legal framework. The work includes both the pre- and post-award stages. Also developing internal routines and processes within the field. She also works with applications regarding EU-funding where Karlstad University acts as the coordinator. Anna participates in the working group of Academy for Smart Specialisation, where the tasks mainly consist of planning, coordinating and follow-up of the university’s funding.

+46 (0)70 355 81 93
anna.eriksson@kau.se

Weronika Ingman, Communication Officer

Weronika supports the Grants and Innovation Office with its communication. This includes establishing and implementing communication strategies, communicating about events research dissemination, updating websites, and providing communications advice.

Weronika is part of the working group for the Academy for Smart Specialisation, the strategic partnership with Region Värmland on regional development through research and innovation. Weronika is Karlstad University's communicator within Digital Well Arena, the Vinnväxt programme on digitisation of health and welfare services led by Compare. Weronika is also part of Karlstads University's research data group.

+46 (0)73 301 98 48
weronika.ingman@kau.se
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James Lees, Research Advisor

James supports researchers with advice on funding calls and the application process, and also organises and delivers competence development training. He has a focus on European funding and wider (non-academic) research impact, and works particularly with KAU’s PhD students and early career researchers. James is a lecturer and examiner for the Innovation Office Fyrklövern PhD course 'Impact and the Utilisation of Research', and has also been the project manager for several Erasmus+ KA2 projects connected to skills-development and employability. In addition, he has acted as an advisor for two projects (SKÖN and UtvInd) commissioned by Vinnova to investigate options for evaluating wider impact in Swedish HE research.

+46 (0)70 211 82 51
james.lees@kau.se
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Mariano Leone, Innovation Advisor

Mariano provides support to researchers, students and university staff regarding their innovative ideas. He assists in verification of the ideas as regards uniqueness, utilization, market relevance, prototyping and testing. Mariano is part of the team at Innovation Office Fyrklövern,

+46 (0) 70-567 9855
mariano.leone@kau.se
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Éamonn McCallion, Research Advisor

As a research advisor, Éamonn engages with researchers, research groups and research centres and supports them with a wide range of tasks such as funding applications, proposal reviewing, professional development and networking opportunities. As part of his role as a Research Advisor he works with the EU funding landscape with a focus on the Research and Innovation Framework programme, Horizon Europe as well as the national and other research funding sources. Éamonn works with the development and delivery of the CTRIVE® programme with his colleagues.  CTRIVE® is a professional competence development programme for researchers. He has also been directly involved in EU projects (Horizon, Interreg and Erasmus+) over the years both as a beneficiary and as a coordinator. Facilitation of specific workshops around leadership and group development within the wider research and researcher development context is also an area Éamonn supports. He is engaged with the implementation and impact of the “HR Strategy for Researchers” (HRS4R). HRS4R is a tool for research institutions to implementation a Charter & Code in their policies and practices. Karlstad University received the awarded “HR Excellence in Research Award” in 2021.

+46 (0)76 316 61 30
eamonn.mccallion@kau.se
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Linda Ryan Bengtsson, Research Advisor

As a research advisor, Linda focuses on the strategic aspects of building research environments and developing external relations. Her role is to strengthen funding opportunities for individual researchers and research environments and to identify national and international collaborations. Linda has many years of experience in the strategic and executive work of building an internationally recognized research environment and in writing successful funding applications. Linda holds a Ph.D. in Media and Communication Studies and has an extended experience in the strategic work of building an internationally recognized research environment and in writing successful funding applications. She is on the board of the foundation for Baltic and Eastern European Studies and Visit Värmland, as well as a member of the management group for the YH Experience Designer degree program.

+46 (0)70-480 71 47
linda.ryan-bengtsson@kau.se
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Lovisa Stedt, Research Advisor

As a research advisor, Lovisa provides support to researchers and university management, with a main focus on national funding. She works with strategic support and quality issues, such as the internal process for applications to the Knowledge Foundation and the regular reviews of research at the university. Lovisa is responsible for a program where research groups and individual researchers receive support in formulating a long-term strategy for their research based on their own scientific goals. She participates in the working group for collaboration on clinical research between Karlstad University and Region Värmland. Development of individuals and teams is a specialization area for Lovisa and she has been a certified coach ICF since 2021 and a certified Group development Questionaire (GDQ) consultant since 2022. Lovisa has a research background in microbiology but has worked as a research advisor since 2016.

+46 (0)73-060 32 55
lovisa.stedt@kau.se
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Lotta Utterberg, Research Officer

Lotta works with research administrative processes. This includes development and updating of the Research Handbook. She handles tasks in Prisma and The Funding and Tenders Portal. She also administers matters handled by the Research Ethics Committee. Lotta guides nominations through internal prioritization process for, e.g., the Wallenberg foundations. Lotta is part of the working group of The Academy for Smart Specialisation.

+46 (0)70-372 73 93
lotta.utterberg@kau.se
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Erica Åkerberg, Research Advisor

Erica is a research advisor supporting university management and researchers, with a focus on collaborations and specific agreements, such as The Academy for Smart Specialisation and its implementation. She is supporting with opportunities for external funding, initiatives for collaboration and application processes within ERDF-funding. Erica is also involved in supporting new research- and innovation projects within the Vinnväxt- initiative Digital Well Arena and part of the “Arena project”. Project leader for Karlstad University in its role as Advisory partner within the project DEBUTING (Developing Business Through Inclusiveness and Gender Awareness – New Cluster Competences), a project with 10 regional partners in Europe, funded by the Interreg Europe program. She is also a member of the ARIES4-project (Innovation Alliances Erasmus +), focusing the process of transforming a regional research and innovation strategy into a sustainable one by a collaborative effort and by the involvement of Karlstad university.

+46 (0)73 270 28 53
erica.akerberg@kau.se
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Fredrik Östlin, Innovation Advisor

Fredrik supports Karlstad University's researchers, students and employees with innovative ideas. He helps them to get the ideas verified in areas such as uniqueness, application, possible market, prototype development and testing. He is part of the daily work in the Innovation Office Fyrklövern, and is a stand-in as Karlstad University's part of the Verification Council for verification funding.

In the Digital Well Arena, the Vinnväxt program on digitization of health and welfare services led by Compare, he is an active part in innovation support, commercialization and scale-up. Within the hospitality industry's innovation arenas coordinated by Visit Värmland, Fredrik is an active part of their innovation council. Fredrik also coordinates Karlstad University's participation in the reference group for the Project "Sustainable Värmland" which Region Värmland runs.

+46 (0)70 180 70 15
fredrik.ostlin@kau.se
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