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News

• 2025-01-21

  Research project to encourage companies and customers to work together to create a more sustainable value chain

  Traditionally, the concept of “customer” refers to someone who buys something – but in a modern context, it includes all actors who create value together for each other. In the Interreg project Interregional Circularity in Central Scandinavia, researchers at Karlstad University want to broaden the perspective by also exploring circularity as collaborative value creation.

  In service research, services are perceived as relationships rather than just a matter of transactions. By understanding and meeting customer needs, companies can create value in a more resource-efficient way. However, this requires more interactive relationships with customers who are looking for more than just products.

• 2025-01-20

  Circular Bioeconomy is an Innovation Ecosystem

  At the BioEco Valley Summit, hosted by Karlstad University, Pro2BE, in collaboration with Paper Province, Region Värmland, and Sting BioEconomy, researchers and industry representatives gathered to discuss the future of the bioeconomy. The event focused on how stakeholders can jointly continue to drive the development of a circular bio-based economy and contribute to the green transition.

  – The circular bio-based economy needs to grow, and for that, we also need a workforce, said Magnus Lestelius, Professor of Graphic Technology at Karlstad University, who opened the conference. - By showcasing the diversity of careers within the forest industry, we can highlight the many opportunities available to students.

• 2025-01-14

  Ingesund Student Celebrated New Year as Wells' Concertmaster

  Master's student Ida Wadenbrandt worked during the holidays, touring with Robert Wells and Rhapsody in Rock from December 27 to January 6 in China. Intense days that have sparked a desire for more projects abroad and more work in China.

  You have done several concerts with Robert Wells with Ingesund's string ensemble before, and as I understand it, you were also the concertmaster then. What makes you get along so well?

• 2025-01-07

  Professor with a focus on Selma

  On 1 November 2024, Karlstad University welcomed a new professor as Sofia Wijkmark was appointed professor of comparative literature.

  "It feels very exciting! I’m mostly looking forward to having more time for research," she says.

  "There are a number of projects that I would like to dedicate more time to, and now I finally have the opportunity to do so," says Sofia. "I hope to support other people’s research in various ways and contribute to further developing the research environment at the department."

• 2025-01-07

  Organisational development through personal experiences

  Over the next two years, a new research project at Karlstad University is going to develop concrete resources to increase user influence in mental health services.

  "It’s exciting to be part of making the knowledge we’ve gained through research concrete and useful for organisations and services across the country," says Katarina Grim, doctor in health sciences and docent/senior lecturer in social work at Karlstad University, who is leading the project.

  User audits allow users to have influence over mental health services. It means that people with personal experiences of mental health issues or harmful use and addiction review and assess services related to these issues, so the they can be improved from a user perspective. As part of the project “Accessible user influence in the field of mental health”, concrete methodological support material will now be created, clarifying forms of collaboration and working methods for user audits. 

• 2024-12-19

  Rocket science for real

  The sounding rocket SubOrbital Express-4 which was launched from the Esrange Space Center outside Kiruna contained an experiment module from Karlstad University. The module is about studying how the active layer of organic solar cells forms in microgravity.

  – In this project, we were able to conduct experiments in an unmanned rocket, says Jan van Stam, professor of physical chemistry at Karlstad University. It allowed us access to microgravity for several minutes instead of about half a minute, as in previous experiments in aeroplanes. We were able to perform more advanced experiments, which will hopefully give us clearer answers to questions about the structural formation, says Jan van Stam.