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• 2026-10-28

  New project explores how events can drive sustainable change

  Can concerts, festivals and other live events contribute to a more sustainable society? Researchers at Karlstad University will investigate this question in the project ”Beyond the spotlight: navigating sustainable development and empowering change agents in the event industry”.

  The project will explore how live events can contribute to sustainable development, not only by reducing their environmental impact but also by influencing how people think about and act on sustainability.

  “We are particularly interested in how artists, organisers and other stakeholders can act as agents of change, and how audiences respond to and engage with different sustainability initiatives,” says Jenny Karlsson, senior lecturer in Business Administration at the Service Research Center (CTF) at Karlstad University.

• 2026-10-28

  Karlstad University to contribute to new competence centre for sustainable heating and cooling

  The new HEAT-X competence centre, funded by the Swedish Energy Agency, will bring together academia, industry and public-sector partners to accelerate the transition towards efficient, electrified and fossil-free heating and cooling systems. Researchers at Karlstad University will contribute expertise in policy, social innovation and citizen participation.

  Heating and cooling account for around half of Europe's energy use, making them central to the transition towards a sustainable and resilient energy system. While much attention has been given to producing cleaner energy, researchers argue that equal focus is needed on how energy is used, governed and integrated into society.

• 2026-10-27

  40 Years of Questions, Answers and New Perspectives

  The Service Research Center (CTF) brought together researchers, alumni and partner organizations to celebrate its anniversary with reflections on the past and perspectives on the future.

  From a small research group focusing on the emergence of the service economy to an internationally recognized research centre with significant impact on service research, innovation and value creation. As CTF at Karlstad University celebrates its 40th anniversary, it marks four decades of research that has followed and explained major societal changes.

  Through close collaboration with businesses and the public sector, CTF has contributed new knowledge on everything from service quality and customer experiences to digitalization, AI and sustainable transformation.

• 2026-10-26

  Words from senior management: Knowledge environments are built over time

  As the Service Research Center (CTF) celebrates its 40th anniversary, I find myself reflecting on my own time as a doctoral student at Frödingshöjd. What I remember most clearly are my colleagues, our conversations, and the way we tested ideas together. Looking back, I can see just how much that everyday environment contributed to my development as a researcher.

  The anniversary also provides an opportunity to reflect on how we enable knowledge environments to develop and thrive over time.

  This is a question we have been working on in the Quality Council. We are now in the final round of the university’s self-initiated six-year cycle of research evaluations, which aims to identify strengths and areas for development through external peer review.

• 2026-10-26

  Research for Better Prosthetic Solutions in Ukraine

  How can we ensure that a 3D-printed prosthetic limb can withstand the complex loads encountered in everyday life? This is a question that researchers from France and Karlstad University are now working together to answer.

  Associate Professor Dmytro Vasiukov, originally from Ukraine and currently based at Institut Mines-Télécom in France, is visiting Karlstad University as part of the MORPH project, in which Associate Professors Anton Tkachuk and Anders Biel, both from the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Karlstad University, are involved. The project focuses on investigating how 3D-printed composite materials used in prostheses for people with limb loss respond to different types of mechanical loading.

• 2026-10-22

  Web services being gradually restored

  (Updated 261023, 13:35) Most of the University's web services were restored on Thursday following a security update. Shortly after midday on Friday, Kau Play was also brought back online, although verification work is still ongoing.

  – There is a certain degree of complexity involved, as we need to ensure that the update has been fully implemented across the services before we can reconnect them, says Mats Möller, IT Director at Karlstad University, on Thursday morning.

  He explains that, alongside the university’s own efforts, Sunet is also working to restore functionality in its services, including Sunet Play, to which Kau Play is connected. This has affected students in particular.