Strategic funding from the Vice-Chancellor

Applications for development projects in both education and research are welcome. The project must be:

• In line with at least one of the strategies and linked to the university's goals
• Innovative
• Able to be scaled up within the university
• Developmental (outside regular university operations)

For mainly the latter reason, applications for funding for research projects will be treated very restrictively. Research and development that is done on a regular basis will not be granted funding within this initiative. The same is true for (new or continuing funding) for doctoral students. With that said, applications are welcome within our priority research areas* for long-term and strategic development of the university's research areas in line with
at least one of the strategies linked to the university's goals in an innovative and scalable way that cannot be said to constitute regular university operations.

Examples of activities where applications would be welcomed are the employment of international guest professors and study trips to similar, internationally recognised, and reputable environments.

Applications for funding require a description of the proposed development project (max. 1 A4 page).

The application must contain:

• Purpose of the project
• Impact goals
• Description of project’s scalability within the university
• Time for implementation
• Estimated total cost

The application must be approved and signed by the relevant director
(Dean of Faculty/Head of Professional Services/Director of Executive
Office/Director of R&I).

Applications are processed twice a year and can be submitted no later than 31/3 or 15/9.

Applications are to be emailed to rektorsstab@hb.se. They are then processed by the Vice-Chancellor's Executive Office. This process is overseen by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor. Notice will be given within three weeks.

* The university's six priority research areas are Library and Information Science, Business and IT, the Human Perspective in Care, Educational Work, Resource Recovery, as well as Textiles and Fashion.

Project Leader:
Background/description of the project:
Purpose of the project:
Impact goals:
Description of project’s scalability within the university:
Time for implementation:
Estimated total cost (incl. OH):

---

Director’s signature
Please sign using EduSign before submitting the application.

If the above application (part 1) is approved by the Vice-Chancellor, the person responsible for the application is invited to produce a project plan (a template will be provided). The project plan is to be submitted no later than 15/5 or 31/10. A final decision on implementation is then made by the Vice-Chancellor.

When the project is completed, a final report should be written. The final report will be made public.

• The final report should be brief and concise (maximum 4 pages) and be made accessible.
  Questions to consider in the report:
  a. What was the purpose of the project?
  b. What are the project's results?
  c. How have the results been implemented in education / research / the university's operations?
  d. How have / will / can the results be implemented in other parts of the university?
• The completed report must registered in the university's diary and then sent by email to: rektorsstab@hb.se
• Recording of a film for the web. The purpose of the film is to serve as inspiration and assistance for upscaling.

Contact kommunikation@hb.se when you are ready for filming. You will answer to the same questions as above.

Teaching in a virtual campus

Department of Educational Work

Timetable for implementation: 2023-08-14 – 2025-06-30

The purpose of the project is to conduct teaching in the Metaverse in remote education and determine if this can positively affect the frequency of students staying on the education. The teaching in the Metaverse will be initiated and facilitated within the project, which will also be one of the first nationally to test using the Metaverse as a potential learning environment. The purpose also includes exploring new teaching practices for remote education in higher education. The university's goal is, among other things, to be an inviting university that attracts both students and teachers, and to achieve this goal we need to establish and test new environments for learning that feel visionary, modern and updated, and where professional teaching can be conducted. Today, there is also a greater pressure to offer teaching online, environments for professional teaching need to be established and where teachers and students can meet and interact.

Project Leader: Emma Almingefeldt and Elaine Börjesson

Coordination of a major interdisciplinary project application in the field of Business and IT

Department of Information Technology
Department of Business Administration and Textile Management

Timetable for implementation: 2023-09-01—2024-09-01

The purpose of the project is to coordinate and write a major project application within the research area Business and IT that is directed to a research funder such as the Knowledge Foundation or Vinnova. It is also expected to contribute to developing, implementing and fulfilling the area's other four strategic values and form a congruent whole: sustainable platform for growth (resources in the form of knowledge, skills and equipment), research excellence (in data-driven innovation, digital consumption and service development), educational excellence (strengthened research connection in education), collaboration excellence (long-term relationships with stakeholders in the surrounding society, among others businesses). The above links to several of the university's goals and strategies.

Project Leader: Stefan Cronholm and Nicklas Salomonson

The research calendar

Timetable for implementation: 2023-06 – 2026-06

The purpose is to develop an innovative year-round programme for application writing to motivate and assist the university's researchers to generate more external funding for the university. The ambition is that the programme will contribute to integrated and interdisciplinary work with project applications at the university. The project has three concrete and related objectives:

• Increase the number of applications
• Increase the number of approved applications
• Strengthen research culture and collegial learning around issues of research quality and external funding.

Project Leader: Björn Hammarfelt, Jutta Haider and Peter Andersson Lilja

Fair and legally certain oral and visual examinations – university-wide

Timetable for implementation: 2023-08-14  – 2025-06-30

The purpose of the project is to develop university-wide fair and legally certain guidelines for oral and visual examinations that are well known by all staff involved in the handling of oral and visual examinations. This includes hands-on guides for students, teachers, and administrators as well as assigned systems that should be used to comply with the developed guidelines and current rules for examinations and information management. These guidelines will apply to both examinations that take place on campus and online, and regardless of whether the examination is conducted individually or in groups.

In guidelines and procedures, the purpose is to include routines for how attendance at oral and visual examinations should be registered using digital technology, today there are errors in reporting which students have participated or not in the oral or visual examination.

Project Leader: Emma Almingefeldt and Elaine Börjesson

Digitalisation of international mobility management processes

Faculty Support Office

Timetable for implementation: 2024-01-01 – 2025-12-30

The purpose of the project is to secure time and resources to identify the system support that best solves the problems and difficulties and to implement uniform, resource-efficient and fair and legally certain handling processes for international mobility in the International Office's daily work. Digitalisation of international mobility management processes refers to a transition to a system support for entire process flows, where all steps in the process take place digitally, and where the system support also provides assistance for correct processing, which provides higher quality and ensures fair and legally certain handling.

Project Leader: Linn Hultgren

Enter, Elevate, Exit, and Alumni (EEEA)

Communications Office

Timetable for implementation: 2023-05 – 2026-06

The purpose of a university-wide Enter, Elevate, Exit, and Alumni (EEEA) is to get a shared concept for the entire university. We work collaboratively by developing the previous concept Enter-Elevate-Exit to include all education programmes. This creates a focus on the university's educational activities while strengthening collaboration with the City of Borås and the local business community. A development of the concept will contribute to an attractive university in an inviting student city. Another goal of the project is to contribute to a positive quality development of the university's educational environments, for example by strengthening and encouraging cooperation between different educational environments. The entire project idea rests heavily on the university's strategy " continually developing distinctive education and research " but also connects to "environments for learning" and " together and in collaboration ". Another aim is to incorporate the work with alumni into this structure.  Through EEEA, better conditions for functioning and attractive alumni activities will be created.

Project Leader: Tobias Minin and Annie Andreasson

Granted education projects

Development of Borås as a Tech Arena

Department of Information Technology

Time period 2023–2025

The overall aim of the project is to strengthen the university's activities in education, research, and collaboration with a particular focus on data-driven innovation. Data-driven innovation means innovation of services, processes, and models that are made possible through the advanced use of data and digital technology. In this way, the project contributes to the university's two goals as well as strategies for digitalisation and distinction. The project also aims to contribute knowledge in the form of a collaboration model for educational and research collaboration around data-driven innovation. The collaboration model that is continuously developed and refined in the project aims to support knowledge in collaboration between researchers, students, and society's actors. A key idea in the model, and one which will be evaluated in the project, is to work in “innovation sprints” where knowledge is created by problems and solutions being identified, developed, and evaluated in collaboration. The collaboration model has a high potential to spread to the university's other Faculties, departments, and groups that have an interest in digitalisation and innovation as a way of working. In conclusion, the project aims to contribute to Borås’s distinctiveness as a tech city that includes innovative companies and strong local technical competence.

Project Leader: Gustaf Juell-Skielse

Educating professionals in changing times: Teacher training and linguistic diversity

Department of Educational Work

Time period 2023–2025

The project's specific purpose is to develop and test methods for teaching about linguistic diversity in teacher education together with teacher educators. The project aims to make the University of Borås a nationally leading player in professional education and linguistic diversity while it contributes to developing a good education for all (Agenda 2030) and works for an inclusive and equal education of good quality as well as promoting lifelong learning for all. The University of Borås sets itself apart. In addition, the development project relates to the university's strategy “Environments for learning”.

Project Leader: Carina Hermansson

Granted research projects
Visiting Professor in Business and IT

Department of Information Technology

Time period 2023

The project aims to recruit an international visiting professor who can contribute to the development of the research area Business and IT with a particular focus on implementing and fulfilling activities linked to described strategic values.

Project Leader: Stefan Cronholm and Nicklas Salomonson

Development of the textile and fashion research area within the University of Borås – Study visit

Faculty of Textiles, Engineering and Business

Time period 2023

The purpose of the project is to strengthen the university's competence in order to become a leading research environment within textile institutions. In the project, six researchers in design, textile technology, and textile management respectively will visit labs at selected universities to look at equipment, discuss with researchers, exchange ideas, and initiate future research collaborations as well as to investigate the possibilities for an exchange programme for doctoral students and guest researchers.

Project Leader: Nawar Kadi

Funding for researchers to coordinate a project application in the field of textiles and fashion

Faculty of Textiles, Engineering and Business

Time period 2023–2024

The research groups collaborate with each other in several different ways; this collaboration is informal and needs to be improved through more joint project applications and supervision of doctoral students. The goal is to finance a workgroup consisting of three researchers and a coordinator who will organise activities.

Project Leader: Nawar Kadi

Resource recovery from sewage sludge

Department of Resource Recovery

Time period 2023–2025

The purpose of the project is to establish and develop a new research focus in the area of Resource Recovery. The project will focus on the recycling of sewage sludge and the production of valuable by-products, which can be used as energy sources, materials, fodder and food. It is an important step to bring in new perspectives on research collaborations and to create an internal forum to exchange innovative ideas around resource recovery. The project also facilitates collaborations and the involvement of other research groups in polymer technology, building technology, and textile technology.

Project Leader: Kamran Rousta and Abas Mohsenzadeh

This is a list of projects that have been granted strategic development funding by the Vice-Chancellor.

Spring 2022

Digital Materials Lab

Time period 2022–2024

The aim is to establish a platform for applied engineering work on material selection, 3D printing, material design concepts, simulation and computational tools, prototyping, material processing tools and circular economy. The competence platform will be used in the university's engineering programmes and doctoral programmes.

The project is carried out at the Department of Resource Recovery and Building Technology

Project Leader: Mikael Skrifvars

Flexible and lifelong learning

Time period 2022–2025

The aim of the project is to integrate programme students, alumni and professionals in the same courses in textile technology and to implement the courses with flexible teaching, interactions, and examination, as well as to, in relation to two new educational programmes, combine different forms of course offerings under the same or interacting course umbrella and with a flexible time interval. The work material comes mainly from our planned new programmes in Textile Production and Innovation (Bachelor’s) and Textile Innovation (Master’s).

The project is carried out at the Department of Textile Technology

Project Leader: Niina Hernandez

Writers' workshop for researchers and doctoral students – supporting the development and strengthening of high quality and competitive research proposals

Time period 2022–2023

The aim of the project is to strengthen and create opportunities for researchers to be able to write more applications and to achieve higher quality in the applications that are written. The support will be given in a residential format, to allow for an intensive and productive time for active writing and the sharing of experiences.

The project is carried out at the Faculty of Caring Science, Work Life and Social Welfare together with the Grants and Innovation Office, GIO

Project Leader: Annelie Sundler

Trust and collegiality

Time period 2023

The overall aim of the project is to identify the conditions that currently exist within the university to work in a trust-based and collegial manner in order to achieve high quality in teaching and research. By identifying these conditions, through interviews and internal workshops, the project will contribute to an understanding of and development towards a work culture that emphasises a shared responsibility for the development of the university and society.

The project is carried out at the Faculty of Textiles, Engineering and Business together with the Faculty of Caring Science, Work Life and Social Welfare as well as Professional Services.

Project Leader: Christina Mauléon

Training and research strategies – Development of new pedagogical forms: "Gamification" of management training in health and social care, GOAL

Time period 2022–2024

The aim of the project is to develop ideas and methods for the use of digital technology – gamification – to train for different leadership situations in everyday working life dilemmas and to develop preparedness for unforeseen crises and disasters. A special focus will initially be placed on leadership training in health and social care, and specifically on leadership training for managers in the care of older people. The project also aims to help attract new groups of students to higher education.

The project is carried out at the Faculty of Caring Science, Work Life and Social Welfare.

Project Leader: Maria Wolmesjö

Emergency care of children in a school environment

Time period 2022–2024

The aim of the project is to develop and test interdisciplinary learning environments in a collaboration among three of the University of Borås’s educational programmes – the primary teacher training programme for school years F-3, the specialist nurse training programme with a focus on prehospital emergency care, and the basic education programme in library and information science in the form of an action research project in a collaboration between the fields of the Human Perspective in Care, Library and Information Science, and Educational Work.

The project is carried out at the Department of Educational Work.

Project Leader: Viktor Aldrin

Responsibility for knowledge – developing the student role

Time period 2022–2025

The aim is to build on existing international research on student transformation and develop a model for student transformation adapted to the University of Borås, which will then be translated into concrete activities. These activities will contribute to shaping an academic student role based on building knowledge together. These activities will be tested within the framework of the project in our reception of new students from the autumn term 2024 onwards, involving both teachers and students in order to build a mutual understanding of their roles.

The project is carried out at the Faculty of Librarianship, Information, Education and IT.

Project Leader: To be appointed

Universal education

Time period 2022–2023

The aim of the project is to contribute evidence and knowledge on how we can integrate universally accessible pedagogy into the Librarianship educational programme, both on campus and distance.

The project is carried out at the Faculty of Librarianship, Information, Education and IT.

Project Leader: Jonas Söderholm and Malin Utter

Final report Universell utbildning (pdf in Swedish)

First Year Experience – Making higher education accessible to experienced police officers on their way to becoming academics (through co-creation)

Time period 2022

The project aims to promote the conditions for students who are not ready to study to manage the transition to studies at the University of Borås and to promote academic maturity and ultimately to ensure a good student completion rate of the Bachelor's programme in police work. Furthermore, the project aims to increase the use of students' experiences and promote their co-creation in education.

The project is carried out at the Faculty of Police Work.

Project Leader: Therese Bäckman

Extended student collaboration

Time period 2022–2023

By developing interaction between students and industry and the public sector in the university's educational programmes, the project contributes to increased quality in education and strengthens the university as an attractive place to study.

The project is implemented within Research and Innovation.

Project Leader: Susanne Edström

Employer branding for an attractive workplace

Time period 2022–2023

The aim is to make the University of Borås an attractive employer for the right employees. 

The project is university-wide and will be implemented through the project office.

Project Leader: Annie Andreasson and Birgitta Alfraeus
Final report is available in Swedish (change to the Swedish webpage) 

Development of collaborative learning through peer-assisted study sessions

Time period 2022–2024

The aim of the project is to prepare, develop, and implement the method of collaborative learning, known as “SI-pass” in Swedish for the Swedish term “samverkansinlärning” or PASS (Peer-Assisted Study Sessions) in English, at the university as part of receiving, introducing, and supporting new students in their studies, as part of broadening participation.

The project is implemented within the Student Centre.

Project Leaders: Baiba Olsson, Emelie Källquist, and Anna Pohjola

Vice-Chancellor Mats Tinnsten and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor Kim Bolton as well as Thomas Johansson and Magnus Bergenholtz have participated in the final handling of this decision.

Read more

Decisions and materials for decision-making are available in the file: Reg. no. FO2022/38

This is a list of projects that have been granted strategic development funding by the Vice-Chancellor.

Autumn 2021

ABC in Academic Writing remotely

The aim of the project is to develop a sustainable, generic and context-independent model to strengthen the students' digital learning environment related to academic writing. More precisely, the project aims to develop the model through three interwoven parts – an ABC for academic writing at a distance: A) engaging methods in which students are active and where one’s own responsibility in learning is central, B) structures around students' assessment skills through joint activities and interaction, C) learning environments that promote trust and social development for student meetings in the creation of a community for learning and professional development.

The project will be carried out in courses within the Master's Programme in Strategic Information and Communication (SIK) during 2022–2024 at the Faculty of Librarianship, Information, Education and IT.

Project Leader: Maria Lindh and Susanne Strömberg Jämsvi

Digital tools and resources for the international distance Master's programme "Digital Information: Methods and Perspectives"

The aim of the project is for teachers and students to explore, test and evaluate digital services, tools and resources that are best suited for a distance learning programme aimed at an international student group with an integrated gender equality perspective. 

The project aims to ensure that students, regardless of gender and geographical location, become more included in learning, in teaching and in interaction with each other and their teachers. This is made possible by the project investigating what the prerequisites are with regard to the students' language and technical knowledge, i.e. what is required with regard to the students' knowledge in these different respects for a successful use of various digital tools in teaching.

The project will be carried out in 2022 at the Faculty of Librarianship, Information, Education and IT within the Master's programme "Digital Information: Methods and Perspectives", together with the Unit for Pedagogical Research and Development in Higher Education and Edu-Tech.

Project Leader: Rachel Pierce (autumn 2022), Maria Lindh (acting project leader during spring 2022)

Digitalisation and professional knowledge

The university's management and visions emphasise the importance of making our educational programmes, research groups, and priority areas distinct. This application aims to develop the issue of professional digital competence in teacher education within the framework of the university's strategic investment in digitalisation. The goal is that this work will in the long run contribute to both the strategic work on the digitalisation of teacher education, but also to the development of digitalisation aspects at the university's other programs and in the higher education pedagogy courses.

The project will be carried out at the Faculty of Librarianship, Information, Education and IT during 2022–2023.

Project Leader: Catarina Player-Koro

Learning environment in supervision that develops students' independence

The aim is to create a learning environment in supervision that develops students' independence in degree projects. Through the creation of a learning environment in supervision, it is expected that students' independence will develop, which in the long run contributes to raising the quality of the university's academic learning environments and the attractiveness of the university. The purpose is thus linked to the university's goals and strategies.

The project will be carried out at the Faculty of Librarianship, Information, Education and IT during 2022–2024.

Project Leader: Marita Cronqvist and Ellinor Skaremyr

Platform for interdisciplinary research and development in professional education

The purpose of this strategic initiative is to develop a platform (TPU) for initiating interdisciplinary research and collaboration via various ongoing projects related to professions and the university's researchers, teachers, and doctoral students. In general, the goal is to increase the university's shared knowledge base on professional education and research.

The project will be carried out at the Faculty of Librarianship, Information, Education and IT during 2022–2023.

Project Leader: Petra Angervall and Melina Aarnikoivu

Strategies for the implementation of lifelong learning: training for business

The project aims to develop strategies that the University of Borås can take into account and apply in order to meet the Swedish Higher Education Act's requirements for higher education institutions to promote lifelong learning and to satisfy the business community's need for professional development. The strategies that will be presented include the development of education, collaboration, and how challenges can be managed The project intends to spread knowledge and experiences to other environments and subjects within the university. The effects that are expected are that higher education institutions can take a position as an attractive educational partner for the business community and become a national leader in the organisation of lifelong learning.

The project will be carried out at the Faculty of Librarianship, Information, Education and IT during 2022–2023.

Project Leader: Stefan Cronholm

Digitalisation of administrative processes

The project aims at a transformation from manual paper handling to digital decision-making processes. The project develops new digital decision-making processes and working methods, including accessible digital forms and decision templates. The project is well in line with the university-wide strategies of digitalisation as well as the concept of doing things “together and in collaboration,” as the project's focus is digitalisation and the implementation requires great participation and collaboration among the Faculties and Professional Services. The project contributes to the university's goal of being an attractive university.

The project will be carried out at the Finance Office during 2022–2023.

Project Leader: Åsa Enmyren

Here you will find a list of projects that have been granted strategic funding from the university.

Spring 2021

Digital learning environments

The Faculty of Caring Science, Work Life and Social Welfare and the Faculty of Librarianship, Information, Education and IT intend to build a digital learning environment in which students can practice communication and interactions in connection with, among other things, difficult conversations.

A digital learning environment means that teaching can be conducted as a "flipped classroom," meaning that students first work at home with different study tasks and then participate in teacher-led reviews with the opportunity for in-depth study, analysis, and task application. The overall goal is to create a digital training centre at the university that can benefit several professional educations.

The project is to run over three years.

Digital lab

The Faculty of Textiles, Engineering and Business wants to invest in giving students broad digital competence in order to increase their competitiveness in the labour market, this by investing in hardware and software as well as competencies in digital tools that benefit product development, production, and communication. By building a lab environment with a focus on digital tools, the idea is to encourage curiosity, problematisation, critical thinking, and personal responsibility.

The digital lab environment also opens up possibilities for cross-border collaborations that are both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary, with internal and with external stakeholders.

The project is to run over three years.

Education has to be a risky business

The purpose of the project, which will be implemented at the Faculty of Librarianship, Information, Education and IT, is to develop an educational environment that in a reflective and problematising way challenges teacher educators' own view of knowledge, our approach to students' knowledge, and students' own views on knowledge.

The project will offer opportunities to create a knowledgeable learning environment with great trust and respect between teachers and students, and students will to a greater extent be given the opportunity to take responsibility in a more challenging learning environment and where students do not stop at what is experienced as “the teacher know the right answer,” rather learning to think outside the box.

Project managers: Susanne Klaar, Camilla Carlsson och Carina Peterson

Project time: 2021–2023 

Internationalisation at home

At present, it is mainly those who participate in various mobility activities that are reached by the university's internationalisation work, thus a mere fraction of the university’s students and employees. A systematic effort to deepen awareness of diversity and multicultural aspects and to take advantage of the international and intercultural competencies that already exist at the university is lacking today. Therefore, the Faculty of Textiles, Engineering and Business intends to develop a concept – internationalisation at home – which will build on and develop an international "mindset" among students and staff, as well as stimulating learning processes that equip us to operate in a globalised world.

The goal is to create an organisation and guidelines for being able to integrate internationalisation into our everyday work by developing methods for systematically providing support to employees who want to work in an international setting.

The project starts in 2022 and is to run for two years.

Read more

The news article Four strategy projects get the go-ahead to start