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Seed Fund to Encourage Co-operation Between Unite! Universities

A little plant and text about Unite! Seed Fund 2025 call.
Published Jan 23, 2025

The Unite! Seed Fund aims to help researchers initiate joint projects within the framework of Unite! to sow the seeds of further collaborations. Interest in the initiative has been strong at KTH, and it is now possible to apply for new funds from the seed fund.

Porträttbild på Åsa Carlsson.
Åsa Carlsson. Photo: KTH.

"It's great that information about the Unite! Seed Fund has reached people within KTH," Åsa Carlsson says. Carlsson, Head of International Relations at EDO, coordinates the work with the fund at KTH.

The Seed Fund is designed to foster collaborations in three areas: teaching and learning, research and postgraduate education, and student activities. The projects have seen wide participation across nearly all schools at KTH.

The first projects began in autumn 2023, with durations ranging from four to 18 months.

The funding amounts vary between 4,000 and 250,000 Swedish crowns, depending on the project's size and duration.

"Currently, there are 24 projects, some are nearing completion, and three new projects started in December. One advantage of the seed fund is that it allows researchers in niche fields to collaborate and provides the financial support needed to do so," Carlsson says.

Funding Requirements

"The requirement for funding is participation from three Unite! universities in teaching and research projects, while student projects require the participation of two universities," Carlsson says.

The results of all funded projects must be presented in a written report to the Unite! secretariat within two months of the project's conclusion.

Text: Marianne Norén

Voices From two Participants at KTH:

Portrait Photo of Kjarta Gudmundsson.
Photo: private.

Kjartan Gudmundsson, Associate professor at the school of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE), shares his experience:

What made you participate in the project?
"We were several parties within Unite! with common interests and different expertise. Together, we could offer a unique course on architecture and house building for the circular economy. This course builds on insights from research on reuse, our educational activities in digital design, and our experiences creating full-scale constructions in the workshop."

How have you benefited from the Seed Fund?
"The fund allowed us to spend time developing the course in terms of content and format. We held multiple meetings to discuss how we could capitalise on our different pedagogical experiences and research insights."

What has been the best part of this project?
"It has been inspiring to supervise projects, meet talented students, and work with committed teaching colleagues from other countries. It’s impressive to see how much can be achieved in a relatively short time."

Portrait photo of Olov Engwall.
Photo: Fransisco de Lacerda

Olov Engwall, a professor of Speech, Music and Hearing at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, reflects on his participation:

What prompted you to participate in the project?
"It was an initiative from partner universities within Unite! to plan joint European master's and doctoral education in speech and language technology and AI. This includes student exchanges and, potentially, a joint Erasmus Mundus master's programme. Alongside KTH, seven other Unite! universities are involved."

How have you benefited from the Seed Fund?
"The fund enabled discussions on how leading European universities in the field of language and speech technology can collaborate to strengthen programmes and expertise. These discussions would have been difficult to organise without funding for travel and infrastructure. Specifically, the fund financed the participation of PhD and master's students in a summer school on generative AI held in Norrköping in August."

What has been the best thing about this project?
"The highlight so far has been how much students appreciated the summer school. The project continues with plans for another summer school, tentatively hosted by a partner university in Lisbon next summer. We also aim to establish structures for students to combine courses in language and speech technology and AI from multiple Unite! universities."

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Last changed: Jan 23, 2025