Newsmail #10, 2021-11-26

Dear all,

Yesterday we hosted two kings, one government minister and several industry leaders in our ITRL building. The royal visit was part of an official Spanish state visit to Sweden. The Spanish royals stayed in Stockholm for two days and a considerable portion of this visit was dedicated to ITRL.

The director of ITRL, Jonas Mårtensson, hosted the visit and introduced the research that we do. According to Jonas, there are three important factors in play. First, the research presented is relevant for a large portion of the society. The research focuses on transport systems, mass transits, freight transport etc. This is relevant for everyone. Second, the research and the research results can be explained so that a large group of the society understands. It affects people, there is an apparent impact. Thirdly, the research results can be visualized. It’s tangible. We can show prototypes. The kings got to drive our cars.

ITRL has been extremely successful in raising external research funding. ITRL has been very successful in creating new meeting places, new cross-disciplinary research projects. Industry go to ITRL because ITRL solves problems that the industry partners cannot do themselves, since these issues require new forms of collaboration. ITRL provides these collaborative mechanisms and meeting places.

ITRL has seen many high profile visits. It’s the second visit to ITRL by the Swedish king. The Swedish prime minister has also visited twice, different occasions.

There are many very bright people in ITRL, people committed to be in the forefront of the current paradigm shifts. I think that this is a direct consequence of the above analysis, the three pillars. I also believe that these three pillars not necessarily need to be limited to ITRL. We have potential for the same impact in all our research areas at MMK, if we just can explain what we do and explain in a way that is understood by many. One ITRL secret is that we have our own communications expert, embedded deep in the ITRL group. This role has always been key in ITRL, which I believe has lifted the entire group. Another ITRL secret is that we utilize design thinking. The collaboration with the design group at MMK enables new methods. We also have systems thinking, an ability to grasp between disciplines.

One person said that we should host kings more often, because the building is typically a bit cleaner than usual then.

Have a nice weekend,

Martin