Great contributions from U-GOT KIES at the R&D Management Conference
Last week 10 researchers from Gothenburg U-GOT KIES attended the R&D Management Conference in Manchester, UK, organized by the University of Manchester and the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research. While for some it was their first time and for others it felt like coming home, the conference provided an interesting and fun mix of lectures, presentations, and social events for everyone.
U-GOT KIES researchers Stijn van Weegberg, Karin Berg, Stefan Szucs, Daniel Ljungberg, Maureen McKelvey, Johannes Tröndle and Bastian Rake presented their latest research and engaged in interesting discussions with other scholars.
PhD student Stijn van Weegberg attended for the first time.
"I had a great time at the R&D Management conference, where I could both connect with other researchers and listen to interesting lectures and presentations. I also received some valuable feedback on my own presentation, thanks to the interesting discussants. The organization did a really good job to put together a comprehensive program, and it was fun to be here with so many from our research group. Although it was my first time at this conference, I'd be more than happy to go again next year!"
Compelling and insightful lectures
The program featured several compelling lectures throughout the week, starting with two plenary lectures. Tim Minshall on the renewed value of strong links between R&D and manufacturing, and by Eva Niesten on how wine estates in France innovate and adapt to climate change.
There was an insightful lecture from Prof. Annabelle Gawer on the increasing power of digital platforms, followed by a personal and interesting lecture from Linus Dahlander with the message to not only focus on the composition of networks but also on the content of their interactions.
Peter Gallagher shared valuable perspectives from his work as an innovator at Unilever and Gemma Gratton showed the importance of a more inclusive, conscious, and future-facing creative industry, in part through her own experience with C.T.E.M. Fashion Collective and Manchester Fashion Week.
Winner of the Best Track Paper ’R&D infrastructure and university-industry collaborations’
U-GOT KIES researcher Karin Berg was entitled the winner of presenting the Best Track Paper ’R&D infrastructure and university-industry collaborations’, with the paper “Supervisors’ ability to bridge academia and industry in firm-employed PhD student projects” (co-authored with Maureen McKelvey and Rögnvaldur J. Saemundsson).
“I had a fantastic time at R&D Management Conference 2026 in Manchester - it is a great community for discovering new cutting-edge research, meeting talented researchers and developing your networks for future research endeavours”
Karin Berg