Meet Johannes: PhD student studying university-industry collaborations within the pharmaceutical industry
Johannes Tröndle completed his MSc degree in Innovation and Industrial Management at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg in June 2023. He recently began his PhD education in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Management of Intellectual Assets at the same university. He looks forward to getting started with his research on university-industry collaborations within the pharmaceutical industry.
Johannes is from southern Germany, and he grow up in a small village, Nöggenschwiel, in the hills of the Black Forest, on the border to Switzerland. He moved to Basel, Switzerland to work and study when he was 18.
- While working in the pharmaceutical industry in Basel, I did a diploma in Chemical technology and continued to do a bachelor’s education in Industrial Engineering at the Fern Fachhochschule Schweiz (FFHS). After those studies I continued to work in management positions with responsibilities in technical qualification and validation.
Thereafter Johannes completed his MSc degree in Innovation and Industrial Management, here at Handelshögskolan in Göteborg. He wrote his master’s thesis with the title “The Fuel-Cell Truck Ecosystem – Identifying change and strategizing in emerging ecosystems”, together with the Volvo Group.
- We explored different views on the emerging ecosystem by interviewing experts from the hydrogen industry. One outcome is that more collaboration between the different players in the ecosystem is needed, for which we proposed a framework based on the shaping strategy.
A PhD education to deepen knowledge and enhance the overall understanding
-My main interest centers around knowledge creation and the commercialization of it, including innovation ecosystems and knowledge networks.
During his PhD education Johannes will focus on research on academic engagement in the context of university-industry collaboration. The study will concentrate on the pharmaceutical industry and their interactions with university.
- I have chosen to do a PhD in this direction because I like and can identify myself with the topics of this program. I want to deepen my knowledge in those topics and perform research in that direction to enhance the overall understanding. Coming from the pharmaceutical industry I can bring in my previous expertise on these topics.
Johannes is undertaking his doctoral education as part of Professor McKelvey’s Swedish Research Council Distinguished Professors’ Research Program on “Knowledge-intensive Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: Transforming society through knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurship”, and will also be a part of the U-GOT KIES Research centre on knowledge-intensive innovation ecosystems.
