A National Academic-Industrial Research Program with an Integrated Graduate Research School

Paper in proceeding, 2013

ProViking is a successful Swedish twelve-year research program in product development and production. Rather than to stimulate the emergence of new companies, it aims at strengthening the existing Swedish industry by producing scientific results at the highest international level and Ph.D.’s for work in the industry. ProViking comprises a large number of research projects, jointly run by universities and industrial companies, and a national graduate school which provides courses for the Ph.D. students that work in the projects. The total ProViking budget is close to 110 M€, of which 43 M€ is supplied by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research and the rest by the industrial project partners. Since the program started in 2002, forty-one different research projects have so far resulted in several hundred conferences and journal papers. Some fifteen patents have either been granted or have applications pending as a result of the research, and almost one hundred Ph.D.’s have graduated.