… with some good news. Already in my last blog post we celebrated a prestigious research contract with SFF in the area of material science. Now it is time to celebrate the next: our VINNEX centre Hero-m, also in the area of material science, has succeeded in securing an additional five years of substantial funding in very tough competition. Hero-m is successfully led by professor Annika Borgenstam. It was also very timely that our developments in Södertälje have been successfully strengthened by the fact that we are now a partner in the VINNEX centre HELIX hosted by Linköping University. HELIX and Hero-m are two of the total of five VINNEX centres that were granted five years continuation. Finally, we should highlight that the CECIS centre at INDEK is a partner in a new Mistra funded research program on how financial markets and actors can contribute to sustainable societal development. The program – Mistra Financial Systems – is led by Handelshögskolan and operated in collaboration with national as well as international partners. Professor Hans Lööf is responsible from the ITM-side.
There are probably several other initiatives that are worth celebrating, so please give me a hint…
Some departments are expanding. Right now the most urgent need is to find extra space for the departments of Energy Technology and Production Engineering. The solution to this is that our education administration office (utbildningskansliet) will move from Brinellvägen 68 to Lindstedtsvägen 3, level 6. The move will take place during the summer, so from August 1st the office is fully functional at the new location. But don’t worry, Expnord will remain at its current location and continue its development.
Another change about to happen within our educational system is that the organisation for how we manage and operate our education programs will be reshaped. The current way of operating has been more or less the same for many years despite the fact the education program structure has changed with BSc degrees, master programs and an extensive internationalization and thereby has become a lot more complex. The ambition with the new structure is to achieve a more transparent way operation, a better integration and communication between the program dimension and line organization, and more clear delegations and responsibilities for the different academic and administrative roles within education.
In the last Research Assessment Exercise (RAE2012) the ITM School achieved reasonably good results. A point that was made by one of the review panels was that we could gain a lot by better integration over department borders. In particular this was pointed out between the departments of Production Engineering and Machine Design. This, together with urgent needs on the one hand from department expansions, and on the other hand from needs of our education programs, have triggered a recently started project to modernize our premises at Valhallavägen. Sofia Ritzén coordinates this but more concretely the project is operated by KTH MBA and White Arkitekter.
Last, but certainly not least, have very nice summer vacation!
Jan Wikander, dean, the last blogger of the spring semester, but stay tuned, we will be back!