Trust that lasts
Building trust through humility and respect is key to successful collaboration. So says Tomas Ireman, who, having held various roles at Saab, can look back on over 40 years of collaboration with KTH. He has now been awarded KTH’s award for industrial collaboration.
– It feels enjoyable and honourable. Even though I didn’t do my undergraduate studies at KTH, it’s where I feel most at home. That makes the award feel even more special.
Courageous, committed and forward-thinking – that’s how he is described in his role as partnership manager in the strategic collaboration between Saab and KTH. He himself emphasises how crucial the link between industry and academia is.
– Saab and most of the successful companies we have in Sweden would not be where they are today without collaboration with academia, and I believe this will become even more important in the future.
Built gradually
Lifelong learning and the future role of engineers are issues close to his heart. He sees it as a great privilege to be involved in shaping both engineering education and continuing professional development.
– Our future as an industrial nation depends on our continuing to train good engineers and on ensuring that engineers already in the workforce have good opportunities for further training.
But good collaboration does not happen by itself – it takes time and requires both commitment and shared goals.
– This needs to be given time and built up gradually through degree projects, joint projects and industrial PhDs, eventually leading to affiliated and adjunct faculty positions.
In-depth collaboration
In his role at Saab Aeronautics, Tomas Ireman works on research and technology development linked to military aviation systems, international collaborations – including within the European Defence Fund (EDF) – and the training of future technical leaders. With extensive experience of collaboration with KTH, including as an industrial PhD student, he has led Saab’s partnership with KTH for the past six years and continues to develop it.
Part of the prize also involves an initiative to increase mobility between Saab and KTH, aimed at researchers, associate professors and professors.
– My hope is that, with the help of the prize, we will now be able to bring in 1–2 ‘cross-border researchers’ from KTH to Saab, where the KTH researchers will work at Saab for around one day a week for a period of time. Hopefully, this will lead to even deeper collaboration.
Text: Christer Gummeson ( gummeson@kth.se )