Lund Innovation District survey — 10 interesting results
The survey about the Lund Innovation District is an attempt to understand the people in the area and how they view the innovation district.
- We have good information about hard facts such as the number of employees and turnover of companies, but often lack description on an individual level. We want to create more qualitative information about how to experience the area and how it could be developed,” says Peter Kisch, Director of Operations at Future by Lund.
Parlametric is a company that uses AI-based technology to conduct surveys. What makes Parlametry's method unique is that respondents are not allowed to choose between predefined alternatives but instead formulate their own opinions in a spontaneous and free manner. By interviewing respondents and analyzing their free-text responses, Parlametric is able to contextualize the responses and categorize them into clusters, making it easy to understand the key findings.
The study therefore focused on the geographical area Lund Innovation District. The area is not entirely clearly delineated and the term has only recently begun to be used.
Between September and November 2023, just over 500 responses were collected. The distribution of responses from men and women (263 men, 242 women, 3 other) was relatively even. In the age distribution, there were more responses in the group between 18 and 24 years (44% for 18-24, 16.4% for 25-24, 11.4% for 35-44, 14.1% for 45-54, 11.4% for 55-64, 2.2% for 65-75 and 0.6% for 75+). 75 responses were in English and 436 in Swedish.
- This suggests that we received more responses from students, says Peter Kisch. Considering that students are a very large group in Lund and that they are also hopefully the ones who will work in the innovation district, we think it is an advantage that there were many students who participated.
What did the survey show? Some answers are very clear, while others can be considered more as indications. This is what Future by Lund sees in the survey.
A lot is positive!
1. The most obvious result is that the survey points to Lund's climate for promoting innovation and entrepreneurship is good. The positive responses predominate. Just over one in three mentions in their open responses that they think that Lund stands for strong innovation and creativity and almost as many (28.3%) simply think that it is good in Lund. Other frequently submitted responses include “Promotes collaboration and knowledge exchange”, “Offers accessibility and good infrastructure” and “Wide range of opportunities” (all these three categories range between 14 and 18%). Every 20 respondents answer that they do not know. When the question is about Lund as a meeting place for innovation, development and entrepreneurship, we add “Located at the forefront of development” (8.4%) “Offers many opportunities” (7.9%) and “Good as a meeting place” 6.3%)
2. Collaboration is very highly rated in the answers submitted. To the question “What factors do you consider to be most significant in stimulating and supporting innovation processes?” More than half of the responses are about relationships and relationships. The most common responses are Collaboration (29.4%), Access to capital (19.4%), Proximity to academia (16%) Meetings with other people (12.5) and Common Forums (11.4%). One in four responses falls into the category Innovation Culture and Diversity, with the most common responses being Interdisciplinarity (17%), Events and Events (17%) and Promoting Networking (17%).
3. Interroom work is valued. To the question “What do you think is needed to facilitate collaborations and external partnerships”, the most common answers are “Networking (20%), Collaboration (11.7%) Financing (9.2%). Other responses include “Marketing”, “Communication habit”, “Common goals”, “More collaborations”, “Transparency”, “More seminars/workshops”, “More public meetings”, “Interaction and collaboration”, “More events”, “Space-space actors”, “Prestigious work”. Many responses point to the need for joint coordination, and that intermediate work and facilitation of the innovation district are important.
4th. Proximity, meeting places and expertise build site quality. The importance of the site for innovation and entrepreneurship is analyzed through the question “What qualities of plastics do you consider to be most crucial for attracting and developing innovative companies and entrepreneurs?”. Responses can be grouped into hard values, such as “Access to education and research”, “Proximity”, Accessible meeting places”, “Well-thought-out infrastructure”, “Networking opportunities”, “Right skills”, “Access to more premises” and soft values such as “Inspiring and beautiful environments” “Opportunity for collaborations”, “More green spaces” and “Elements of culture”. Far more people give answers that fall within the scope of “Hard Values”.
5. University an important factor. The importance of access to education, proximity and other links to the university are seen throughout the survey in responses such as “Offers broad and deep knowledge”, “Access to education and research”, “Proximity to academia” - yet perhaps one would expect the result to be even clearer. The fact that the university is the foundation of the innovation district is perhaps sometimes so obvious to many that one forgets to mention it.
- Lund University is of course an extremely important asset for Lund, says Peter Kisch. It may therefore be important that we ask ourselves if we have enough contact areas between the university and the surroundings to create maximum benefit.
6. An inclusive innovation district. When comparing the responses given by men and women, they do not differ much on an overall level, which is very pleasing because it indicates an equal innovation district. Both men and women are positive about Lund as a meeting place. Looking at the level of detail, slightly fewer women mention that they perceive Lund as an innovative and creative place, while slightly more consider Lund to be at the forefront of development. In terms of factors that would facilitate collaborations and external partnerships, it may be important to look at whether more women are calling for more funding — but instead 9.5% of men versus 6.2% of women cite the possibility of funding as a factor that would facilitate. There, to a greater extent, women emphasize “Good communication habit” and “Get better at marketing yourself”. By and large, the similarities are found in the responses given, even if you look at the size of the organizations and at the distribution by age — with one exception that you can read about below.
Some interesting questions
7. What benefits from increased cooperation? In the survey, cooperation (as mentioned earlier) ranks very highly, by both men and women and of all ages. However, when you look at the responses about which site qualities are crucial for attracting and developing innovative companies and entrepreneurs, surprisingly few (1.2%) mention “Co-working”. However, available meeting places are mentioned by 8.2% and “More restaurants” by 5.7%. Thus, how many and what kind of places can benefit from cooperation may need to be analyzed.
8. How can we work with funding? The survey found that one group sees access to capital as a key factor in innovation processes. When we look at financing based on how large companies the interviewees are employed at, one can see a tendency that the smallest companies and the largest companies are more satisfied with the financing while those who are in a scale-up phase, i.e. those with 11-29 and 30-99 employees see a greater need for capital. This may be true with what is often said that there is project money for startups but that the funding issue then becomes tougher. This is an indication that Lund is better at public equity than at private.
9. “There is more potential” - but how do we pick it up? When asked to describe their experience of Lund as a meeting place for innovation, development and entrepreneurship, the most common negative responses are “Difficult to access and not inclusive” (5.1%), “Academic” (can be both positive and negative answer 5.3%) “There is more potential” (3.3%) and problems with cooperation between actors (1%). They are not large groups but can still give a hint of an area to work with.
10. After the studies, satisfaction drops - why? The group between the ages of 18 and 24 seems generally very satisfied with Lund in the survey. It is then possible to deduce a decline for the age groups 25 to 34 years and 35 to 44 years. This is not so strange considering that Lund is a city that is largely based on student life, while after the student period it can be difficult to see what venues there are to operate in. Perhaps it may be important for Lund to think about how to get people to stay in the city after their studies, especially considering what the new graduates can contribute in terms of skills and innovation skills.
Other conclusions
For Future by Lund, it was interesting to try the way of working with an AI-analysed survey. The result came out well and can now be the basis from which to do a deep dive into various issues, possibly through further interviews.
For many who took part in the survey, the Lund Innovation District was an unfamiliar concept. However, once they chose to participate in the survey, they were often very dedicated to answering in detail. It shows the high quality of the answers given.
Future by Lund's interviewers observed a great commitment from international students to the project and Future by Lund.
About the survey
The survey has been conducted with an open approach where the respondents have freely answered the open questions in text. The answers are then analyzed using Parlametrics narrative analysis software using the Natural Language Processing (NLP) method, which is a technique used to analyze and interpret human language by extracting sentences, words and grammatical structures from text. The method is used to retrieve information from text and convert it into numerical data. Parlametric uses different language models in order to provide reliable results. NLP creates conditions for nuanced reflection of respondents' actual views.
About once a month there will be more Lund Innovation District Talks. If you would like us to send you invitations to upcoming events send a message to info@futurebylund.se
How does Lund work with the Innovation District? Lund University and Lund Municipality have commissioned Future by Lund and partners to catalyze the work to co-create Lund as an international innovation district. The work is done, among other things, to enable us in Lund to increase our capacity to solve complex and shared challenges. The work is based on a steering group consisting of Anders Almgren, Chairman of Lund Municipal Board, Pia Kinhult, ESS and Kristina Eneroth, Vice Rector at Lund University.
Previous conversations
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Human Rights Design as a Foundation for Innovation
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You can read the full report by Maria Gimenez Grau here.
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More about Innovation Districts
Link to the page about Lund Innovation District
GIID analyzes how successful innovation districts are organized
How is work organised with innovation districts in Lund?
Lund in international cooperation for the development of innovation districts
Survey of Lund Innovation District
Lund Innovation District survey — 10 interesting results
An inclusive innovation environment is an advantage to develop for Lund Innovation District
Collaboration, meeting places and networks develop Lund Innovation District