The interroom team is growing at Future by Lund!
At the end of 2022/23, Future by Lund transitioned from being a project financed by Vinnova with Lund Municipality as the principal to being an economic association with support from Lund Municipality and Lund University and the opportunity for the city's actors to participate as members. The core team at the time consisted of four employees, Peter Kisch, Katarina Scott, Anders Trana and Carro Wendt. These include CEO Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth, who is employed at LU Samverk and staff from LU Samwho Lund University offers to support the platform.
As the association's work has gained momentum, it has also become possible to connect more people to the platform. In the fall, the team will be expanded with additional people. A recent acquaintance is Lasse Mattiasson, who was previously employed at Future by Lund and with solid experience from the textile industry. Lasse Mattiasson will now work, among other things, on rigging test beds on the textile side together with Lund University Network Fashion @LU and a number of business partners.
- I will divide my time between further developing the Fashion @LU network, developing project applications in the textile field and advising startups, says Lars Mattiasson. The intention is that we will be able to create test beds aimed at textile production. The textile industry has a huge impact on the climate, including through overproduction. We see a great opportunity to shorten value chains and reduce climate impact by moving from mass production to working against orders (on demand). We want to make climate benefits directly measurable and visible and will work together with major players. Because we will be working with industry, academia and brands, we have a unique chance to make a difference together.
Birgitta Persson has worked with Unexpec and with the application for a KIC in Cultural and Creative Industries (KKN). That's why she steps in to work on the big policy project team where Lund University is the coordinating partner.
- I will build on my previous work with KKN KIC and Unexpected, says Birgitta Persson. There we have developed a contact area and a partnership that makes for a much stronger international position and we will benefit from this now that Lund University has a lead in team management.
Pia Kinhult from ESS was the first Chairman of the Board of the Economic Association Future by Lund and sits on the steering committee for the work with the Lund Innovation District. Now she will spend some of her time on ACES to work on the development of Lund Innovation District.
- It is important for ESS that there is a dynamic and exciting environment around the facility and therefore what is happening in Lund will be interesting. The Innovation District concept is absolutely right in that mindset for us. It also provides an international and European connection, which is also crucial for our participation in the work. All this together and the wide network in the FBL links very well with the role of a large research infrastructure such as ESS,” says Pia Kinhult.
One ambition for Future by Lund is to receive temporary employees in the form of interns with an interest in working in the area between the private and the public.
- Sometimes we get asked how to work in the gap, says Katarina Scott, project developer at Future by Lund. The answer is that you learn it through slow practice. Then it is important to receive trainees, and we hope to do that continuously. With us, they become temporary employees and it is also a way for us to find and help talents.
The first temporary employee is Tilde Svensson, who studies business development at Hyper Island.
- I chose my education because I want to work with development and to make a difference, says Tilde Svensson. The training lasts for 1 ½ years. I have been studying semi-theoretical for a year and we have worked with real cases and collaborated with companies. The last half of the year is an internship and then I wanted to have an internship in a place where you work with the public sector and development from a societal perspective. That's when I found Future by Lund.
Tilde Svensson will be part of the team throughout the autumn of 2023.