The world is not divided into academic disciplines
- Post by: Tobias Larsson
- 6th November 2025
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The Knowledge Foundation is funding 44 Jubilee Doctoral Students across Sweden between 2025 and 2030 — a SEK 173 million national initiative designed to strengthen collaboration between academia, industry, and society.
On November 5–6, Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) participated in the foundation’s inaugural Jubilee Doctoral Students Network Meeting in Stockholm. The students and one of their supervisors gathered to exchange ideas, share experiences, and build meaningful connections across disciplinary boundaries. From BTH, doctoral students Laila Adelson and Vincent Honar, together with their supervisors Jenny Elfsberg and Anton Borg, participated. The meeting encouraged participants to explore unexpected synergies between fields that rarely interact — for example, bridging fine arts and mechanical engineering — as a way to spark creative thinking and foster innovative, cross-disciplinary research. Bringing together the entire cohort at the start of their doctoral journeys created a unique foundation for shared learning and long-term collaboration across Sweden’s research landscape.
At BTH, Laila Adelson and Jenny Elfsberg are part of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (TIMA) and the Marine Technology Center of Sweden (MTCOS) — a joint initiative between BTH and Region Blekinge. MTCOS brings together academia, industry, and the public sector to make Karlskrona a European hub for sustainable and strategic marine technology. Within this ecosystem, research, innovation, and education intersect to generate practical impact, stimulate growth, and drive next-generation marine, defense, and energy solutions.
The event showed how much we can learn from one another and how powerful it is when different disciplines come together with intention. The talks and workshops didn’t just inspire collaboration, they gave us tools to make it happen. I’m excited to apply this mindset as I continue the early stages of my doctoral journey, says Laila
The research conducted by Laila Adelson, Jenny Elfsberg, and Professor Tobias Larsson focuses on developing processes, methods, and tools for dual-use innovation and efficient innovation capability. One area of focus is exploring how organizations can intentionally and exploratively design dual-use solutions that remain relevant and resilient across alternative future scenarios. Another key area is developing approaches that enable organizations to systematically strengthen their innovation capability through the application of innovation engineering—that is, structured, exploratory processes for generating new knowledge and solutions. Together, these efforts contribute to building innovation capacity that supports both civilian and defense-oriented needs, thereby strengthening Sweden’s long-term competitiveness and societal resilience.
Jenny Elfsberg; “These doctoral students are building cross disciplinary connections that might last their entire careers – today they are doctoral candidates, in the future stellar collaborative leaders. Also, good opportunity to talk to other universities an understand their way of working with PhD candidates.”
