PIEp INDUSTRY

PIEp increases the innovation capability of businesses through the joining of academic and industrial competences. The main reason for a business to collaborate with PIEp is usually to develop new competitive products. This is achieved in many ways – through technology and product projects, and in change projects - that generate new processes to promote innovative thinking and innovative development within the company.

Here, you can read a little about what characterises PIEp and find links to ongoing collaborations, as well as finding out how your business or an organisation can set up a co-operation with PIEp.

PIEp is a national programme with a strong cross-disciplinary profile. LTU, Institute of Design at Umeå U, KTH, CTMH at KTH, HiJ and LTH are the participating universities. Together, they form a broad competence base, with particular focus on the competences of product development and design, industrial design and business economics. In this way, PIEp has functional scope for product innovation and can, via the networks we operate, create teams of researchers, doctoral candidates and students to suit your needs. (See more at What is PIEp and We within PIEp.)

A character trait for PIEp is that we have both product and process focuses in activities and projects – the key to our approach to bring about successful change work within an organization that wants to increase it’s innovation capability. Product focus is about new technologies and new functions for innovation (to do the right thing). Process focus is about organising and managing activities and actors for innovation (to do it the right way).

“High competence, new perspectives and long-term development.”

PIEp Researchers and Teachers have extensive experience in collaborating with businesses on research and teaching projects. Collaboration can take many forms, but will usually involve the Researcher and Business jointly making applications for research funding – thus opening a way to make the competence resources of universities easily accessible for the long-term strengthening of innovation and competitiveness in industry. The PIEp Researchers Network constitutes a good base to find possible collaborators for your company . You can also approach the PIEp Management Team if you have an idea or a question on how PIEp might be able to support your company’s needs.

“From 0 to 100 ideas in 5 students and 6 weeks”

Another inspiring way to collaborate between industry and academia is through student projects. By providing concrete assignments in product development and innovation courses, the business receives an extra resource consisting of enthusiastic and newly learned people who will soon be the new base for recruitment. Experience shows that businesses gain an invaluable quantity of new ideas to old problems by working with students. They can also take greater risks with larger investments – or rather take low risks in greater challenges.

PIEp creates contacts between Researcher and Business – which subject knowledge are you looking for?

PIEp creates contacts between Teacher, Student and Business – what problem do you want a new solution to?

Learning Networks

A learning network includes at least three businesses and one research group. The research group manages the network and creates a bridge between theory and practice. In a learning network, businesses are continually meeting to exchange experiences about their practices. Between meetings, a change work is being conducted in their organisations. Today, PIEp manages several Learning Networks – would you like to know more? Contact Sofia Ritzén ( sofia @ md.kth.se )

Ongoing collaboration

Today, PIEp manages a number of different projects in collaboration with industry – see our Project Portfolio and Companies Network.

Successful change work

The basis for PIEp is an experience-based learning, which we realise is the key to the development of an organisation. The core challenge in experienced-based learning is to create a space for reflection. Simply running around without considering how it is done in practice implies little chance of changing this practice. There is much theory behind this, as well as a well-proven method in Learning Networks.

PIEp Challenges you and your organisation to relearn and learn new!