Aims and direction

In accordance with its Charter, the Foundation’s aim is to support academic research and education in national economics, business economics, and engineering/technology. This aim is to be furthered primarily through grants to universities, schools of economics and business administration, and universities of technology in Sweden, or to individuals active in these institutions.

Grants may be awarded to senior researchers, as well as postdocs and doctoral students, normally for a project period of one to three years. However, the funding of doctoral projects can also be extended to cover a continuous four-year period (“Lars Erik Lundberg’s PhD position”). A guideline for the amount granted is 1-1.5 million SEK per year for one, two and three-year projects and 4 million SEK in total for a four-year doctoral project. Salaries of appointed/employed professors are not financed by the project grant, but associate professors (“biträdande professor”) and emeritus professors can be financed.

The Lars Erik Lundberg Foundation for Research and Education supports projects that bring together the fields of engineering/natural science and the economic disciplines and thereby focus on the role of technology for the competitiveness of enterprises. This area includes research with a business administration and technology orientation that addresses the dynamics in the building, developing and exploiting of the operational and strategic capabilities of businesses. Projects involving research on production and product development processes also fit into this area, as do projects relating to the conditions which are fundamental for innovative business climates, entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship.

Projects that contain clear research questions that also appear to be answerable with the proposed methods have an advantage, as do the projects that clearly show from which knowledge platform they are based. It is also an advantage if the project is innovative and can be expected to take the research front forward.

Usually are two to four research projects granted funding each year.*

*) About 30-50% of those who submit a complete application in stage 2 receive a grant.

Refer to THE BOOK ABOUT THE FOUNDATION  (in Swedish only) for more information about the Foundation’s aims and direction and examples of previous research Projects that the Foundation has funded.