KTH and the City of Stockholm strengthen their collaboration
Tina Karrbom Gustavsson, professor at the Department of Real Estate and Construction Management, has just been appointed as the new Partner Director for KTH's strategic partnership with the City of Stockholm as of this autumn. She looks forward to being involved in creating more collaborations and new opportunities to apply KTH's research in the city.
How does it feel?
"It feels exciting! For KTH, this collaboration is an important opportunity to drive development in many different areas together with the City of Stockholm. I look forward to learning more about what the City of Stockholm's needs and goals are, and how we can meet them together. KTH is investing in the relationship by developing and deepening the strategic partnership, and I am pleased to have the opportunity to lead this work with the support of, among others, Malin Linngård, who is Partner Manager."
Deepening the strategic partnership
The School of Architecture and the Built Environment at KTH has chosen to invest 20% of a full-time position in developing the role of Partner Director for the collaboration with the City of Stockholm. Formally, Tina will not start the work until August, but will slowly begin as of this week with a first initial meeting. She is open to listening to the city's thoughts and needs and to working in new ways to create better conditions for both the city's and KTH's development.
"The partnership aims to promote collaboration and staff mobility on both sides and to create new conditions for education, research and development that benefit both the city and KTH. We will explore new ways of working and opportunities, and it may also mean that I will spend some of my time physically on site at the city."
Joint endeavour
Tina's role is to be responsible for the partnership on the behalf of KTH, and the city has a corresponding partner in Innovation Director Karin Ekdahl Wästberg. Karin has also just been elected as an external representative on the School of Architecture and the Built Environment's newly installed Faculty Board, which Tina sees as having several advantages.
"It really is a joint effort from both sides where KTH is engaged in the city's challenges, and they are engaged in KTH and the development of our activities. This is a step towards jointly taking leadership in the transformation of society, and the collaboration is an investment from all of KTH. We can and want to contribute with our research, education, knowledge, curiosity and experience."
What opportunities do you see for the work ahead?
"An important part may be to strengthen the collaboration with the municipal companies, such as Stockholm Vatten och Avfall, Stockholmshem and SISAB, where we can find more synergies and applications for research and development. We also want to work interdisciplinarily in more areas such as energy technology and digitalisation to meet different issues, and continue to develop the collaborations that already exist with the city, such as Digital Futures, Senseable Stockholm Lab, and others."
What else do you do and what is your experience with cities?
"I research and teach in areas such as organisation, project management, construction project management, collaboration, innovation and procurement. About 15 years ago, I left KTH for a few years to work as Development Director in Huddinge municipality. It was an enriching time that gave me a better understanding of the challenges faced by municipalities and an insight into issues such as democracy and decision-making in politically controlled organisations."