Collaboration awarded: “Interesting projects almost always start in the most unlikely places”
The 2025 Prize for Collaboration and Innovation goes to Henrik Barth, Professor of Innovation Science, and Bengt-Göran Rosén, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, for their willingness to collaborate across boundaries and ensure that Halmstad University’s knowledge benefits industry.
“Both strategic and operational work are essential to create value for the University and its partners, in both research and education. This year’s two award recipients are guiding lights in this.”
Kristian Widén, Deputy Vice-Chancellor with responsibility for collaboration and innovation
Every year since 2017, Halmstad University awards a prize for collaboration and innovation to a person or group of people who have been particularly successful in developing and strengthening the societal benefits of Halmstad University’s education and research.
This year the prize goes to Henrik Barth, Professor of Innovation Science, and Bengt-Göran Rosén, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, for their willingness to collaborate across boundaries and ensure that Halmstad University’s knowledge benefits industry. The Prize for Collaboration and Innovation was awarded during the Innovation Conference at the University today.
Collaboration is in the soul of the University
“Both strategic and operational work are essential to create value for the University and its partners, in both research and education. This is necessary not only to ensure quality but to take us and our partners into the future. This year’s two award recipients, Henrik Barth and Bengt-Göran Rosén, are guiding lights in this, both on a local and international level”, says Kristian Widén, Deputy Vice-Chancellor with responsibility for collaboration and innovation and Professor of Innovation Science.
In the video below, Henrik Barth and Bengt-Göran Rosén talk about why it is so important and rewarding for them as researchers to collaborate with other societal actors. They also look back on the years that have passed and share some anecdotes.
Text: Anna-Frida Agardson and Emma Swahn
Video: Anna-Frida Agardson
About Henrik Barth
For over 20 years, Henrik Barth, Professor of Innovation Science, has conducted research on innovative processes with a focus on societal challenges such as sustainability, digitalisation and inclusion. A central part of Henrik Barth’s research involves creating arenas where business, academia and society meet to jointly find practical solutions to real problems. A clear example is Fab Lab Halmstad, one of the Nordic region’s best-equipped digital collaboration workshops for prototype development, which he helped found almost ten years ago.
Alongside his research, Henrik Barth is deeply engaged in social issues. The refugee crisis of 2015 became the starting point for several research projects centred on integration, entrepreneurship and innovation. The aim is to give newly arrived individuals the tools they need to achieve their goals, whether that means starting a business or creating a sense of stability in everyday life.
Henrik Barth has carried the experiences from these projects into his work with Ukrainian refugees and concrete initiatives in Ukraine, where local solutions are being developed under challenging conditions. One of the projects, CRAFT, focuses, among other things, on supporting Ukrainian farmers in the shadow of the war.
About Bengt-Göran Rosén
For over 30 years, Bengt-Göran Rosén, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has conducted research on economic and ecological sustainability, focusing on the optimisation of mechanical functional surfaces. Functional surfaces are found in almost all products, and Bengt-Göran Rosén’s research has covered everything from vehicles, toys and mobile phones to dental implants and the reconstruction of damaged jawbones.
Bengt-Göran Rosén’s work has always been marked by close collaboration between academia and industry, both nationally and internationally, with the aim of turning research results into practical solutions. He has, among other achievements, helped establish both a local research group in mechanical engineering and a global research network focused on measurement technology and the development of international standards.
Ingenjör 4.0 is an innovative educational concept in digital manufacturing and the industry of the future. Bengt-Göran Rosén has led the development of the programme, which has so far provided further training to over 1,000 professional engineers. Together with Henrik Barth, Bengt-Göran Rosén was also one of the founders of Fab Lab Halmstad, one of the Nordic region’s best-equipped digital collaborative makerspaces for prototype development.
Award citation 2025
Henrik Barth’s and Bengt-Göran Rosén’s openness to collaboration beyond the University and their desire for the University’s expertise to reach the business community make it a joy to work with them. They see opportunities rather than obstacles and deliver on their promises, while constantly remaining open to new ideas. They ensure that others at the University are involved and highlight opportunities for companies to take part in projects. They also broaden perspectives so that businesses and individuals in industry become aware of what Halmstad University can contribute – both to companies as a whole and to the people within them.
To many, Halmstad University can be seen as a place of academics for academics, and that is why role models are needed who concretely and tangibly break down barriers so that the University becomes a more integrated part of what happens within companies, not least among the many small businesses that characterise the business community in Halland.
Henrik Barth and Bengt-Göran Rosén, both active at the School of Business, Innovation and Sustainability, receive Halmstad University’s 2025 Collaboration and Innovation Award for clearly demonstrating – and continuing to demonstrate – that academic merits alone are not what matter, but that collaboration and the dissemination of knowledge are also of central importance to society. This also represents one of the fundamental pillars of Halmstad University.
About the Prize for Collaboration and Innovation
The award aims to draw attention to successes and initiatives related to utilisation, innovation and collaboration. The prize is awarded to the individual or group of individuals who have been particularly successful in – through collaboration – developing and strengthening the societal benefit in research and education at Halmstad University. The prize has been awarded since 2017. Previous winners are:
- 2024: Sara Helmersson, Helena Eriksson and Sara Högdin
- 2023: Magnus Clarin and Stella Erlandsson
- 2022: Staffan Enting and Jan Karlsson
- 2021: Olga Torstensson, Malin Bornhager and Muhammad Ahsan Rasool
- 2020: Frida Stranne
- 2019: Gerry Andersson
- 2018: Karin Weman Josefsson
- 2017: Hans-Erik Eldemark
Contact
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Deputy Vice-Chancellor with specific responsibility for collaboration and innovation
