Uddevalla Symposium focus regional development

The symposium is held in Italian L’Aquila, which was hit hard by an earthquake ten years ago, and where the region is heavily committed to reconstruction and regional development.

– This year’s symposium will have a very interesting setting because we are at the famous research institute Gran Sasso Science Institute in L’Aquila, a few hours drive north east of Rome. The institute has a key role in the region’s development after the earthquake, says Iréne Bernhard, project manager for Uddevalla Symposium.

Uddevalla Symposium is held in different places around the world every year and is internationally known by researchers working on issues in regional development. All participants contribute each with their paper and present their research. They can also discuss their research with colleagues and take part of other researchers’ latest findings.

Well-known keynote speakers

This year, the program holds a total of 93 paper lectures and eleven keynote lectures in a number of different areas of knowledge, as regional development grasps many sciences. This year 16 people participate from University West.

– We are particularly proud to have the University West guest professor in work-integrated learning, Elin Wihlborg, among the eleven keynote speakers. All are well-known names in their respective research areas, says Iréne Bernhard.

Attractive for researchers

Attracting well-known researchers to Uddevalla Symposium usually is not difficult. Iréne has long experience after having arranged all 22 symposia since the start in 1998 and followed the development over the years.

– University West is unique among Swedish universities when it comes to arranging this type of international scientific conferences so many years in a row. Uddevalla Symposium is known for having high quality content, that the researchers get plenty of time to tell about their research and receive feedback, and not least important; we attach great importance to the social networking during the conference.

Follow-up with regional seminars

Between each symposium is also arranged a regional seminar where some of the results of the most recent symposia are presented. The target group is politicians, civil servants, the business community and other actors who drive regional development. In March, a full-day seminar was held in Lysekil on the theme “Perspectives on regional development” and in October it’s time for a new one.

– Spreading research in our region is at least as important as the symposium itself. In addition, we publish a number of articles in scientific journals and produce an anthology with revised contributions presented at the symposium.

The symposium is arranged in collaboration with Jönköping International Business School and George mason University in Washington, USA. The financiers also include Uddevalla municipality, which contributes with prizes to the best paper.

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Text: Christina Axelsson