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From the dream of a science park in 1983 to a platform for co-creation today

Fostering collaboration between the universities in Uppsala, businesses and public organizations in order to support the development of companies within new areas, was the basic principle when the foundation for collaboration between the universities in Uppsala, business and society - STUNS - was founded in 1983.

The initiator, the then governor Ingemar Mundebo, called together the key actors from the universities in Uppsala, business and society. The purpose was to establish a technology park and the work rested on a foundation document and a target clause that is still relevant to the business today.

STUNS’ Memorandum of Association

The foundation's purpose is to, based on the research and development and education performed at Uppsala University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, develop the collaboration between the universities and society by:

  • Contributing to the transfer of research results, products, and ideas from the universities to companies and public institutions
  • Contributing to ensuring that companies’ and public institutions’ need for research and development is taken into account at the universities
  • Contributing to ensuring that companies’ and public institutions’ need for special educational initiatives is taken into account at the universities
  • Contributing to ensuring that premises, equipment, etc. are acquired and made available for companies and other organizations in connection to the universities
  • Contributing to ensuring that the universities' capacities is utilized in other ways as well

Strategiska frågor i skärningspunkten mellan
akademi, näringsliv och samhälle

It was planned to dissolve STUNS once the park was built, but the founders wanted something different. The parties saw great value in meeting regularly to discuss and decide on common regional growth issues at the intersection of academia, business and politics. Uppsala had by accident, and through far-sighted decision-makers, identified and started what much later came to be called a regional innovation system, Triple Helix, and public-private collaboration. STUNS had become an innovation in itself.

The emergence of an innovation system in Uppsala and the higher education institutions’ increased capacity to support collaboration means that STUNS' role has gradually changed. STUNS is today a regional cooperation body primarily focusing on Uppsala’s strategic issues at the intersection of academia, business and society.