About LU Innovation
LU Innovation’s mission is to help ideas from Lund University improve our world and the human condition. Together with researchers and students, we develop ideas and research findings into innovations – solving urgent problems and creating value.
Lund University is one of the world’s hundred leading universities and one of Scandinavia’s largest. It boasts a wealth of knowledge and world-leading research. It educates our leaders of tomorrow, our social entrepreneurs, our future heroes. Lund University’s mission is to understand, to explain, and to improve lives. LU Innovation’s contribution is to translate that knowledge into immediate benefits for sustainable growth and a better future.
We have a long history of success in medical advances and technological revolutions. But innovation should be far more than that. We support the whole of Lund University across the full range of disciplines. We have a unique opportunity to help solve the biggest social challenges.
Sustainability, gender equality, and inclusiveness are LU Innovation’s watchwords. To tackle the challenges facing the world, we need to make the most of ideas, perspectives, and competencies of all kinds. We need to develop solutions and projects that are truly sustainable – socially, environmentally, and financially.
Our support and investment
One way to ensure that your research findings are put to good use in society is to transform them into a new service, product or method. LU Innovation can help you along the way and move your project forward through idea and innovation development, financial support and expert knowledge about agreements and how to protect your idea.
Our innovation organisation contains experience from research, industry and the public sector, as well as a large national and international network. LU Innovation welcomes all researchers at Lund University, regardless of discipline. You do not need to have a complete plan for your project. Obviously, all innovation advice is free and confidential.
LU Innovation is part of FSI, Lund University’s research, collaboration, and innovation division, and is tasked with supporting innovation. It exists to help researchers and (via VentureLab) students develop their research results and ideas, to fund innovation projects, and to provide expertise on intellectual property protection and legal issues.
Investments are managed by LU Holding AB, which is owned by the Swedish state but managed by Lund University. LU Holding’s mission is to create new businesses from ideas and research results from Lund University, and which will contribute to growth and create jobs in Sweden.
Find out more about LU Holding
Student innovators
VentureLab is part of LU Innovation and designed specifically for students. It exists to encourage students and recent graduates to become entrepreneurs and to help them develop business ideas or start their own companies. VentureLab offers inspiration, business development, and a student incubator at Ideon Agora in Lund’s Ideon Science Park.
Our strategic programmes
LU Innovation manages a range of projects and programmes in collaboration with other stakeholders. One example is Innovationskontor Syd, the joint innovation office for all the universities in southern Sweden. Another example is SWElife, a strategic innovation programme funded by Vinnova and coordinated by LU Innovation.
Read more about the strategic innovation programme Swelife here.
LU Innovation is a part of an Interreg programme called Science for Society. The aim was to strengthen the creation of research-based growth, innovation and value in the ØKS region.
Read more about Science for Society 1.0 and 2.0 here.