News: Dec 14, 2023
At the turn of the year, Chalmers University of Technology, the University of Gothenburg and University West will launch their new joint collaboration arena Wexsus – West Sweden Nexus for Sustainable Development. The new collaboration arena will work in close collaboration with the Västra Götaland region and other societal actors will be invited to develop partnerships. The purpose of Wexsus is to exchange knowledge that strengthens society’s ability to drive the transition towards a sustainable society together. The Gothenburg Centre for Sustainable Development, GMV, will cease to exist as an organisation at the end of the year and will then be merged with its operations in Wexsus.
In June 2023, the vice-chancellors of the three higher education institutions signed an agreement to jointly create a West Swedish collaboration arena for sustainable development. During the autumn, the work of forming the collaboration arena has continued when, among other things, the name Wexsus has been decided. The name has been chosen because it reflects well the business idea of facilitating collaboration and creating partnerships between different societal actors. Nexus means (of course) link or connection and that is exactly what Wexsus will do – create relationships and exchange knowledge between actors from all sectors of society.
The development of the West Swedish collaboration arena has been led by Pam Fredman, acting director of GMV and Wexsus.
– Academia has a special role and responsibility for sustainable development. On the one hand, we must ensure that existing knowledge is used to transition to a sustainable society. But we will also develop new knowledge together with other parts of society. No single actor or sector of society alone has the solutions for sustainable development, but we must develop them together. That's why we need organisations like Wexsus that can work across all organisational silos," says Pam Fredman.
The work on the West Swedish arena for sustainable development started within the alliance Lärosäten Väst, where in addition to the three universities that are part of Wexsus, the University of Borås, the University of Skövde and the University of Jönköping are also involved. Wexsus will collaborate with these universities in various ways, and all are invited to join as owners of the consortium. The Västra Götaland region and other major public actors in western Sweden have also been invited to become partners of Wexsus. The forms of partnership with other sectors of society such as the business community and the idea-based sector will be developed based on both already established and new collaborations.
Wexsus will now concretize its mission and during the start-up year 2024 develop the operations as: being an open meeting place, creating networks, utilizing knowledge, developing methods and processes and constituting as a collaboration portal. An important aspect is that Wexsus should not work with what is already being done in the universities' regular activities but should create added value and new synergies between academia and external actors.
More information about Wexsus’ activities will be available in January when new communication channels such as a website will be in place.
Three universities create collaboration arena for sustainable development
