The institutes launched in February 2021. They are funded from the dean’s designated budget, and decided on an annual basis.
The aim is that this funding will be leveraged by external support and recognition, and that it will reinvigorate activities within the School. Internal and external added value are key deliverables, in the form of collaborative ventures with external stakeholders, of events and seminars, and in other activities of high visibility and impact.
The institutes also serve as an experiment in organisational variation. They may proliferate, may change, or be terminated. They do not supersede or collide with departments and research centres; they instead function as additional measures for swift and decisive responses to areas that span disciplinary and organisational boundaries.
The three institutes serve as a beginning. One covers public affairs, how common interests are articulated and managed by the state and public organisations. Another covers sustainability, and how business and economics affect, and are affected by, the adjustments and adaptations that the climate crisis brings with it. Yet another cover innovation, how economies change and transform, and how firms evolve and adapt in a transient economy.
Thus, LUSEM institutes shall serve as catalysts for our core activities. Their exact form will vary, and they will have different foci. They are all tokens of the overarching ambition of LUSEM to make a difference. For real.