Uppsala University was founded 548 years ago. We are celebrating that today and in two years it will be time for a more major celebration. Anniversaries are special days. We gather to recognise important milestones, personal and collective, we pause and reflect. Then we move on. Traditions can sometimes be perceived as backward-looking and conservative, but to my mind, it’s a matter of remembering where we come from, honouring the past and looking to the future. Perhaps not carrying straight on from history, but certainly moving forward towards new insights.
When the celebrations are over, I will go home and pack my bag. The last blog was about a trip to the United States. That trip has already resulted in meetings between some of our spin-off companies and representatives of the US Chamber of Commerce, and discussions are under way on deeper collaborations alongside those we already have in law and other areas. It’s looking promising.
This time, I will be travelling to China where we will make study visits to several different universities to see how China works on research and innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum technology and renewable energy.
Chinese researchers have close links with many Swedish researchers these days. China is Sweden’s fourth largest partner in terms of scholarly co-publications and if Sweden and Europe are to stand a chance in global competition, we should see if there are areas where we could open the way to more cooperation, for example in sustainability technology and the green transition. This is something we wrote about in a joint opinion piece in Svenska Dagbladet this summer under the heading: “Academia should collaborate more with China.”
I am looking forward to the trip, but I am also aware that there are those who are critical of the Chinese state. My fundamental reason for visiting China is that I am convinced that education and research transcend borders and are based on the exchange of ideas, knowledge and research results. It would be unfortunate to exclude countries with great expertise in key areas. In accordance with our mission, we have chosen to be involved to strengthen our respective research areas and Swedish competitiveness. This applies to China, the US and all other countries. We collaborate with individuals and that is what has enabled us to create a university that, after 548 years, is still vigorous and bubbling with energy – in my opinion, the best in the world.
