The two-year master’s programme in ‘Innovation through Business, Engineering and Design’ provides students with an understanding of how multidisciplinary knowledge supported by theoretical insight and emerging technologies can bridge with the social needs and values of our societies to provide the best possible local and global futures.

Students engage with local and international companies and organisations to train in the innovation process in teams with different competences and work in an environment of collaborative creativity. This unique learning model empowers programme participants with the right skills and methods to apply business-, engineering- and design-led perspectives to complex societal issues by a co-creative approach and guides them to further evaluate innovative products and services to create a sustainable effect on the people and the planet.

Complimentary to the core academic studies, students engage with IKEA, the program’s main industrial partner. IKEA contributes with Democratic Design principles, latest methods and tools as well as workshops and tutoring to train product development processes in real time, thus giving the students a hands-on opportunity to corporate projects and providing them the opportunity to implement knowledge and practices for IKEA’s goal to create a better everyday life for the many people.

The uniqueness of the programme is that it has students from three different faculties - Business, Engineering and Design and brings together a diversity of competences, backgrounds and experiences to enable the innovation process in all its complexity to address the challenges that humankind is facing regarding environmental and social issues. Eventually, the program deepens students’ understanding not only on knowledge and skills that influence the innovation process but also trains them in the professional way of working in a context where many fields of knowledge and practices are interacting.

Career perspectives

Companies and organisations worldwide need professionals that can carry out collaborative creativity to innovate and support sustainable development. Students trained in multidisciplinary innovation teams are best suited to meet such expectations. The programme empowers the students with knowledge on key issues of the modern world such as design thinking, system engineering, circular economy , conscious consumption and frugal innovation, to name a few. Graduates of this program can effectively use their acquired knowledge from product and service design, new business approaches and technology application for sustainable development to create unique and cost effective solutions for the issue at hand. They become excellent co-workers as their multiple perspective training in the programme provides them with the right tools to encourage motivation, trust respect for diversity , leadership and communication skills, all essential characteristics of a valued employee and team member.