Quality, knowledge and creativity since 1477

Uppsala University

Home of AIMday. Driving academic-industry collaboration forward. Bringing world-class research to life.

Sweden’s first university

Uppsala University is a highly respected, forward-looking university, ranked among the top 100 in the world. The university conducts top-quality research and education and is committed to playing an active role in global society by promoting creativity, innovation and development on the world stage.

Collaboration is a natural dimension of Uppsala University and that is the way it has always been. The university constantly seek novel ways to drive this cooperation forward, and AIMday is one example. AIMday enables academics and non-academic organisations to make contacts and exchange knowledge in a way that drives innovation forward. By making AIMday available to other academic institutions, Uppsala University also continues to build bridges across the academic world.

The history of AIMday

Driving collaboration forward

Pioneered by Uppsala University in 2008

A simple but ingenious idea– to let representatives from organisations set the agenda by submitting questions that they want to discuss with academics – forms the basis of the innovative AIMday concept. Developed by Uppsala University in 2008, its roots are in the materials science field – bringing expertise from one of Europe’s leading centres for materials science out of the labs and into industry. Success was immediate. Companies were delighted with the expert feedback they received on their day-to-day challenges and the academics gained valuable insights into typical issues faced by industry. Additionally, ideas for further research and collaborative actions were generated.

Adding new research themes

AIMday diversifies

AIMday is truly multi-disciplinary. From 2011 onward, the use of the AIMday format has been extended to new disciplinary areas, like the life sciences and the humanities and social sciences. Thus research themes such as cancer, diabetes, diagnostics, welfare and aeging have been added ever since. Here the format has proven itself just as beneficial as in materials science.

See past AIMday events

Building bridges across the academic world

AIMday made available

In 2013, Uppsala University made AIMday available to other academic institutions, and have ever since supported the implementation of the concept locally. Lund University and Umeå University are among our early partners.

How it works to organise an AIMday

Debut outside Scandinavia

AIMday goes international

To date, AIMday has proven its worth at several leading universities in other parts of the world. The University of Edinburgh was the first institution outside Scandinavia to be named an approved host for AIMday. That was in 2014 and the beginning of an international growth. In 2016, AIMday made its South America debut in Belo Horizonte in Brazil. This was also the year when the University of Oxford arranged its first AIMday event. In 2017, AIMday made its North American debut at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.

See upcoming AIMday events

Quality assurance

AIMday is a trademark of Uppsala University

AIMday is now a recognised strategic collaboration tool. In order to ensure the continued high quality of all AIMday events as the expansion of the format continues, AIMday has been registered as a trademark by Uppsala University.

Facilitating further expansion

Hubs for AIMday established

To facilitate and stimulate the continued spread of AIMday in the UK and Canada, where there is a great interest among universities to use the format, Uppsala University has appointed the University of Edinburgh and the Toronto Metropolitan University as so-called AIMday hubs. By doing so, the valuable knowledge and experience gained by both universities from using the AIMday format for many years can be used to the benefit of other UK and Canadian institutions.