Uddevalla Symposium History

Following the tradition established by the previous symposia, starting in 1998, the Uddevalla Symposium is designed to bring together leading-edge views of academic scholars, researchers and insightful practitioners from various fields within business administration and management, including the fields of international business, economics, entrepreneurship and small business economics as well as from regional economics, regional planning, economic geography, economic history, political science and sociology in order to increase our knowledge as regards research questions related to “Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Functional Regions".

Background 
These international symposia started in 1998 as a 4-year co-operative research project at the Department of Economy and Informatics at the University West (former the University of Trollhättan/Uddevalla) Sweden and Jönköping International Business School at Jönköping University, Sweden.

The purpose of the research project was to carry out an assessment of European Union related regional policy initiatives in the so-called "Fyrstadsregionen" ("The four cities region"). This region consists of the municipalities: Lysekil, Trollhättan, Uddevalla and Vänersborg, and the smaller surrounding municipalities within this labour market (commuting) region.

These symposia developed to a fruitful venue and became very popular which led to the decision to let them be a continuing yearly scientific event.

The 9th Uddevalla Symposium 2006 was hosted by the George Mason University, School of Public Policy in Fairfax, VA, USA.

The 10th Anniversary Uddevalla Symposium 2007 took place at the Campus Uddevalla, University West, Sweden in June 14-16 2007.

The 11th Uddevalla Symposium 2008, May 15-17, 2008 took place in Kyoto, Japan with Kyoto University as host.

The 12th Uddevalla Symposium 2009, June 11-13, 2009 took place in Bari, Italy with the Polytecnico of Bari as host.

The 13th Uddevalla Symposium 2010, August 19-23, 2010 took place in Jönköping, Sweden and was arranged as a special session on the 50th Anniversary Congress of ERSA.

The 14th Uddevalla Symposuim 2011, June 16-18, 2011 took place in Bergamo, Italy with University of Bergamo (E-Lab) as host.

The 15th Uddevalla Symposium 2012, June 14-16, 2012 on "Entrepreneurship and Innovation Networks" took place at University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal with CIEO, University of Algarve as host.

Next Uddevalla Symposium - the 16th Uddevalla Symposium 2013, June 13-15, 2013 will take place in Kansas City, MO, USA with Kauffman Foundation as host. The theme will be: "Innovation, High-Growth Entrepreneurship and Regional Development".


Except for the three academic insitutions - University West, Trollhättan, Sweden, Jönköping International Business School, Sweden and George Mason University, School of Public Policy, USA – also the following organizations have been co-finanzers' to the symposia:

• CESIS- Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies), Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden and Jönköping International Business School, Sweden.
• CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation, Research and Competence in the Learning Economy, Lund University, Sweden.
• CenSE - Center for Entrepreneurship and Spatial Economics, Jönköping International Business School, Sweden.
• Swedbank, Uddevalla, Sweden.
• The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation.
• VINNOVA (Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems).
• Research Unit for Rural Entrepreneurship and Growth (RUREG), Jönköping International Business School, Sweden.
• The Municipality of Uddevalla, Sweden.
• Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal , Project PTDC/CS-GEO/102961/2008.
• Research Centre for spatial and Organizational Dynamics (CIEO), University of Algarve, Portugal.
• Municipality of Uddevalla, Uddevalla, Sweden.

Keynotes, Paper-sessions and Discussants
We start every of the three days, with plenary sessions and listen to inspiring keynote speeches related to the different topical themes. In the afternoons there are parallel paper-sessions, each of them run by a chair and with a discussant for each paper presented.

A list of all keynote speakers so far is to be find below.

Best Paper Awards and International Pubilcations
To stimulate high quality papers a best paper award of € 1.000 as well as a best PhD Candidate paper award of € 700 has been set up. The scientific committee decides on which papers are tol be awarded.

It is the intention of the organisers that a selection of the papers presented at the symposium after a normal referee process will be published in an edited book by an international publisher.

Leading–edge contributions not only of prominent key-note speakers and senior researchers but also from Doctoral Candidates, have been published in different publications such as Papers of Regional Sciences and Small Business Economics, and in the form of edited books published by E. Elgar and Springer - see Publications.

An Interreg IIIA Project
The symposia 2003 and 2004 were both a part of a common research project on Entrepreneurship within Interreg III A Sweden-Norway. This was a co-operation established between the two universities University West and University College in Östfold, Norway. Therefore the 6th Uddevalla Symposium 2004 took place in Fredrikstad, Norway at the University College of Östfold, Norway.

The next 16th Uddevalla Symposium 2013 will also be part of EU projects;  Interreg Sweden-Norway & Interreg IVA ÖKS.

• List Keynote Speakers Uddevalla Symposium 1998-2012