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This year it is a particular pleasure for me to write the introduction of this yearbook, as it illustrates that IMIT was founded no less than 30 years ago. The activities of IMIT have since then gradually grown and developed into a well-established actor in the field of innovation and technology management. The year that has passed has comprised a number of positive developments for IMIT, and I would like to highlight a few of them.

In our strivings to increase the presence and activity level in Lund, it was an important step to establish a new office at the Ingvar Kamprad Design Center at Lund Institute of Technology. We hope that this will give us more visibility in Lund and in the end lead to increased collaborations. Another way to improve visibility, and also strengthen the importance of IMIT as a link between academia and industry, has been the increased focus on organizing a number of seminars, workshops, and conferences.

The most important means for IMIT in conveying research results to industry nevertheless remains the magazine Management of Technology, which now reaches close to 20.000 decision-makers in industry. During the year that went by, we could also see positive effects of the strategic funding that IMIT in the last few years has given to a number of researchers. These grants make it possible for them to apply for funding for larger projects, and a number of these applications have now turned out to be successful.

Taking these factors together, we can conclude that IMIT after 30 years of activities is well prepared even for the challenging economic downturn that we are experiencing at the moment. As the chair of the Board of IMIT, I therefore have good hope that also 2009 will be a fruitful year for IMIT, so that our ongoing activities can be strengthened even further and in the end result in more and better boundary-spanning research on innovation and technology management.

Lars Sjunnesson
Chairman

February 12, 2009