Viktoria Institute
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Viktoria Institute is a research institute for applied information technology, located in Gothenburg, Sweden. It employs some 30 researchers, plus some doctoral students and administrative staff, and comprises four research groups:
- automotive
- public safety
- transport
- FAL — Future Applications Lab
In addition, seminars and other research dissemination activities are conducted to a wider audience and the public.
The institute is part of SICT — Swedish ICT Research AB — a private joint-stock company.
[edit] History
The institute was founded as a spin-out from Göteborg University in 1997 as the result of an initiative taken by industry mainly from West Sweden and some academics from Göteborg. The institute started in 1997 with seven employees, but expanded to 15 people within the first year of its existence and performed research in the following areas:
- IT & Organization (later divided into the two areas Business Technology and Knowledge Management),
- Mobile Informatics,
- Ubiquitous computing.
The institute was organized as a private joint-stock company, owned by the West Sweden IT Association (a non-profit association for corporate members) Göteborg University, and Chalmers University of Technology. Research financing was received through annual membership fees of corporate members, mission oriented research, and public research funds.
The original location was a building shared with the university's department of Informatics on Viktoriagatan in the center of Göteborg. The street address also gave name to the institute. After the establishment of Lindholmen Science Park in Göteborg, the institute moved there, sharing its new premises with the IT University of Göteborg.
As part of the re-organization of IT research in Sweden in 2003, the institute was incorporated into the SICS group, a national holding organization for IT research, comprising the Swedish Institute of Computer Science, the Interactive Institute, the Santa Anna Research Institute and the Viktoria Institute. Since 2005, the SICS group been part of a new organization, Swedish ICT Research AB (SICT). SICT is a private joint-stock company, owned by the Swedish state through its holding company IRECO (60%) and two industry associations (20% each).
