Workshop on Innovation and Production Management in the Process Industries (IPM2026)

Traditionally, this “family” of industries, producing non-assembled products, includes petrochemicals, chemicals, food and beverages, mining and metals, minerals and materials, generic pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, steel, and utilities. Regrettably, these industries are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and are thus facing pressure to reduce their carbon footprint. However, this cluster of industries holds great importance for industrial production and innovation in general, as well as for the world economy at large, but is unfortunately still under-researched.

To address this gap, the overall intention of this successful series of workshops (previously convened in Grenoble, Melbourne, Eskilstuna, and Frankfurt) is to encourage research on the process industries. We welcome both theoretical and empirical papers with novel ideas and perspectives, and to stimulate contributions in some important areas of particular relevance for many sectors of the process industries today, we have initially selected a few sub-themes:

• Pathways for an eco-industrial transformation of the process industries
• Innovation within the process-industrial eco system (equipment manufacturers, technology suppliers)
• Sustainability and Industrial Symbiosis in a process-industrial context
• Industrial convergence and business model innovation in the process industries
• Systemic innovation in an inter- and intra-organizational collaboration perspective

The workshop will provide the opportunity to meet and interact with top scholars and experienced industrial practitioners from different industrial sectors of the process industries, as well as to engage in in-depth problem discussions, cross-sectoral learning opportunities, and extensive networking.

We look forward to meeting you in Karlskrona!

Prof. Dr. Lars Bengtsson
Workshop Chair
lars.bengtsson@bth.se

Prof. Dr. Thomas Lager
Workshop Secretary
thomas.lager@bth.se

Supported by a grant from Handelsbanken Research Foundation