24 October 2025

Riksbankens Jubileumsfond grants just over SEK 23 million to research projects in the humanities and social sciences at Linköping University. These include the significance of names, the consequences of uranium mining, political polarisation, and robots.

Photographer: Charlotte Perhammar

Hannah Pelikan, assistant professor at the Department of Culture and Society (IKOS), has long studied how robots interact – or fail to interact – with humans. She now receives SEK 5.7 million for further research.

“It’s primarily about mapping the work that people do to make a robot function, for example, the safety drivers on the autonomous buses at Linköping University,” says Hannah Pelikan.

Her project is called The Humans Behind the Robots: Redesigning Mobile Autonomous Systems for Interaction in Public Places, and is the LiU project receiving the most money from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.

Kvinna går på en självkörande buss.Fotograf: Magnus Johansson
Hannah Pelikan går ombord på en av de självkörande bussarna på Linköpings universitet
Other recipients are (with extracts from the project description):

Martin Arvidsson, Department of Management and Engineering (IEI): The social life of names: from networking processes to lifelong consequences, SEK 4.8 million

Choosing a name for your child is an important decision. Names signal social and cultural belonging, with significant consequences for the child’s treatment and future life outcomes. /…/ In these studies, we use register data and a combination of advanced statistical and computer-based calculation methods. The project will significantly deepen the understanding of the social dimensions of naming, the role of social influence in this context, and the cumulative and lifelong effects of names.


Sergiu Novac, Tema T, Technology and Social Change: Permanent repression: Damaged bodies and environments in Romanian uranium mining in relation to today's ‘nuclear renaissance’, SEK 3.1 million

This project examines the history and heritage of European uranium mining, focusing on Romania. The project examines the social and environmental consequences of uranium mining from the perspective of the workers and local population, from a broader context with renewed interest in nuclear power as part of the green transition.

Adam Bisno, Department of Culture and Society (IKOS): Useful Inventors: Science, technology and the fight against anti-Semitism, 1880–1945, SEK 2.9 million

The project examines the role of Jewish inventors in the fight against anti-Semitism in German-speaking Europe between 1880 and 1945.

Miriam Hurtado Bodell, Department of Management and Engineering (IEI): The struggle surrounding interpretations: Division beyond attitudes, SEK 2.7 million

Political polarisation is commonly seen as one of the most pressing societal challenges of our time—but what if we’ve been missing its deepest fault line? This project offers a new theoretical perspective: Polarisation is not only about what people believe, but how they interpret the world. /.../ By reframing polarisation as a cultural conflict over meaning—not just opinion—this project opens a new frontier in understanding how societies divide.

In addition, two collaborative projects receive money within the framework of what is known as RJ Flexit:

Marie Bengtsson Senior Lecturer IEI and Saab AB, SEK 1 405 924 + SEK 1 047 924

Yesterday's answers to tomorrow's questions - learning how to organise aircraft development from scratch at Saab and how to be faster.

Martin Henriksson, Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences, (HMV) and the Swedish Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency, SEK 967 216 + SEK 732 216

Pharmaceutical pricing for long-term sustainable health care
– a research project in collaboration with the Swedish Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency (TLV).


In total, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond this year grants SEK 325 million to 79 research projects in the humanities and social sciences.

Översättning: Anneli Mosell

Riksbankens Jubileumsfond

Stiftelsen Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ) is an independent foundation that supports research in the humanities and social sciences. Through its funding, the foundation aims to promote fundamental research of the highest scientific quality.

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