New Big Science Sweden initiative
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To support cooperation between academia and industry, Sweden’s innovation agency Vinnova, the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth are now investing SEK 30 million over three years in the Big Science Sweden consortium, which Uppsala University is a part of. The intention is also to continue the funding for another six years.
The Big Science Sweden consortium was created to build Sweden’s resources for developing and delivering technology to research facilities in Europe and around the world. The consortium aspires to help companies get in touch with research centres and to establish development initiatives. Uppsala University, the Association of Swedish Engineering Industries (Teknikföretagen), IUC Syd (an industrial development centre in Malmö) , Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE), Chalmers University of Technology, Lund University and Skåne Regional Council (Region Skåne) are all part of the initiative.
“Researchers at Swedish higher education institutions are involved in the design and development of a number of national and international research facilities. Big Science Sweden complements their expertise and increases the scope for stronger collaboration between industry and research,” says Sven Stafström, Director General of the Swedish Research Council.
International research facilities like ESS, MAX IV, CERN, ESO, IceCube and ITER are a global multi-billion-krona market, but Swedish companies have so far been underrepresented in terms of taking advantage of the opportunities for business and technological development.
“With the Association of Swedish Engineering Industries, RISE and IUC networks in Sweden and the higher education institutions’ networks at the research facilities, we have good prospects of bringing home high-tech projects and contracts with research facilities around the world,” says Anna Hall, Programme Director for Big Science Sweden.
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