About The Materials Platform
The overall goal for the Material Research Platform is to establish KTH as the leading Material Research University in Scandinavia and one of the top five in Europe. In such an environment both curiosity and application driven research are strongly supported.
Materials science forms an important cornerstone in sustainable and environmental development.
Both conventional and new energy technology is limited by the performance of materials. The usage of sustainable materials in light vehicle constructions or as construction materials is limited by the lifespan, resistance to fire and water and the ability to react with other components in composite materials.
Materials science is by tradition an important research area at KTH, with strong ties to the swedish industry. KTH is very well positioned internationally within traditional materials science and has a strong position when it comes to nanoscience and nanotechnology that is developed to study and tailor new materials structures.
KTH also has a number of centers of excellence that are focusing on nanostructured materials and biomaterials. The interdisciplinary research within the materials platform will combine knowledge within fields of chemistry, fiber- and polymer technology, biotechnology, materials physics, mechanics and process technology as well as product design and environmental research.
Create a truly interdisciplinary material science environment
Modern materials science are often coupled to in the “big” questions in the society, such as better transport systems, health, environment, energy, information and communication. These are challenges which require not only strong interaction between different branches of materials science but direct interaction with the applications and technology driven research. Important instruments to achieve this goal are common seminars and workshops on selected topics, active support to groups writing strategic applications to national and international funding agencies, later create a Material research graduate program.
Become a major user of the new large scale research infra structures
The large research facilities, XFEL, PETRAIII, MAXIV, XFEL, ESS, which are now being build in Europe, will give Material Scientists new and advanced tools for characterization and analysis of materials. To take full advantage of these laboratories requires large teams with many different skills, such as imaging, modelling, sample preparation etc. The Research Platforms is the ideal instrument for helping KTH researchers be part of this development.
