Joint efforts in Research

Research findings should be made public

Making the findings of KTH´s research efforts widely known is one of our major assignments. Today the interest is steadily growing in first-hand information about recent gains in research, and a discussion of what type of role science and technology should play in modern society is much in demand.

Apart from our contributions to this via media, seminars and printed matter of various kinds, KTH does support a number of public functions and services by supplying expertise, such as expert panel members serving on public inquiries.

Starting in 1999, KTH has operated a Customer Service unit serving business companies. During the first few years, we made active “client searches” by means of visits. In later years our strategy has instead changed to penetrating problem areas that are being presented to us by companies of their own accord. This involves an equal mix of staff recruitment matters, degree project openings for students, technical questions for our researchers to address, and help with special education projects.

Joint research efforts in the EU

KTH is operating some 200 EU project contracts, distributed among the different frameworks. As regards KTH, their emphasis is on IT and materials science, just as before – more than half of KTH´s contracts concern the IT sphere. Here it should be kept in mind that IT subject areas constitute 28 per cent of the entire EU research bloc!

Joint efforts with China

Today KTH runs an extensive line of joint projects with Chinese universities. These projects deal with both research and study programmes. Exchange agreements have been established with five of China´s most prominent universities; another two are in the pipeline.
This effort includes also five Joint Research Centres. One of these is a newly founded centre for solar energy, the “Joint Education and Research Center on Molecular Devices”. This is operated together with Dalian University of Technology (DUT) and addresses molecular electronics – an area already full of new findings, made by the Chinese as well as by KTH. The future effort here will concentrate on two special development areas: molecular solar cells, and materials and substances for transforming solar energy into chemical energy, such as hydrogen gas.

Jointly with Chalmers and Karolinska Institute (KI), KTH has opened two local offices, “Sino-Swedish Centres”, at two of the major universities, Peking University in Beijing and Fudan University in Shanghai.

In 2006 the first few Chinese scholarship holders arrived at KTH Campus, under the auspices of an agreement with the national China Scholarship Council, CSC. The agreement stipulates that a large number of Chinese students and researchers are given financial support for studies at KTH.