Yesterday I had the great pleasure of presenting the King with a gift to celebrate his 80th birthday: a newly established visiting professorship in the field of the green transition at KTH. This was made possible thanks to generous philanthropic donations to KTH.
The green transition involves shifting towards more sustainable ways of producing, travelling and consuming energy, replacing fossil-based raw materials in the energy supply with sustainable alternatives, driving the electrification of society, reducing waste, increasing circular flows and developing new materials and modern AI tools to promote greater sustainability.
The long-term goal is to reduce emissions and resource consumption while creating a society in which prosperity and development can continue without causing environmental damage or overexploiting natural resources.
The visiting professorship model enables us to reach out to a wide range of research areas at KTH and attract leading, internationally recognized researchers to our successful research environments. Over time, we can strengthen KTH’s collective ambition to lead the way in sustainable societal development.
The Climate Action Centre is KTH’s hub for research relevant to the green transition and climate action. The professorship will be linked to the network of research areas represented by the centre. The Climate Action Centre has also recently received funding alongside Stockholm University and Karolinska Institutet.
The Climate Action Centre has recently been awarded a strategic research area (SFO) in collaboration with Stockholm University and Karolinska Institutet under the name Stockholm Centre for Climate Transition (ClimTrio).
KTH will celebrate its 200th anniversary next year, in 2027, and the intention is for the first holder of the visiting professorship to be in place in time for the academic ceremony in April 2027. I look forward welcoming that person to our community and, above all, taking another important step towards the green transition.
