KTH Climate Action Centre Announces 2025 Environmental Thesis Scholarship Recipients
Water Treatment Breakthroughs, Urban and Ecosystem Resilience, and Innovative Thermal Energy Storage Solutions, are just a few explored themes from this year’s scholarship recipients. Each selected project received a 50,000 SEK scholarship from Sveriges Ingenjörer, recognizing its potential to address environmental challenges and contribute to practical solutions in Sweden and beyond.
The 2025 scholarship received a wide array of innovative project proposals, of which ten overall projects were chosen in the selection phase. These chosen titles demonstrated an outstanding focus on environmental sustainability, scientific approach, and climate solutions. With a great variety in the individual project interests, we also found diverse recipients from many different nationalities.
KTH Climate Action Centre has helped select the projects, with the criteria from Sveriges Ingenjörer, being that it needs scientific quality, the potential to address environmental challenges, and can contribute to practical solutions in Sweden. The Centre's Deputy Director, Karin Larsdotter, comments:
“We are thrilled to support these talented students and hear their enthusiasm for research. Both their dedication and innovative ideas really stood out. It’s especially inspiring to see their strong commitment to sustainability and real-world environmental solutions.”
Climate adaption and industrial challenges
This year’s scholarship projects showcase a diverse range of innovative research aimed at addressing critical environmental challenges. Several projects focus on advancing energy solutions, such as assessing the potential of second-life EV batteries for renewable energy integration and developing predictive models for optimizing energy consumption in integrated systems using machine learning. Thermal energy storage is another key area, with research on phase change materials (PCMs) applied in the KTH Live-in-Lab.
Water and ecosystem resilience also take center stage, with projects investigating micropollutant removal using hollow-fiber membranes and analyzing the causes of algae blooms in Uppsala’s stormwater ponds. A study on water scarcity in Oruro, Bolivia, delves into root causes and potential solutions, while another project explores nature-based strategies to enhance urban well-being.
A full schedule ahead
During the spring, the students will participate in a series of high-impact events designed to help with their research and expand their professional networks. Notable “Masterclass” events with experts such as Daniel Adshead and Mattias Höjer, cover topics in sustainability strategies, climate adaptation, and in-action research. Additionally, several interschool sharing sessions are also hosted between the KTH scholarship students and well-known institutions like Wharton Business School and Nanyang Technological University
"We hope these events not only help the scholarship students in writing their thesis, but also provide a conducive environment where they can exchange ideas and perspectives with one another.” says Sayed Zaky, a student worker at KTH Climate Action Centre.
As the semester concludes, the projects will be presented to a larger public audience. Stay tuned to learn more about the contributions from this group of talented young researchers. The scholarship provided by Sveriges Ingenjörer, through the environmental grant (Miljöfonden), serves to bolster research in the field of environmental issues in Sweden. Every thesis project receives 50 000 SEK.