Research Initiative on Sustainable Industry and Society (IRIS)
IRIS was an initiative 2019–2023 for enabling researchers to work together, across departments at the ITM school, on joint research projects. With the holistic interdisciplinary perspective, the aim was to enhance the impact of KTH's research for more a sustainable industry and society.
About the IRIS project, 2019–2023
The IRIS project at the ITM school was a strategic initiative with the purpose of promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and contribute to sustainable transformation through advanced research, education and innovation within four research areas:
- Industrial transformation through sustainable digitalization
- Integrated mechanics, components and materials design including additive manufacturing
- Sustainable energy systems, technology and business perspectives
- Innovation management, eco-systems and entrepreneurship.
The goal of the project was to increase the amount of inter-disciplinary research at the ITM-school, which would enable broader and deeper knowledge creation, use and dissemination of research, as well as increasing competences, capacity and infrastructure. This in turn would further improve conditions for inter-disciplinary research and increased long-term impact.
The overall result of the IRIS project is closer collaboration between departments at the ITM school in terms of both research and teaching, as well as a firmer basis for collaboration with industry and society within its research areas. The project has led to substantial amounts of new external funding, and has made possible important investments in infrastructure, which in turn continues to create opportunities for external collaborations.
71 researchers participated, developing new courses at all levels, publishing in excess of 155 journal articles, participating in conferences, engaging in broad societal outreach (including workshops, seminars, conference presentations and various events such as book releases and panel discussions), and strengthening collaboration within ITM as well as with industry (see the Final report's appendix A – D, under the headings Participants, Publications, Teaching, and Outreach and collaborations respectively).
The project resulted in more than 120 research applications of which, at the time of publication of this report, 48 were successful, resulting in new funding for ITM in excess of 168,6 million SEK. This can be compared to the total cost of IRIS which was just over 75 million SEK. (For more information on successful research applications and external grants, see the Final report's appendices A – D and F, under the heading Research applications. For more information on IRIS expenditure, see appendix F.)