Three KTH Projects on IVA’s List for Research Impact 2026
The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) has singled out 30 research projects with what it says show significant potential to benefit society. Three of these projects are being conducted at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
IVA’s selections are based on the projects’ potential for commercialisation, business and methodological development, or societal impact.
“We feel very grateful and encouraged by this recognition,” says Xiaogai Li, associate professor in Neuronic Engineering at KTH. “We hope it will open more opportunities to turn this research into innovation and bring the technology closer to patient treatment.”
Li and colleagues are developing one of the projects selected by IA, together with Teng Wang and Svein Kleiven at KTH, and Shilei Ni from Qilu Hospital as clinical collaborator. They are developing a patient-specific treatment concept for cerebral edema, the excess accumulation of fluid in the brain after a stroke or traumatic brain injury.
A major clinical challenge
Titled Brainflow, the method translates electroosmosis — a classical physical principle known since the 19th century — into brain treatment, using electrically induced brain-fluid flow to reduce edema.
“Cerebral edema remains a major clinical challenge. Current treatments mainly address the acute, time-critical phase,” Li says.
“This gap became even more personal to me in 2023. While caring for my mother after stroke-caused edema, I could still clearly see the edema on her CT during rehabilitation, but treatment options were very limited.”
Li and her colleagues aim to develop BrainFlow into a platform technology for precision brain-fluid control. They believe the same principle can open a new way to support brain-waste clearance, with potential benefit for Alzheimer's disease and healthy brain ageing.
Scalable Industrial Decarbonisation
Another project selected by IVA develops a compact, modular spray-based technology for capturing CO₂ from industrial flue gases, particularly at existing plants where conventional carbon capture systems can be too large, costly, or difficult to retrofit. Ali Najarnezhadmashhadi, Senior R&D Engineer at Grimaldi Development and affiliated with the Department of Chemical Engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, works on the development, design, and evaluation of the technology together with Professor Christophe Duwig, Associate Professor Henrik Kusar, and postdoctoral researcher Ewa Krymarys.
“For me, this recognition is very encouraging because it highlights both the scientific progress behind the work and its potential to contribute to real industrial decarbonisation,” Najarnezhadmashhadi says.
He says many industrial plants need to reduce CO₂ emissions but face practical barriers such as limited space, high investment cost, energy demand and retrofit complexity. The research aims to make carbon capture more practical and economically viable by providing a compact, modular solution that can be deployed incrementally and integrated into existing plants.
“From a societal perspective, wider adoption of carbon capture can contribute significantly to industrial decarbonisation, support Sweden’s net-zero and negative emission ambitions and accelerate the transition toward a more sustainable and climate-neutral economy,” Najarnezhadmashhadi says.
Jon Lindhe ( jlindhe@kth.se )