Sweden and Scandinavia can greatly benefit from the establishment of ESS in Lund, Sweden. For this reason, the leading global technology company ABB hosted a meeting yesterday at their Corporate Research Center in Västerås.
At the event, around thirty research directors from Swedish and Danish industry discussed the opportunities that arise through ESS, and how to best maximise the benefits in order to strengthen the competitiveness of Scandinavian industry.
"We at ABB are very happy and proud to gather so many important stakeholders for industrial research and development in Sweden and Denmark for the ESS Innovation Day and showcase our world-leading research center in Västerås," says Mikael Dahlgren, Research Director ABB Sweden. “Research and innovation lay the foundation for the competitiveness of industry and are crucial for the transition to a sustainable society. The meeting today creates opportunities to coordinate our needs and see how we can work together, between industries as well as business, government and academia.”
At ESS, researchers from universities and industry will be able to study samples down to the atomic and molecular level. This means, among other things, that it becomes possible to see the structure of a specific material and how it changes when exposed to large temperature changes or high pressure. With the help of neutrons, researchers can see hydrogen and other light substances, and thereby facilitate the development of materials for, among other things, more energy-efficient batteries and better medicines, or understand why some substances degrade over time, but not others.
"ESS will provide outstanding opportunities for industry, both for basic research and more applied materials research, and especially in areas where cutting-edge companies have major interests," says Johan Söderström, Region Manager Europe at Hitachi Energy and member of the ESS Executive Advisory Board. “Innovation constantly requires better tools, measuring and analysis methods. We see that ESS will deliver precisely this, and pave the way for the innovative solutions of the future.”
ESS is an international research infrastructure owned by 13 member countries, with Sweden and Denmark as host countries. The two host countries have developed national strategies for the research facility in order to get the best possible return on the investments made.
For industry, ESS can lead to technological development and skills development as well as more business. The meeting in Västerås is part of the work to involve and raise awareness among the actors that will ultimately realise the research in new products and services.
"ESS will provide unique tools with unprecedented performance to gain insights into materials properties and materials processing," says Helmut Schober, ESS Director General. “We need to ensure that these tools are used to deal with some of the main challenges of our time, so that society, through both industry and academia, can fully benefit from this world-class facility. It is therefore important for us to meet representatives from industry, to discuss how to best meet their needs.”
The ABB Corporate Research Center in Västerås is one of the Group's largest central research units, where 100 researchers from more than 30 countries conduct research for all business areas.