SEK 500 million to materials research for increased sustainability
WISE Additive is a national platform for 3D printing. The picture shows prototypes of spinal implants made by laser powder bed fusion. Photo: Salim Ghandour
The Wallenberg Initiative Materials Science for Sustainability (WISE) is now investing SEK 500 million in equipment and infrastructure at seven Swedish universities. SEK 74 million will go to research platforms at Uppsala University. WISE is the largest ever investment in materials research for sustainability in Sweden and is financed by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
Progress in combating climate change and transitioning to a sustainable society is highly dependent on new advanced materials. The creation of infrastructure and cutting-edge research are prerequisites for accelerating the transition and the development of green technologies.
“The only way to find new materials for a sustainable world is by means of more knowledge. Materials scientists use research tools such as spectrometers, microscopes and other instruments to discover and understand the fundamental properties of materials. We are very enthusiastic about this investment in infrastructure and equipment, and we are convinced that this will have an enormous impact and will speed up the transition,” say Magnus Berggren and Olle Eriksson, Director and Co-Director of WISE respectively.
The initiative will fund infrastructures for transmission and scanning electron microscopy, photoelectron spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance and magnetic resonance imaging, mass spectroscopy, crystallography, additive manufacturing, and several dedicated fabrication and synthesis laboratories for electronic and circular materials. Several of the platforms will be distributed infrastructures, with complementary sets of equipment at different universities. Substantial additional funding and support will also be provided by the seven WISE partner universities.
Plattforms located at Uppsala University
Three of the approved platforms will be located at Uppsala University. They will receive a total of SEK 74 million.
WISE Additive is a national platform for additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, a resource-efficient manufacturing technology of complex, multifunctional materials and components. Uppsala University focuses on material development with and through additive manufacturing.
WISE EST (Enabling Sustainable technology Transitions) focuses on how materials can be tailored to enhance energy efficiency and increase lifetimes of established as well as new innovative engineering systems, with the aim to make them more sustainable and widely used without delay.
Near Ambient Pressure XPS involves using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to study the surfaces of materials. In the LigHt technology platform at Uppsala University, the tool is integrated with new instrumentation for extreme elemental sensitivity and structural analysis, and with the accelerator facility at the Tandem Laboratory, and targets light elements in materials and corrosion processes.
“The initiative is a much-needed injection that creates opportunities to hone materials research in several areas relevant to sustainable transition. For Uppsala University, this means a special focus on additive manufacturing, tribology and characterisation of materials with light elements such as lithium and hydrogen,” says Charlotte Platzer Björkman, Vice-Rector of the Faculty of Science and Technology at Uppsala University and board member of WISE.
The equipment is expected to become operational starting in 2024 and run for the duration of the WISE project. For the more time-consuming deployment of WISE research platforms, the equipment is expected to become operational in 2025.
Åsa Malmberg
About WISE
WISE, the Wallenberg Initiative Materials Science for Sustainability, is the largest investment in materials science in Sweden to date and includes major investments at the leading universities in Sweden over a period of more than 10 years. The vision is materials science that enables a sustainable world.
The programme is a collaboration between Chalmers University of Technology, KTH, Linköping University, Luleå University of Technology, Uppsala University, Stockholm University, Lund University and selected research groups at Karlstad University, Umeå University and Örebro University.
Through collaborations with industry and society, WISE will promote and activate a transition to a sustainable society while advancing the scientific frontier in materials science, establishing Sweden as a leading nation in the field.
WISE is funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. The total budget for the WISE programme for 2022–2033 is close to SEK 3 billion.