KTH’s Chair to help build EIT
Cecilia Schelin Seidegård, Chair of the KTH Board, is one of four members of the European committee that will nominate candidates for the governing body of the research network EIT.
EIT, the European Institute of Technology, is one of the EU’s most important projects aimed at the development of a new form of collaboration between universities and industry. Currently this network is in its development phase during which, among other activities, the EIT Board-to-be will draw up guidelines for the content of its research and educational areas. In the long term EIT is planned to be an important power factor in the development of the EU’s research and education sectors.
“I feel extremely honoured to be part of the creation of such an important institution for technical development in Europe. Intensive nomination activities will be initiated during the spring and be completed by summer,” says Cecilia Schelin Seidegård.
The aim of EIT is to strengthen education, research and innovation within some EU key areas. Operations will be concentrated into groups termed as Knowledge and Innovations Communities (KIC) within which EU’s most eminent research groups will collaborate with leading industrial companies in order to develop new products. There are plans for 6–8 KICs and a total budget of several million euros.
In order to develop models of how KICs are to collaborate, the EU Commission has announced a pilot phase to which constellations of universities, research institutes and companies may apply. Previously KTH participated in two applications which have been approved within the EIT prioritised field of climate and energy research plus green, safe road transport.
Christer Gummeson