Olga Kordas

I have more than 17-year experience of combining research, teaching and strategic research and innovation policy and management. 

I am an Associate Professor in Sustainable Urban Development. My main research areas are urban data analytics for energy transition, and smart and sustainable cities, addressing the role of ICT, electrification and citizen engagement as enablers for sustainable urban development.

I am leading a research group “Urban Analytics and Transitions” at the Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Sciences and Engineering (SEED), KTH. The group’s mission is to foster sustainable urban transitions through collaborative processes informed by data analytics and conceptual modelling.

Since 01 January 2017, I am serving as the Director of Viable Cities - the Swedish National Strategic Innovation Program for Smart and Sustainable Cities – a research and innovation funding program 2017-2030 with the budget of 100 MEUR. Viable Cities is built upon a people-centered holistic approach to sustainable urban development with digitalization, electrification and civic engagement as enablers. It has more than 90 members that represent a quadruple helix collaboration of public authorities, academia, companies and civil society. Viable Cities is one of the first initiatives in Sweden to pilot the mission-driven innovation with the mission “Climate Neutral Cities 2030 with good life for all within planetary boundaries”. 

Since 01 January 2016 she is a member of the Advisory Board to the Programme Council of StandUp for Energy, a collaborative research program between Uppsala University, The Royal Institute of Technology, The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Luleå University of Technology. Its aim is to reduce the production costs of renewable and environmentally sustainable electricity delivered to the consumer, and to develop more cost-effective and energy efficient hybrid and electrical vehicles. 

I am a KTH’s coordinator for the “Energy for Smart City” track of the EIT InnoEnergy MSc program “Energy Innovation”.