MILAB – A Research Laboratory for innovation and collaboration

MILAB (Materials and Innovation Laboratory) provides advanced materials analysis and serves as an environment for collaboration between academia and industry. Companies have access to advanced equipment, research expertise and support in materials and process development.

After several years as head of MILAB, Magnus Hummelgård is handing over responsibility to Nicklas Blomquist, Senior Lecturer and researcher in energy materials at Mid Sweden University.

MILAB is not a traditional analytical service where companies simply submit a sample and receive a measurement result. Collaboration can also involve discussing which analytical method is most relevant, support in planning and carrying out measurements, and the opportunity to discuss the results in relation to the specific challenge the company is working to solve. In this way, the laboratory’s equipment and the university’s research expertise can contribute to different stages of a company’s development work.

Which companies can benefit from MILAB?

MILAB is used by both established industrial companies and young technology start-ups. What they have in common is that they work with materials and process development and need access to advanced analytical methods.

MILAB can, for example, be used when a company needs to understand the properties of a material, investigate why a process works in a particular way, or gain a better understanding of how a material can be further developed. For smaller and newly established companies, the laboratory provides access to advanced research infrastructure that may otherwise be difficult to develop in-house.

Giving companies access to research infrastructure and expertise at Mid Sweden University also creates opportunities for broader knowledge exchange between the university and industry. At the same time, companies’ specific challenges and questions can provide new perspectives and highlight needs that are relevant to university research.

Getting started is easy

Companies interested in using MILAB can choose between two forms of collaboration:

Hourly contracts for individual assignments, where Mid Sweden University staff carry out the analyses and provide expert support.
Long-term collaboration agreements, where companies receive training that enables them to use the equipment themselves on site.

The most suitable approach depends on the company’s needs, the equipment required and the scope and frequency of the work. In both cases, companies can discuss their specific needs with MILAB before the work begins.

“I look forward to continuing to develop MILAB as an environment where companies can access both advanced equipment and the expertise needed to make the most of it. It should be easy to get in touch with us and find a form of collaboration that suits the specific challenge at hand,” says Nicklas Blomquist, Head of MILAB.