Mid Sweden University becomes partner in Treesearch

Wed 10 Jan 2018 08:30

Mid Sweden University becomes a core partner in Treesearch, a platform for collaboration on research and competence building in the field of new materials and specialty chemicals from forest raw materials.

Illustration

The collaboration between academia, industry, private institutes and state creates a world-leading, open research that contributes to the development of competence and knowledge, and enables future innovation based on forest raw materials.

"We're very pleased to become a Treesearch partner," says Kaarlo Niskanen, head of research at FSCN, Mid Sweden University. "This gives us the opportunity to increase our academic impact and contribute to nationally important research questions. We want to participate in research, education, infrastructure and activities in the Treesearch network."

The research centre FSCN at Mid Sweden University was established in 1999 and now has about 80 researchers, including 13 professors and 26 PhD students. The research at FSCN has three main areas: fibre science and technology with focus on mechanical and chemical pulping; cellulose and composites; and large functional surfaces for energy storage on paper-based products.

"The academic and industrial network of Treesearch is important to us," says Kaarlo Niskanen. "We look forward to increased collaboration between PhD students and young researchers from different universities, and joint projects between research teams in Treesearch."

"Treesearch is happy to have Mid Sweden University as core partner," says Daniel Söderberg, director of Treesearch. "Mid Sweden University is important for research in the area and will be an asset for Treesearch."

Among its activities, Treesearch will run a joint course program for PhD students and researchers in academia and industry; this is a perfect match for the graduate school FORIC, run by FSCN at Mid Sweden University in collaboration with industry. FORIC in turn benefits from the development of education programmes at Mid Sweden University in chemical engineering, engineering physics, electronics, and industrial IT.

The research at Treesearch is focused on four areas that are all also relevant for Mid Sweden University.

  1. Wood and wood components—structure and modification
    Contact at Mid Sweden University: Docent Birgitta Engberg
  2. Biorefinery for material and chemical systems
    Contacts at Mid Sweden University: Dr Armando Cordova and Professor Juha Fiskari
  3. Material formation of solid and liquid material systems
    Contacts at Mid Sweden University: Professor Magnus Norgren and Professor Per Engstrand
  4. New materials—material design and properties
    Contacts at Mid Sweden University: Professor Håkan Olin and Dr Christina Dahlström

 

This is Treesearch

Treesearch was started in 2017 and is expected to be in full operation by 2019. Included in Treesearch are currently the following forest industries: BillerudKorsnäs, Holmen, Stora Enso, Södra and SCA, in addition to the universities KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Chalmers University, Linköping University and Mid Sweden University, who are core partners. During the start-up phase, additional actors will be invited to participate. The platform is part of the Swedish Government's partnership programme Circular and bio-based economy, via BioInnovation.

Treesearch has four operating areas, research, education, partnership activities and research infrastructure. Part of Treesearch is the beam line ForMAX at MAX IV, especially designed for research issues related to new materials from the forest. The investment in ForMAX is funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg's Foundation.
www.treesearch.se

For more information

Professor Kaarlo Niskanen, head of research at FSCN, Mid Sweden University
Email: kaarlo.niskanen@miun.se
Phone: +46 10-142 81 99


Recommended

The page was updated 1/29/2021