"Collaboration often sparks new curiosity"

In the coming days, we celebrate the fact that 65 years have passed since the first 30 engineering students were admitted to LTH on the outskirts of Lund, where brick buildings designed by the architect Klas Anshelm were erected one by one around the small lake known as Sjön.

Since then, much water has flowed beneath the bridge. Today, LTH is one of Sweden’s three leading engineering schools, part of Lund University and the alma mater of tens of thousands of graduates who make professional contributions within architecture, engineering and design, helping to address many of society's challenges and problems.

LTH now has campuses in Helsingborg, Ljungbyhed and Lund. In Lund, in particular, we are currently examining how LTH and the University can help strengthen the environment surrounding the major research facilities ESS and MAX IV, where several crucial questions about the future are likely to be answered:

How, for example, can we develop sustainable ultra-strong materials? How can we feed more people? And how can we produce highly effective medicines for everyone?

World-leading research infrastructure

The synchrotron light facility MAX IV is also celebrating an anniversary this year, marking 40 years of research and ten years of societal benefit.

MAX IV celebrates 10 years accelerating science with 4th generation brilliance (at the MAX IV web)

The combination of rapid measurement techniques, advanced technology and expert support has, as Anders Holmén of AstraZeneca recently noted in an interview at Lund University's web page, helped make the facility a hub for pharmaceutical development in Sweden. 

MAX IV is one of the world’s leading synchrotron light facilities, while ESS will become the world’s most powerful accelerator-based neutron source when it begins operation, which is expected to take place at the end of 2027. With world-leading expertise and research infrastructure of this calibre, southern Sweden has been given a unique opportunity to take a leading position in fields such as materials science and life sciences.

A third flagship facility

LTH is currently planning a third flagship investment in north-eastern Lund: a new nanotechnology laboratory that will complement ESS and MAX IV by providing access to novel advanced materials.

This state-of-the-art laboratory will be used by researchers as well as industry representatives in the pursuit of more environmentally sustainable solar cells, energy-efficient and improved semiconductors, new technologies for water purification, sustainable transport solutions, faster diagnostics and personalised medical treatments.

As Erik Renström, Vice-Chancellor of Lund University, emphasises in his latest blog post (in Swedish) on the University’s establishment in Science Village, we need not only security and capital, but also courage and a vision for the future.

Excellence and Mutual Benefit

Whether Lund succeeds in making a significant leap forward in solving major scientific mysteries and societal challenges depends to a great extent on creating productive interaction between academia and industry. At LTH, we see that collaboration often sparks new curiosity, which in turn leads to excellence and mutual benefit.

From LTH’s perspective, we therefore want to invite more companies to help build this dense innovation ecosystem. We are working to make it easy for companies to get in touch and collaborate with us, and we keep the doors open to many of our laboratories.

Sixty-five years on, one of LTH’s key messages to the region in which we operate is this:

Let us continue creating and exploring together so that we can add many more success stories to those already achieved. A few decades from now, I hope we will be able to look back with pride and say that, here in Lund, we accomplished something that benefited the world, and that we did it together.

Annika Olsson

Dean of LTH