Competence centers

At a competence center, universities, colleges, research institutes, companies, and public organizations conduct world-class research in close collaboration within areas important for Sweden’s competitiveness.

A competence center consists of a consortium with partners from different sectors who share a common vision and goals, built on excellent research, where the knowledge developed within the environment can be utilized by industry and society.

The centers aim to stimulate collaboration between partners from industry, academia, and the public sector.

LTH hosts nine competence centers.

The ACT-consortium gathers organizations and companies, all passionate about development of advanced chips, to meet current and future needs by industry and society. The consortium has 17 committed partners ranging from start-ups to multinational companies all passionate about the continued development of our joint scientific knowledge.

The partnering research organisations have a wide and extensive network facilitating a pan-European and global knowledge perspective. The work within the consortia is organized in three work packages:

Devices for 3D Integration
Photonic Integration
Circuit Implementation: Smart Energy and RF

Advanced Chip Technologies | Advanced Chip Technologies

Advanced Chip Technologies webbplats ACT: Advanced Chip Technology - Research Portal

Director

Lars-Erik Wernersson
lars-erik.wernersson@eit.lth.se

Deputy director

Mattias Hammar
hammar@kth.se

Project Coordinator

Fariba Vaziri-Sani
fariba.vaziri-sani@fsi.lu.se

AdTherM targets analyses of thermal processes in industrial applications, including thermo- and electrochemical energy conversion activities. Most challenges for the industry in this area are generic and based on the same physical mechanisms. To further develop this field, both experiments and models must be continuously improved and closely coordinated. AdTherM serves as a platform centered around the models and methods used to evaluate, analyze, and develop thermal industrial systems. This includes validation of models against experiments as well as applied modeling across multiple length and time scales.

AdTherM’s objective is to create, through theoretical and numerical models, a knowledge-based development and design process for next-generation technologies for sustainable energy conversion, heat management, and energy recovery. Academia and industry together form a strong collaborative network with the aim of building competence and knowledge within an internationally recognized center. The outcomes, in terms of increased understanding and improved models, enable industry to enhance manufacturing processes and products, thereby contributing to increased innovation and long-term sustainability.

AdTherM’s strategy is to bring together a broad spectrum of industrial technologies that play key roles in the sustainability value chain, and to bridge the gap between fundamental research and industrial applications through interdisciplinary collaboration. The jointly identified key challenges are addressed by combining experiments—primarily conducted within industry—with model development and simulation studies—primarily carried out within academia. Model validation is used to establish predictive accuracy, after which the models are applied to industrially relevant problems to demonstrate their feasibility and impact.

AdTherM – Advanced computing for sustainable thermal management in industry

AdTherM: Advanced Computing for Sustainable Thermal Management in Industry - Research portal

Director

Christer Fureby
christer.fureby@energy.lth.se

Deputy director economy

Martin Andersson
martin.andersson@energy.lth.se

Deputy director research school

Lisa Prahl Wittberg
prahl@mech.kth.se

Deputy director communication

Anna Lena Ljung
anna-lena.ljung@ltu.se

The Centre for III-nitride technology (C3NiT) – a Vinnova Competence Centre – is a platform for generating and exploiting cutting-edge research in III-nitride semiconductors for the next generation of power and high frequency electronics, through a combination of scientific excellence and industrial relevance. C3NiT consists of the academic partners (Lund University, Linköping University and Chalmers University of Technology), together with industrial partners who cover the whole supply chain, from material growth to usage of devices and circuits at the system level, which is quite unique even for larger research programs. C3NiT is the first collective effort on III-nitride power electronics in Sweden, where both industry and academia work together to solve technological issues in the field relevant to Swedish industrial competitiveness.

C3NiT -Janzén – Centre for III-nitride technology

C3NiT: Centre for III nitride technology - Research portal

CESTAP (Competence cEntre in Sustainable Turbine fuels for Aviation and Power) is a centre of competence bringing together academic and industrial partners that promote the production and use of sustainable fuels for stationary gas turbines and aviation jet engines. Academic and institute partners include Lund University as the coordinating partner, Luleå University and the Research Institute of Sweden (RISE). CESTAP is funded by the Swedish Energy Agency, with contributions from approximately 25 industrial partners and the aforementioned academic partners.

Sustainable future energy use relies on a transition away from fossil fuels. In some sectors this transition can be achieved through new non-combustion technologies such as batteries and fuel cells. However, in sectors such as aviation, maritime transport, and peak-load and back-up power generation, combustion is difficult to replace. These sectors rely heavily on continuous combustion engines such as gas turbines and jet engines, and together they currently account for close to 10% of global anthropogenic CO₂ emissions.

To meet the needs of the aviation and power production industries, the aim of the competence centre is to develop knowledge and technologies to produce efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective turbine fuels that can ultimately be used as true mono-fuels, thereby completely replacing fossil fuels.

The most efficient use of resources requires a strong focus on sustainable turbine fuels that can be applied as mono-fuels. Compared with present efforts devoted to drop-in fuels, this represents a comparatively large—but necessary—undertaking. To achieve success, development must span the full range of activities, from feedstock characterization and chemical conversion process development, through fuel development and production, to engine modifications that facilitate the use of fuels with wider specifications. In this context, it is essential to employ a holistic techno-economic framework against which new concepts can be evaluated.

CESTAP – Competence centre in sustainable turbine fuels for aviation and power

CESTAP: Competence cEntre in Sustainable Turbine fuels for Aviation and Power - Research portal

Director

Christer Fureby
christer.fureby@energy.lth.se

Deputy director

Elna Heimdal Nilsson
elna.heimdal_nilsson@fysik.lu.se

Sustainability and preparedness are closely linked within food production and food systems. Sweden’s food system is currently vulnerable: a large share of food is produced abroad, and much of domestic production depends on feed and fertilizers transported through long and complex food value chains. The food system has been designed primarily for cost efficiency, concentrated around a limited number of central nodes, with minimal storage and short shelf lives. As a result, even small disruptions in one part of the system can generate cascading effects across the entire food system. At the same time, primary production and the food industry face significant challenges related to environmental sustainability.

FORCE – Centre for Food System Resilience and Competitiveness aims to drive systemic change through both short- and long-term applied collaborative projects, combined with continuous work on risk, governance and policy. In a resilient Swedish food system, products based on plant-based food value chains, in particular cereals, beans and peas, will play a central role. By strengthening and implementing knowledge across these food value chains, FORCE seeks to reinforce the foundation of Swedish food production while enhancing both competitiveness and resilience of the food system.

Within FORCE, technical expertise is integrated with competence in risk, governance and policy instruments. Together with a broad range of food companies and public-sector actors, FORCE will establish a long-term, transdisciplinary research centre designed to ensure that the Swedish food system is economically viable in times of stability and sustainable and robust in times of crisis.

FORCE – Center for food system resilience and competitiveness

FORCE - Center for food system resilience and competitiveness - Research portal

Director

Cecilia Tullberg
cecilia.tullberg@ple.lth.se

Deputy director/Project Coordinator

Jeanette Purhagen
jeanette.purhagen@ple.lth.se

K2 is Sweden’s national knowledge centre for collective mobility. This is where academia, the public sector and industry meet to discuss and develop the role of collective mobility in Sweden.

K2 conduct research on how collective mobility, with public transport as the backbone, can contribute to attractive and sustainable cities and regions of the future. We educate and disseminate scientifically-based knowledge to industry stakeholders and decision-makers to support well-founded decisions.

K2 is operated and funded by Lund University, Malmö University, and VTI, in collaboration with Region Stockholm, Västra Götaland Region, Region Skåne, and the Swedish Transport Administration. We also receive financial support from Vinnova.

K2 - National knowledge centre for collective mobility

K2: National knowledge centre for collective mobility - Research portal

Director

Helena Svensson
helena.svensson@tft.lth.se

The purpose with the Swedish Competence Centre in Road Technology is to secure the long term competence within road technology. This will be done by developing competence and gathering of knowledge to secure the possibilities to build a robust infrastructure, both now and in the future. By the long term funding from the Swedish Transport Administration (see more below), the possibilities for recruitment of competent personnel and equipment required for research and long term competence in Sweden is secured.

KCV - Competence Centre in Road Technology

KCV - Competence Centre in Road Technology - Research portal

Director

Joacim Lundberg
joacim.lundberg@tft.lth.se

Deputy director

Wolfgang Kropp
wolfgang.kropp@chalmers.se

Excellent research with a systems perspective covering everything from wireless communication technologies and networks to software, data, security and relevant application areas. In NextG2Com, academia, industry and public actors collaborate to:

Transform today's infrastructure and application technologies into integrated platforms for a diversity of applications with integrated machine learning capabilities.
Focus on integration between technology layers and components into complete systems.
Develop infrastructure technologies and design methods for next-generation communication and computing systems.

NextG2Com Competence Centre

NEXTG2COM – a Vinnova Competence Centre in Advanced Digitalisation - Research portal

Director

Maria Kihl
maria.kihl@eit.lth.se

Deputy director

Per Runeson
per.runeson@cs.lth.se

The goal is to significantly improve sustainability, reduce the use of resources, and increase competitiveness across industrial sectors of Sweden by a deep digital real-time optimisation of production processes and product performance using integrated sensor technology. The centre will create a highly inter-disciplinary environment bringing together the wide range of diverse competences from industry and academia that are needed to realize the ambitious vision.

Sentio | Sentio Competence Centre

Sentio: Integrated Sensors and Adaptive Technology for Sustainable Products and Manufacturing - Research portal

Director

Anders Mikkelsen
anders.mikkelsen@sljus.lu.se

Deputy director

Volodymyr Bushlya
volodymyr.bushlya@iprod.lth.se

Project coordinator

Anna-Karin Alm
anna-karin.alm@ftf.lth.se