More Big Science for companies in the north of Sweden

Today, relatively few companies in Norrbotten are active in the Big Science market, despite all the interesting research and technology development taking place in high-tech sectors such as the space industry, materials science, electrical power, IT, and mining. 

The regional authority, Region Norrbotten, Luleå Municipality and Luleå University of Technology want to change this, and have now joined forces to fund a new project set up by LTU Business and Luleå University of Technology.

Development of research facilities is a business area with a market worth approximately SEK 370 billion per year. Now companies in the Norrbotten region have a chance to take a larger slice of this lucrative cake.

Collaboration a success factor

Adam Wikström is a business developer at LTU Business and has the same role at Big Science Sweden. He emphasises the importance of collaboration in the new project.

Adam Wikström and Ekaterina Osipova agree there is great potential in the region to both develop technology and promote business with Big Science.

 “In this project, we’ll be implementing various initiatives to increase collaboration between the business community, the university, and research institutes. Companies in this region have great potential to compete for orders from the big research organisations.”

Ekaterina Osipova, Specialist in Research Funding at Luleå University of Technology, is keen to see the project under way.

"From LTU we see greater collaboration between industry and academia as a way to both develop technology and promote business with the large research facilities," she explains. "In the project we'll be prioritising such collaborations in the region."