Linnaeus Knowledge Environment: Advanced materials

New types of materials are needed in order to meet current and future challenges within areas like energy, resources, health care, and food products. The aim of the knowledge environment Advanced materials is to tackle this societal challenge by creating sustainable, functional materials that can meet the needs of the future.

Societal challenge: advanced materials

The need for new materials is central to many of the challenges society is facing. Materials with improved properties, longer durability, better performance, and new functionality; materials that solve problems, save energy, are safer and more friendly to the environment. New materials are considered crucial in order to solve problems relating to, among other things:

  • Energy and resource management – materials for creating, saving, or storing energy or information
  • Sustainability – design, manufacturing, construction and recycling of materials
  • Security – materials for detection and protection
  • Health care – materials for diagnosis and therapy
  • Food products – materials for food analysis

What is a Linnaeus Knowledge Environment?

Meeting societal challenges with knowledge in creative environments that integrate education, research, and collaboration – knowledge environments – is something that permeates Linnaeus University’s vision and work.

Seven of our knowledge environments have been appointed Linnaeus Knowledge Environment. They all work interdisciplinary in order to get a broad take on the societal challenges within each field.

Developing new materials with improved properties and longer durability is a great challenge that requires a broad spectrum of theoretical and practical knowledge and collaboration across different subjects. Linnaeus University has thorough experience of design, development, and application of new materials

within a number of different fields. This knowledge and experience has been gathered in the knowledge environment Advanced materials.

The vision for Advanced materials is to be able to offer, through a deepened understanding of material-related phenomena and development of new materials, a stable foundation for innovations that will contribute to a sustainable society. The theoretical knowledge that is produced at the university is transferred to the trade and industry and the public sector and is converted into practical-productive knowledge and practical wisdom. By spreading the results from our research to the academic world and to society in general, we help increase increase awareness of these societal challenges and awareness of how important it is with materials science and technology in order to meet them.

The knowledge environment offers high-quality programmes and courses to students at Linnaeus University. The knowledge about advanced materials and their applications will also be transferred to primary and lower-secondary school and upper-secondary school in order to prepare and guide the decision-makers of the future when they build an ecologically, economically, and socially sustainable society.

Learn more about our research, our courses and programmes, and our collaborations below.

Research

The knowledge environment Advanced materials gathers a unique spectrum of advanced expertise within studies, development, manufacturing, and application of materials from a number of important fields, and extensive commitment together with the public sector as well as with the private sector.

Fields of research that are part of the knowledge environment are:

  • biomaterials chemistry
  • biomedicine
  • bionanotechnology
  • building technology
  • chemical engineering
  • chemistry
  • design
  • didactics of natural sciences
  • forestry and wood technology
  • industrial robot technology
  • mechanical engineering
  • physics
  • terotechnology

Our researchers work with design and development of materials that can contribute with new or improved functionality and with sustainable strategies for the manufacturing and utilisation of renewable resources. These “functional materials” and their added value contribute to more energy-efficient and functional constructions, better security, improved health care, increased food safety, more sustainable energy management, and increased sustainability.

Current

News

Education

All members of staff and most doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows within Advanced materials are extensively involved in teaching at all levels – as teachers, supervisors, and within staff development. Students on first-cycle and second-cycle level regularly participate in our research environment by taking single-subject courses or writing degree projects (15–60 credits). Students get further opportunities by having access to our extensive selection of regional, national, and international collaboration partners in the trade and industry as well as in the academic world.

Collaboration

Advanced materials has many active collaboration partners in the trade and industry, in the academic world, and at government authorities. The importance of our research and education to these partners is reflected in our ongoing commitment in various projects funded by, among others, the EU, the Knowledge Foundation, and Vinnova. To summarise, we have an extensive network of significant academic collaboration partners at dozens of universities all over the world and also with many national and international companies.

Steering group

Per Nilsson is contact person and chair of Advanced materials.