Amelie on the start of the semester and clusters of excellence

The semester has started again, the students are back, and it's great to see our campuses full of life and welcome activities. Most of our staff are also back from their holidays. I hope everyone at the school had a really nice summer and was able to enjoy their time off and summer activities!

However, several of our researchers have not only been on holiday during the summer, but have been working on applications to the Swedish Research Council and Vinnova, which have announced network grants and planning grants respectively to develop proposals for so-called clusters of excellence for research and development of groundbreaking technology.

The clusters of excellence are a government initiative that was presented in last year's research and innovation bill and will receive significant funding. The designated technology areas are well aligned with KTH's areas of strength, and there is naturally hope that KTH will be included in several of the clusters of excellence that will be formed later.

I am delighted that several of the applications submitted to the Swedish Research Council and Vinnova are led by research leaders from the CBH School, and many of our researchers are also participating as co-applicants in applications led by other universities. It will be very exciting to see the outcome of the first planning and networking grants, and then which clusters of excellence are proposed and funded in the next stage. I am keeping my fingers crossed for all the excellent proposals that have been developed at the CBH School and the rest of KTH!

/Amelie