The Annual Meeting & Innovation Square 2024

Over 50 people attended our first Annual Meeting & Innovation Square, 11-12 December at the Nordic Light Hotel in Stockholm.

We started the Annual Meeting with a session on the status and outlook of the NEXT Competence Centre. We appreciate the overall status and outlooks provided by Peter Hedström (KTH Royal Institute of Technology), insights into metals processing to achieve both strength and ductility by Ru Peng (Linköping University), additive manufacturing possibilities via new sample environments by Greta Lindwall, Tao Zhou (KTH), and fluorescence research opportunities by Konstantin Simonov (Swerim AB), as well as a discussion of the different insights provided by in situ and in operando measurements by Magnus Hörnqvist Colliander (Chalmers University of Technology) and Lina Rogström (Linköping University). That session enabled us to shape a shared image of what we can achieve together over the next few years.

Our second session was a workshop on what we mean by materials sustainability and sustainable industry transitions. To inform the discussions, Anna Furberg (KTH), Henrik Runnemalm (GKN Aerospace) make introductory talks. People then divided into groups related to our Archetypal Characterisation Challenges and had a dialogue about the NEXT Projects and how to proactively consider NEXT controbution's to materials sustainability and industry transitions. (Dialogues will continue in the projects and the Project Reviews will assess action plans related to this session.)

In the evening, we relaxed. Some had informal chats. Some took a walk to see the Nobel Light Installations at Stockholm Town Hall. We all enjoyed a meal together.

Our third session was led by individual researchers who presented their work in this field. We were pleased to hear from Steve Ooi (Ovako Group), Monika Rolinska (KTH), Dan Persson (RISE Research Institutes of Sweden), and Yuan Tian (Linköping University).

We then held our first Innovation Square.

Reverse-pitches were held by Stefan Cedergren (GKN Aerospace) and Anders Engström (Thermo-Calc Software) about the needs of their companies. Traditional pitches were held by our technology and service provider partners Linus Amoli (Prevas AB) and Björn Hansson (Excillum). Inspirational pitches were held about how research using LSIs can result in innovations by Ahmet Bahadır Yıldız (Scatterin AB) and Peter Hedström (KTH).

After the pitches, match making activities then took place, where all partners could freely discuss with the people holding pitches either individually or in small groups.

In parallel, there was also a poster session so that people could relate the pitches to our planned projects. Thanks to the poster presenters, especially the PhD and Post Docs: Axel Pettersson (Linköping University), Chen Cai (KTH), Henry Boyle (Linköping), Kaiyang Zeng (KTH), Kristine Bakken (Chalmers), Lu Meng (KTH) and Yuan Tian (Linköping).

A survey rated the overall event 4.5/5 for engaging people. The most common feedback was a request to have a longer time for the Innovation Square.

Last but not least, thanks to all participants for making this a pleasant event for sharing and shaping knowledge.