LTH launches profile areas for stronger responses to societal challenges
Lund University’s Faculty of Engineering, LTH, is now launching profile areas for its collective excellence in research. The areas are interdisciplinary and will contribute to increased collaboration with business and industry as well as wider society. Seven themes form the profile areas: aerosols, circular construction industry, energy transition, nanoscience, photon science, AI and digitalization, and technology for health.
Jessika Sellergren – Published 7 June 2022
For the Dean of LTH, Annika Olsson, establishment of the profile areas – in combination with external engagement – are key factors for LTH in its efforts to contribute to solving the major societal challenges.
“The profile areas are a way of shaping and highlighting our strong interdisciplinary research, something we believe is necessary to pave the way for LTH’s future strategic collaboration with public authorities, companies, other research teams and society as a whole,” she says.
The needs are many, and it is urgent to improve people's living conditions and find solutions to global problems, emphasizes Annika Olsson.
“The rate of energy transition must increase, we need more solutions in biomedicine and diagnostics, and we must intensify our work on circularity, not least in the construction industry. The research within our profile areas can – and shall – contribute to solving many of our society’s major challenges.”
For collaborations and synergies
Deputy Dean Heiner Linke has special responsibility for research at LTH. He accentuates that the profile areas are necessary to clarify our strengths and the areas in which LTH can particularly contribute to solutions in society’s best interests.
“With the profile areas, our strong interdisciplinary research environments will become more visible to wider society, but also to us internally at LTH and within the University as a whole. Increased clarity about our outstanding fields of excellence helps us to further utilise synergies, mobilise expertise and promote and build collaborations – within academia, but mainly with the private sector and society as a whole,” says Heiner Linke.
He points out that in addition to research in the profile areas, other strong and important research is conducted at LTH; the faculty has already identified more initiatives with the potential to become profile areas in the next few years.
“The process of renewal cannot stop; rather, we need to continue to shape our research according to society’s needs and the critical mass,” says Heiner Linke.
The investment in areas of strength is also expected to contribute to LTH becoming a more attractive location for both national and international students and researchers.
“An important goal for us is to achieve increased diversity and gender equality at LTH. We believe that the profile areas give LTH cutting-edge environments that can attract many different talents. In this way, LTH can become a more inclusive and creative hub to operate within, and contribute to even more societal benefits, says Annika Olsson.
Heiner Linke and Annika Olsson, Deputy Dean and Dean at LTH, says the profile areas are LTH's strong interdisciplinary research environments that will contribute to increased collaboration and solutions to societal challenges. Photo: Kennet Ruona.
LTH's profile areas
The profile areas are LTH's strong interdisciplinary research environments that will contribute to increased collaboration and solutions to societal challenges. The profile areas are:
- Aerosols
- Circular Building Sector
- Energy Transition – Power and Transport
- Engineering Health
- Nanoscience and Semiconductor Technology
- Photon Science and Technology
- Pillars of AI and Digitalization
Aerosols
Research within this profile area contributes to creating solutions and technologies for clean air in the transition towards a sustainable society. This is done by increasing the understanding of the sources of particulate air pollution as well as its effects on the climate and human health. Focuses of the profile area include healthy indoor and outdoor environments, clean transportation and sustainable materials and cities.
Coordinators: Joakim Pagels and Moa Sporre
Circular Building Sector
A circular building sector is an important part of the transition to carbon neutrality and a sustainable society. The profile area contributes knowledge where there are gaps and addresses the industry's major challenges regarding carbon impact and energy use in the production of materials and constructions, use of natural resources and reduction of waste.
Coordinators: Ulla Janson and Dennis Johansson
Energy Transition – Power and Transport
There are solutions for making our society independent of fossil fuels. But to be able to apply these solutions, interdisciplinary research and collaboration are needed in areas such as sustainable fuels and thermal energy, system studies, electrification, and energy storage – which are fields of excellence of the profile area.
Coordinators: Olof Samuelsson and Fran Marquez
Engineering Health
The profile area's research contributes to improving human health and solving challenges in healthcare by developing and providing new tools for diagnostics, treatments, and home care solutions.
Coordinators: Thomas Laurell and Frida Sandberg
Nanoscience and Semiconductor Technology
The profile area has world leading expertise and infrastructures, and explores the unique opportunities offered by nanoscience and semiconductor technology. The purpose is to contribute to a responsible use of resources, smarter and more efficient use of energy, future information technologies, and better health by more precise tools in medicine.
Coordinators: Anders Mikkelsen and Maria Messing
Photon Science and Technology
By developing novel lasers and photon sources as well as tailored solutions suited for applied spectroscopy in different environments, the profile area addresses specific societal challenges related to climate change, environmental impact and combatting cancer and other threats to human health.
Coordinators: Jörgen Larsson and Joakim Bood
Pillars of AI and Digitalization
AI and digitalization are a rapidly growing part of the development of almost all engineering systems and will fundamentally change society and industry. The profile area's cutting-edge knowledge of technologies, methods, algorithms, and software to enable robust, secure, efficient, and learning-based systems is essential in society's digital transformation.
Coordinators: Fredrik Tufvesson and Martina Maggio