News about innovation and social benefits

Marika Edoff, Professor and director for the Division of Solar Cell Technology will become the coordinator of Uppsala University’s new centre of excellence for solar energy, research – SOLVE. The ambition is for more widespread use of solar energy in Sweden. SOLVE will begin operations during January 2022.

Uppsala University is among the higher education institutions jointly embarking on a big new materials research programme aimed at improving scope for a sustainable society. The programme is to be funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

Ett projekt i Italien, Tango, ska utveckla en pilotlina för tillverkning av innovativa solceller i industriskala i Catania på Sicilien. Marika Edoff är en av solcellsforskarna som är med i projektet som fått stöd av EU´s innovationsfond.  

Imagine an artificial fibre that can be programmed to contract and stretch just like human muscle fibres. Thin and flexible enough to be woven into a portable, robotic textile muscle, OmniFiber is the result of a collaboration between researchers at KTH, MIT Media Lab and Uppsala University.

Age, injury or disease: regardless of the cause, there is a growing need for treatments to replace bone and other body parts. Researchers at Uppsala University are using 3D printers to develop tomorrow’s biomaterials.

A degree project about declaring climate impact from buildings by Agnes Östberg and Josefin Torgerssons receives an essay scholarship from Uppsala Municipality. The 10.000 kr scholarship is rewarded yearly to seven essays.

3D-printed houses and personalized medicines printed at each hospital. And a big investment in 4D printing. Researchers now describe the rate of development in the field as "furious". The question is what will strike militarily?

Marika Edoff belongs to the world elite in solar cell research, hear her talk about what is happening in the field right now and what research that is going on in her research group. Among other things, there is hope for an upcoming technological leap with so-called tandem solar cells. By combining cells of different materials that absorb light in different parts of the solar spectrum, one could increase the efficiency compared to today's solar cells by more than a third.

Solar energy is an important weapon against climate change. The solar panels that exist today capture just over a fifth of the sun's radiation. Researchers at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering hope to be able to significantly increase efficiency with the help of the mineral perovskite. 

A gas sensor that was designed to detect traces of life on Mars turned out to have just the right qualities for measuring blood gases in premature babies. Through Region Uppsala Innovation’s project with innovation hubs, researchers and entrepreneurs have been able to gain full insight into needs in healthcare and adapted their innovations to become useful solutions. 

3D printing is so much more than just printing physical objects for fun. In Uppsala, there is research and collaboration between Uppsala University and industry going on which could play a crucial role in tomorrow’s healthcare and increase the chances of saving lives.

A new technique for reducing light interference during telescope observations enables imaging of earth-like planets in nearby solar systems. An international team of astronomers and physicists, including researchers from Uppsala University, have used a diamond coronagraph to look for planets in the solar system Alfa Centauri, just 4.4 light years away. The method has demonstrated promising results

The EU project SOMIRO began at the turn of the year with the goal of developing technology that will help to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture. The project is being coordinated by the Division of Microsystems Technology, where researchers are currently developing swimming, flatworm-inspired milli-robots.

Harmful organic molecules in the indoor air can cause adverse health effects—a problem known as the ‘sick building syndrome’. Current air-cleaning technologies require both energy and upkeep, but a promising new solution is being developed at Uppsala University—window glass with nanostructured coating based on titanium dioxide which uses sunlight to remove organic pollutants from indoor air by passing it between the inner panes of the window.

Ken Welch, professor at the Department of Materials Science, has received funding from the innovation programs Swelife's and Medtech4Health's joint call "Collaboration project for better health" for a research project on chronic pain.

Skeppet Vasa är en av Sveriges största sevärdheter. Men 1600-talsskeppet är byggt i trä som åldras. För att det inte ska sjunka ihop och tappa formen krävs en bra stödstruktur. Vasamuseet har tagit hjälp av bland annat våra forskare i tillämpad mekanik. Ett arbete som påbörjades 2015 och som fortfarande pågår.

Tomas Edvinsson makes measurements of, among others, vibration energies in materials to understand and improve processes in new generations of solar cells and photocatalytic materials.

The material Upsalite was discovered by Maria Strømme’s research group and has properties that have attracted great international attention. It inhibits the growth of bacteria, for example, and is extremely good at absorbing moisture. A company has been formed in which entrepreneurs and researchers work side by side on various applications of the material.