Wallenberg Wood Science Center (WWSC) receives an increased grant of SEK 380 million from KAW for the research on renewable materials derived from the forest.
–This long-term research initiative is intended to make possible a more sustainable future, to make the Swedish forest sector more competitive, and to pave the way for new enterprises based on innovations in this field, says Wallenberg Jr.
UN global sustainability goals are central to research at WWSC and The grant will support research of renewable materials within the program “New materials from trees for a sustainable future”.
– Wood is an extremely important and exciting resource for a sustainable future, since wood-based materials offer great potential as a replacement for fossil-based materials, says Eva Malmström, director WWSC.
The program of WWSC is now being expanded, which means that additional research leaders, PhD students, and postdocs can be recruited, along with visiting professors. With the increased grant, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation has now funded a total of just over 1 billion SEK in the research within WWSC.
– We can now focus on seven areas, one of which involves exploring sustainable biorefinery processes that use the wood raw material as efficiently as possible, says Eva Malmström.
This is part of the foundation’s in total over 3 billion SEK initiative on sustainable materials. In addition to the continued and expanded funding for WWSC, the foundation is allocating SEK 2.7 billion during the period 2022 – 2033 to a new research program named Wallenberg Initiative Material Science for Sustainability, led by Professor Magnus Berggren, LiU.
Read the full press release at kaw.se
Listen to Swedish radio, SR, about the new initiatives (in Swedish)
