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Innovations There is a general awareness that the Swedish R&D system should be capable of delivering more commercial products. Although this stage of the innovation process has previously lain outside Elforsk’s area of responsibility, the situation will be changed through a recently forged partnership with the Swedish Energy Agency and Innovationsbron.
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Elforsk 2008 |
Elforsk AB started operations in 1993 and is owned jointly by Svensk Energi (Swedenergy) and Svenska Kraftnät (the Swedish National Grid). Its overall aim is to coordinate the industry’s joint research and development. Operations are organized in five programme areas – Hydropower, Electricity and Heat Production, Transmission and Distribution, Electricity End-Use, and Strategies and Systems. Issues touching on several programme areas are handled primarily by Strategies and Systems. Because environmental awareness is essential for all R&D activities, projects focusing on or including environmental aspects are conducted in all programme areas.
Elforsk – an R&D
broker not only for the power industry
Elforsk’s activities are carried out
in the form of individual projects and, increasingly, as comprehensive
framework programmes. Proposals for R&D projects come from our owner
companies, Elforsk staff members and external collaboration partners,
after which they are evaluated with the support of our programme
councils and developed in consultation with potential customers and
contractors. R&D projects, together with a detailed description of the
anticipated benefits, are then tendered for bidding among the owner
companies and other parties with a possible interest. When funding has
been secured, Elforsk orders project implementation from one of the
owner companies, a university department, a manufacturer or a
consultant, and is then responsible for quality assurance. Elforsk’s
final task is to transfer project results to the funding providers so
that they can be put to use. Hopefully, Elforsk’s new role at the
commercialisation stage will contribute further to this practical
application.
Only projects that are guaranteed sufficient funding can be carried out. Elforsk has no fixed source of financing for its operations, not even for staff costs, which is rather exceptional for an R&D organisation. The underlying idea behind this model is obvious: only projects directly demanded by the customers are pursued. Elforsk’s working method is unusual, from both a Swedish and international perspective. In various contexts, the Elforsk model is put for-ward as an example of how universities, public agencies and industries can work together towards common goals.
Tangible
advantages of collaboration
The financial advantages of participating in an Elforsk project include
direct access to the results (cost savings, new business opportunities),
and reduced pro-ject costs through co-funding. Achiev-ing a division of
costs, particularly with non-owner stakeholders, is sometimes critical
for the realisation of a project. It is therefore gratifying to note
that over half of all project costs are covered by external funding. The
financial benefits of collaboration through Elforsk, as compared to
company-specific investments, are clearly evident.
A couple hundred representatives from Elforsk’s stakeholders actively participate in the programme councils, reference groups and working groups. Highly appreciated networks are formed between the stakeholder companies. Teamwork, collaboration and sharing of experiences within and between the different groups contribute to a tangible enhancement of expertise.
Partnership for
commercialisation
Elforsk’s traditional method
has been to transfer the results of R&D projects and programmes to the
funders of that particular initiative for use in their own operations.
This takes place through the publication of reports and through
specially targeted seminars. On Elforsk’s part, the completion of an
undertaking often leads to the identification of a need for new R&D
activities.
In certain cases Elforsk has also been instrumental in implementing the results, but not to any significant degree and above all not at the commercialization stage. The intention now is for this to change through a collaboration with the Swedish Energy Agency and Innovationsbron, a government scheme for innovation funding in Sweden. In a joint project, the foundation will be laid for a long-term partnership aimed at strengthening the parties’ operations while at the same time benefiting Swedish business and commerce.
Elforsk’s approach in this context is the same as that in R&D projects – we will be working with product concepts which the electricity companies see as offering direct advantages in their operations. One such area where we are already noting a need for new products is cable diagnostics, a result of Sweden’s large-scale investment in more secure electric power distribution.
As an extended arm of the electric power industry, Elforsk’s task will be to gather the electricity companies’ feed-back on proposed product development, to arrange opportunities for product testing by the electricity companies and possibly to guarantee an initial procurement of the product, if it meets specifications, in order to build up a market. An exciting journey lies ahead!
University
programmes - more senior researchers
University research makes up a
large and important part of Elforsk’s opera-tions. The up to 130
research students who every year receive part of their funding above all
from Elforsk and the Swedish Energy Agency make a quali-fied
contribution to the industry’s future knowledge supply. After graduation
the researchers are employed by electricity companies as both
specialists and generalists, and to an even greater extent by
universities, consulting firms and manufacturers, thereby creating an
indirect supply of expertise to the industry.
The industrial relevance of this research is naturally a key point of interest. The industry’s participation in steering committees, programme boards and reference groups related to university projects is the primary means for achieving this. No Ph. D. project is pursued if it lacks the potential for future application.
To ensure productive research environments at the universities, Elforsk is working to raise the number of senior researchers. In this way is it possible to create greater continuity at the institutions and increased opportunities for contract research. Our goal is for perhaps one third of all research in a given area to be conducted by senior researchers.
Elforsk
Scholarship
Every year Elforsk awards a scholarship to the “Most well presented
doctoral or licentiate thesis of high scientific quality within
programmes or projects receiving financial support from Elforsk”. The
aim behind the scholarship is to encourage descriptions that provide
readers who are not specialists but have a solid technical/scientific
background with a good idea of the problem to be investigated as well as
the approach and results.
Over the years a large number of scholarships have been awarded to deserving recipients who have succeeded in making the complex a little easier to grasp.
The year’s scholarship winner, Marie Westberg, has completed her licentiate thesis at Lund University, Faculty of Engineering. The title of her thesis is “Reliability-Based Evaluation of Concrete Dams”.
Marie is continuing her studies in the same area and is working towards a Ph.D.
Increased turnover
Elforsk’s financial performance remains satisfactory. Between 1994 and
2007, invoiced sales rose from SEK 72 m to 136 m, with a marked increase
in the past few years. Given the right focus and backing of projects and
programmes, it is clearly possible to build collaboration even in areas
exposed to competition. Partnership in long-term projects and
competition in the short-term utilization of project results was the
previous strategy behind Elforsk’s activities. How-ever, a significant
share of our work is of a more short-term nature and can be further
increased through positive development for our recently started
commercialisation efforts.
R&D programmes
for SEK 230 m in 2008
Co-funding of R&D projects provides scope for Elforsk’s individual owner
companies to take part in large joint programmes that offer a
significant “gear-ing up” of invested funds. The above diagram shows the
proposed gross expenditure (in SEK m) by programme area in 2008. All in
all, Elforsk proposes that the owner companies invest more than SEK 95 m
in the programmes. The diagram also shows the overall cost of the
projects Elforsk is participating in – including funding from other
companies, government R&D agencies, etc. – a total of around SEK 230 m.
This represents more than a doubling of the owner companies’
investments. It should be pointed out that the R&D projects that are
eventually launched during the year will differ somewhat from the
proposals due to changes in the market, financial conditions, acceptance
of price quotes, etc.
We welcome you to contact us at Elforsk if you have questions or ideas for joint R&D initiatives!
Morgan Andersson
CEO
