Sven Stafström new Chair of the WISE board

Sven has a background as a professor of computational physics at Linköping University. Recently he ended his assignment as the Director General of the Swedish Research Council, Sweden’s largest research funder after almost nine years and returned to Linköping University to do some research but also to work with research evaluations and research policy issues.

On being appointed the Chair of the Board of WISE and his vision for WISE moving forward, Sven says.

– It feels good. I have already met the board on several occasions, and it is a very competent group of members and Sara Mazur has given me an excellent introduction to the chairmanship. Central to the work of the board is also that WISE has the best possible operational management with Magnus and Olle at the head and with Petronella as program coordinator, says Sven.

-For the past two years, WISE has set top speed to ensure that the funding and thus the research gets started. I foresee that a little further on the focus will partially shift towards working to ensure that the research results have the greatest possible impact. This applies partly within science; that Sweden becomes known as a strong research nation in the field of materials science, and that the research leads to applications that in a concrete way contribute to sustainable social development, concludes Sven.