Myfab – the Swedish Open Access Research Infrastructure

Use the link to access the presentation posted to slideshare by VINNOVA, “VINNOVA, Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems, is Sweden’s innovation agency. Our aim is to increase the competitiveness of Swedish researchers and companies. Our task is to promote sustainable growth in Sweden by funding needs-driven research and the development of effective innovation systems. To this end, we have 220 million euro to invest in new and ongoing projects each year. VINNOVA generally requires co-financing of all projects, which doubles the annual investments to around 440 million euro. Funding decisions are made following public calls for proposals under VINNOVA’s programmes. Decisions are based on expert assessments and the suggestions of programme councils skilled in research, business and the public sector. An important part of VINNOVA’s activities consists of increasing the cooperation between companies, universities, research institutes and other organisations in the Swedish innovation system. We do this in a number of ways, including long-term investment in strong research and innovation milieus, investment in projects to increase commercialisation of research results and by creating catalytic meeting places in the form of conferences and seminars.” More information about Myfab is available from . “Myfab offers distributed high-quality cleanroom facilities and associated expertise for advanced research and education to researchers and product developers at universities and high tech industries. Here you get access to the best equipment you can find in Sweden, to give your research and technical development the possibilities it deserve... The Myfab network was established by Chalmers, KTH and Uppsala University in 2004 in order to achieve networking benefits for researchers and companies on a national and international level. The motivation for Myfab  was to avoid duplication of expensive equipment, to provide local and open access to the whole network, to apply harmonized user fees, instrument classes as well as back-up standard processes enabling cross-diciplinary synergies. During these five years, the Myfab labs have all moved in the direction towards these goals, which by necessity has involved all parts of the organizations. Myfab is now at the end of its second financing period 2007 – 2009. During this period we have carried out some 20 projects to establish the network thoroughly. Myfab is today recognized as a national research infrastructure by the Scientific Council (VR), and as such, also mentioned as important for the strategic efforts launched by the Swedish government in the fields of Material Science, Nanoscience and Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The usage of the network has increased heavily during the period, and now we have more than 500 active users and more than 130 companies using the network during the passed years. The resources within the network is easy assessed through our own Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) where more than 500 tools are made available. With this background, the future ambition is to  further strengthen the network by advancing our position on a European and international arena, as well as to continue to bring together the best resources available in Sweden for microtechnology and nanoscience, in order to strengthen Sweden’s competitiveness on a long term basis.”