SKF establishes a University Technology Centre with Chalmers

SKF and Chalmers University of Technology have signed a five-year contract to set up a University Technology Centre (UTC) within the area of sustainability and environment. The UTC will be located at Chalmers in Gothenburg, Sweden and aims to conduct research and development in the areas of technology, manufacturing, business processes and business strategy.

The main objective of the partnership is to create a close collaboration to deliver groundbreaking and industry-focused research within the area of sustainability, being a core area for SKF as well as for Chalmers.

– The contract builds on the long relationship SKF has with Chalmers. By taking this cooperation one step further and creating a UTC, we will be able to focus our R&D investments better and have access to Chalmers leading expertise within the area of sustainability and environment, says Dr Alan Begg, Senior Vice President of SKF Group Technology.

The initial contract with Chalmers includes one post doctoral fellow, coordinating and leading the research and three PhD-student positions. The aim is to have a growing number of employees in the coming years. 

– Expanding our cooperation with SKF enables our research results to be put to use directly, in an industrial context, which is why we seek strategic partnerships like this. We want to contribute with new knowledge and ideas to promote ecologically, socially and economically sound solutions, and are happy that SKF finds this attractive, says Johan Carlsten, Vice Rector at Chalmers.

The University Technology Centre at Chalmers is the third one established by SKF. In 2009 a centre with focus on steel technology was created at Cambridge and in 2010 one for tribology at the Imperial College London.

Gothenburg, 28 April 2011

Aktiebolaget SKF
(publ)

For further information, please contact:
PRESS: Ingalill Östman, SKF Group Communication, tel: +46 31-337 3260, mobile: +46 706-973260, e-mail: ingalill.ostman@skf.com
IR: Marita Björk, SKF Investor Relations, tel: +46 31-337 1994, mobile: +46 705-181994,e-mail: marita.bjork@skf.com

SKF is a leading global supplier of bearings, seals, mechatronics, lubrication systems, and services which include technical support, maintenance and reliability services, engineering consulting and training. SKF is represented in more than 130 countries and has 15,000 distributor locations worldwide. Annual sales in 2010 were SEK 61,029 million and the number of employees was 44,742. www.skf.com