The Mistra board has recently taken the decision to invest in new research initiatives. A number of applications have been studied in detail by international scientific evaluation groups and been the subject of utility evaluations. “I believe we have found a good combination of very important research areas. Some will have an impact and provide results a long time after Mistra has ceased to exist as a foundation," says Anneli Hulthén, chairperson of the Mistra board.
One of the two areas announced is Sustainable Investment, i.e. asset management for sustainable development. This is about finding working methods to enable the finance industry to contribute to sustainable development - and hence promote long-term change among businesses.
“We actually started ourselves in this area by reviewing our own assets and how they are managed. The area of asset management for sustainable development has now grown and know-how is much in demand throughout the world. Our investment in research is unique," says Mistra's Managing Director Måns Lönnroth.
Two programmes within the Mistra Sustainable Investment Initiative will receive support. The first programme, Behavioural Impediments to Sustainable Investment, focuses on eradicating central obstacles so that sustainable investment strategies can become more accepted by institutional investors, thereby influencing companies to conduct more sustainable activities. The scientific evaluation ascertains inter alia that the programme will establish a leading international research environment in Sweden.
The second programme is called Sustainable Development - The New Role of Institutional Investors. Its overall aim is to provide answers to the questions about how financial markets can promote sustainable development and what sustainable development actually means to financial markets. The theory is that there is a lack of knowledge about the risks and opportunities associated with sustainable investments.
Behavioural Impediments to Sustainable Investment (Göteborg University) has been awarded SEK 21 million for the period 2006-2008 and Sustainable Development (Umeå University) has received SEK 12 million for the same period. In addition to the budget for each proposal, a total of SEK 9 million in funding for early career researchers is to be added during the period 2006-2008.
The Mistra Sustainable Mobility Initiative concerns research aimed at creating sustainable transport systems. Regarding this initiative, Mistra has decided to invest a total of SEK 30 million in a main programme and two satellite programmes.
“This area is very exciting. No-one knows at this stage whether it is possible to build a bridge between research and users in this way. Few initiatives like this have been taken in the area of transport," says Måns Lönnroth.
Anneli Hulthén also points out that this initiative is not just about planning new infrastructures such as roads, but also includes behavioural change. The programme involves researchers at Lund University within areas such as political science, traffic planning, environmental and energy systems, environmental management/service management. International research partners are also involved including the Institute of Transport Economics in Oslo , the National Environmental Research Institute in Roskilde, Denmark and the Institute for Transport Studies in Leeds, UK and the consultancy firm Trivector Traffic.
The aim of the project is to develop, disseminate, market and implement a range of tools and models that will support decision-makers and help them promote sustainable mobility. The main focus of the research programme is the reduction of CO2 emissions, but it also deals with congestion, economic and distribution issues. Other issues are mobility management, new fuels and vehicle technologies, policy initiatives at the national and local level and passenger and freight transport.
Two satellite programmes are associated with the core programme. One comes from Göteborg University and the other from the Swedish Biodiversity Centre (SBC) at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). The satellite programme from Göteborg University will focus on how transport sector actors understand, formulate and define the concept of sustainable mobility. They refer to these as socio-cultural constructions of sustainable mobility. The satellite programme from SBC/SLU will focus on issues such as “What is a sustainable landscape?" and “How can the impact and its consequences be assessed, predicted, evaluated and communicated to stakeholders, planners and decision-makers?".
Mistra has also taken decisions regarding proposals in completely new research areas, put forward by various research groups. One proposal that will receive funding concerns vehicle engines and is called 'Energy-efficient reduction of exhausts from vehicles'.
“This initiative is about finding new technologies to develop engines for heavier vehicles. A clean diesel engine is no utopia," says Anneli Hulthén.
In partnership with Chalmers University of Technology, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Uppsala University, Höganäs AB and Termo-Gen AB, Volvo Technology AB will start a programme and has received a total of SEK 20 million over four years. This is on condition that the National Road Administration grants SEK 6 million and the industry itself carries out work equivalent to at least SEK 14 million.
The research is about testing a number of advanced emission control techniques in engines that operate with an oxygen surplus, such as diesel engines. It is primarily a question of reducing levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particles in engines that are already very energy-efficient and emit low levels of carbon dioxide. This initiative is very ambitious, according to the scientific evaluation group. The utility evaluator is also enthusiastic and believes the research design has a good chance of achieving results that will be at the cutting edge of research with a view to introducing legislation in 2015.
PIRAC (Plant-induced resistance and aphid control) is another research programme that will receive investment from Mistra. This programme aims to utilise the natural ability of plants to emit chemical signals that combat attacks from plant-lice - and also send signals to the plant-louse's natural enemies about such attacks. The research group is the first in the world to discover what is known as allelobiosis, defined as “the process of chemical communication between unharmed plants and its effect on other plants, herbivore insects and their natural enemies".
The objective is to develop cultivation methods and systems in which such “signalling", and hence more robust, plant types will give a high yield. The vision is for the research programme to lead to more environment-friendly and sustainable agriculture both in Sweden and abroad through the use of new plant types, cultivation systems and pesticides.
“We can imagine the group discovering ways of cultivating plants that systematically eradicate threats to key crops, who knows - perhaps we will cultivate more compound crops in the future to avoid attacks by pesticides," says Måns Lönnroth.
The research group, mostly from SLU but also from Södertörn University and Svalöf Weibull AB, has received SEK 24 million over three years, for the period 1 January 2006 - 31 December 2008. The Board felt that the final aim of the programme proposal, to restrict the use of pesticides in agriculture, was an important one. The scientific discovery that constitutes the basis of the proposal may well provide completely new opportunities to develop cultivation systems in which the in-built chemical signal system of plants, both inter-plant and between plants, herbivores and their natural enemies, can be put to much better use. A potential next phase is dependent on how much scope there is for putting the research findings of the first phase to practical use.
Mistra has also decided to fund the continuation of an existing research programme, Heureka, which is studying the forest landscape. It focuses on how to make reliable forecasts of the development of the tree cover, based on specific management programmes. The Heureka programme began in 2000 with funding from SLU, the Forest Research Institute of Sweden (SkogForsk) and others. Mistra has been the biggest contributor during the period 2002-2005, awarding a total of SEK 9 million.
The vision of the Heureka programme is to provide important actors with modern analysis tools, thereby facilitating the sustainable multi-purpose use of Sweden's forest landscape. Heureka is developing analysis and planning system tools to support future decision-making. Special applications for different categories of user are being developed, everything from national agencies to private forest owners. The research is inter alia developing tools for simulating landscape development, national and regional analysis, long-term planning in large-scale forestry, operative planning at forest companies and planning in small-scale forestry. According to the evaluation group, the programme proposal maintains a high, and in some aspects excellent, scientific standard.
Mistra has now decided to contribute SEK 3 million per year over four years to a second phase of the programme, starting in 2005. This second phase involves broadening the programme aimed at providing a basis for developing a holistic approach to sustainable management of the entire forest landscape. Greater focus on social and ecological aspects and wildlife management will increase user value.
