Meyer Turku, Åbo Akademi deepen their green transition cooperation

The five-year pact's initial focus is on Åbo Akademi's Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology and Meyer Turku's Business Finland-funded green transition program NEcOLEAP. A 'green transition lab' will be a shared workspace established on the Åbo Akademi campus that supports interaction between researchers and industry.

A long-term goal is to create interdisciplinary strategic cooperation among several Åbo Akademi faculties and Meyer Turku. The partnership agreement also includes a sponsored professorship, doctoral student positions and a range of courses adapted for lifelong learning in the shipbuilding industry.

Professorship

Kim Wikström, professor of industrial engineering and management, said Åbo Akademi would initially focus on appointing the professorship in sustainability that Meyer finances with a particular focus on process technology, energy technology and industrial engineering and management.

'This is a very significant and highly valued collaboration for us,' Wikström said.

Valuable partnership

'Technical fields naturally play a key role in shipbuilding, but our common goal, a more sustainable maritime industry, requires top experts also from many other disciplines,' said Tim Meyer, CEO of Meyer Turku. 'Turku as a thriving study and working region offers a strong framework for this. The now signed agreement also ensures that we will expand the interaction between the academy and the business world.'

'Partnerships between industry and universities are valuable,' added Åbo Akademi Rector Mikael Lindfelt. 'The cooperation with Meyer towards an important goal like the green transition is very meaningful. Increasing interdisciplinarity will bring us ever closer to our common goal.'