After inviting academic and research institutes around the world to submit proposals for grants that will shape the future of power and automation, ABB has selected 40 research projects to fund.
The ABB Research Grant program wants to support promising graduate students and senior researchers who are researching projects with industrial applications in the power and automation area. The 40 projects were chosen from more than 500 proposals submitted by more than 250 universities in 46 countries.
According to ABB Chief Technology Officer, Prith Banerjee, the company was very impressed with the level of interest and the quality of proposals submitted. "Our aim is to establish a truly collaborative innovation environment with leading research institutes around the world," said Banerjee. "We already have about 100 existing research collaborations with universities around the world, and we expect to fund 40-50 new ones each year."
To be considered for the grants, the proposals needed to matched the 33 research topics specified by ABB as well as their potential for industrialization. Banerjee said that ABB was looking for projects that support the company's strategy, which is to develop power and automation technologies that save energy and improve people's lives.
Grants typically range from $50,000 to $80,000 a year, and funding is initially for one year, but ABB expects to support the projects over a longer period of time.
The successful project leaders were notified in January 2013 and funding will start as soon as the contractual formalities have been concluded.
See the Research Projects Selected by the ABB Research Grant Program.
