5 / 48
NTNU/SINTEF/Teknova and the Norwegian metal pro-
ducing industry have a long tradition for cooperation on
competence building, process development along the
whole value chain, environmental issues and educa-
tion of candidates. There have been numerous research
and innovation projects over the years. The Research
Council of Norway (RCN) and other public support
schemes have given financial support to the majority of
the project portfolio. However, there have always been
a strong wish and hope for a long-term project with the
possibility for strategic thinking and shaping the future
of the Norwegian metallurgical industry.
Consequently, the idea of writing an application for
the upcoming call for SFI in 2013 (SFI III) was born in
January 2013, long before the call text was published by
the Research Council of Norway. The scientific groups
at NTNU and SINTEF had tried twice, unsuccessfully, to
qualify for a SFI. On the basis of all that experience, the
new call was very tempting. In addition, the process to-
wards an application for a SFI was also of interest to the
Norwegian process / metallurgical industry.
The first meeting with the potential partners, both
from research institutes, academia, and industry, was
arranged in Trondheim on March 19th 2013. Four sim-
ilar meetings were held the following year. SFI Metal
Production brings together the diverse Norwegian met-
allurgical industry (from aluminium producers, to ferro-
silicon/silicon- ferromanganese and TiO
2
) and suppliers
of equipment, in a programme that will facilitate trans-
fer of knowledge and innovations in the metal sector and
between the metal industry and other sectors, as well
as co-develop solutions useful for several sectors (e.g.
ferroalloys and light metals).
The purpose of the initial consortium meetings was to
discuss and receive input from the industry regarding
current topics for the proposed SFI Metal Production.
One important topic for the industry was to develop ro-
bust modelling tools based on reliable data. These mod-
elling tools would help pursue and document knowledge
that, in turn, will contribute to maintain Norwegian in-
dustry’s status as a world leader within metallurgical
processing.
A draft application form was submitted to the Research
Council of Norway on the 1st of October 2013. The feed-
back from the Research Council was positive.
An Interim Board was established with a mandate and
objective to ensure a successful and effective process
for making the final application to the Research Council.
The Interim Board’s area of responsibility was to han-
dle the primary guidelines for budget, partners, project
structure and agreements. The members of the interim
board were: Per Anders Eidem (Eramet), Edin Myrhaug
(Elkem), Nancy Holt and Trond Furu (Hydro), and Stian
Seim (TiZir). Nina Dahl and Aud Wærnes represented
SINTEF, and Jostein Mårdalen and Gabriella Tranell
were the members from NTNU.
Aud Nina Wærnes (Centre Manager)
5
The very first year