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A committee with the objective to establish the princi-
ples for a Consortium Agreement was formed before
the SFI Metal Production was accepted. The rationale
was that making a Consortium Agreement is a pro-
cess that normally takes some time, and starting early
would be an advantage for the start-up process later on.
Members of the committee were: Åsmund Broli (Hydro),
Ragnar Tronstad (Elkem), Benjamin Ravary (Eramet and
TiZir), Bjørn Steinar Tanem and Hanne Sørgjerd (NTNU),
Øyvind Hennestad and Nina Dahl (SINTEF). Due to the
preliminary work in the committee, a signed Consortium
Agreement was finalised before the summer holiday of
2015.
The 21th November 2014 was a day with excellent news
for the supporters of the SFI Metal Production. The
announcement from the Research Council of Norway
was positive for the SFI Metal Production. We had suc-
ceeded in our effort to establish a SFI centre for Metal
Production.
The very first meeting between the research partners
and the industry was arranged in February 2015. The
main topic was to present the Work Plans for 2015, and
receive feedback from each industrial partner regarding
their expectations.
The revised project description, work plans etc. were
submitted to the Research Council of Norway on the
1st April 2015, e.g. the very first day of the SFI Metal
Production.
The Kick-Off meeting of the SFI Metal Production, the
big event of spring 2015, was arranged in Trondheim in
June. A dinner for the partners and guests was served
at Kvilhaugen gård the evening before. The program in-
cluded presentations from academia, industry and the
Research Council of Norway.
Highlights and expectations to the SFI Metal Production
from the speakers of the Kick-Off meeting can be sum-
marized as follows:
• Become a visible flagship for long-term
industrial research on an international level.
• Education and recruitment of researchers with
a fundamental understanding and knowledge of
the process industry.
• Have positive impact on the research-based
education.
• Attract international attention
– “Look to Norway”.
• Value creation as a result of research based
innovation.
• Contribute to the establishment of long-term
strategic alliances between industry and
research
• Establish Innovation Projects initiated by SFI
together with the Horizon 2020 and The Research
Council of Norway Roadmap and SPIRE.
The official opening of the nine Centres of Research-
Based Innovation in Trondheim, was arranged in
September. Aud Wærnes, Centre Manager, presented
SFI Metal Production and received the SFI Diploma on
behalf of all the partners.
In order to ensure a broad dissemination of the project
results and get feedback from the industry and the inter-
national research community, the SFI Metal Production
decided to organise an Autumn- and a Spring-meeting
each year for all the stakeholders. The Autumn meet-
ing of 2015 for the SFI Metal Production took place in
Trondheim between the 27th and the 29th of October.
The main topic for the first session on the 27th was
”Metal Production and the Environment” with pres-
entations from the Norwegian Environmental Agency,
Industry and Bellona. The first day concluded with a din-
ner at Scandic Lerkendal.
The second day started with a Workshop on Horizon
2020. Representatives from NTNU gave a presentation
on the possibilities for funding on different programs
within EU. The members of the SFI wanted the manage-
ment of the SFI to follow up on different relevant calls in
Horizon 2020. The last part of the Autumn meeting was
dedicated to the five Research Domains. The Autumn
meeting closed with lunch on the 29th of October.
The very first year is all too soon coming to an end, and it
is now time to proceed, with 2015 as a platform. We are
looking forward to the next exciting years and to future
innovations.
6
The very first year