ABB to Fund Worldwide Research Projects

ABB to fund 40 research projects at universities worldwide that will shape the future of power and automation.

The ABB Research Grant program is intended 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.

“We were delighted with the level of interest and very impressed by the quality of proposals submitted. Our aim is to establish a truly collaborative innovation environment with leading research institutes around the world,” said ABB Chief Technology Officer, Prith 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.”

Among the selection criteria was how well projects matched the 33 research topics specified by ABB as well as their potential for industrialization. “We were looking in particular for projects that support our strategy, which is to develop power and automation technologies that save energy and improve people’s lives,” Banerjee added.

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.

For a list of the universities click here .