KTH is on board at LINXS!

Since the start of 2025, the KTH Royal Institute of Technology has joined the LINXS effort and established a scientific home at LINXS. This will facilitate the activities of KTH researchers during scientific collaborations with facilities such as MAX IV and ESS, and provide a place where KTH users can meet up, discuss and conduct work and interact with other researchers at LINXS.

Martin Månsson is the Strategic Program Director of the RELAX (REsearch using LArge-scale eXperimental facilities) initiative. RELAX is a strategic effort to optimise the use of large-scale experimental facilities such as MAX IV and ESS among researchers at KTH. He is an associate professor at KTH, with long experience of using neutrons, X-rays, and muons. Currently he works on both sustainable energy materials as well as emerging quantum materials.

Martin Månsson is the Strategic Program Director of the RELAX (REsearch using LArge-scale eXperimental facilities) initiative. He is also an associate professor at KTH, with long experience of using neutrons, X-rays, and muons.

– Large-scale facilities are ecosystems of their own where researchers from all over the world meet, exchange ideas, form new collaborations, and sometimes also invent new policies and conduct politics. Science Village is clearly developing as a leading science hub and our involvement with the LINXS advanced study institute will help increase KTH's presence within the national and international science communities.

Martin Månsson can see a range of benefits from having a physical space at LINXS.

– We will be able to better connect to the development around ESS and MAX IV, build an even closer relationship with LINXS, and create a KTH "headquarter" for visiting scientists running experiments. It will also help us increase KTH's visibility within large-scale science.

LINXS was an obvious choice for Martin Månsson and KTH, since as an advanced studies institute it is a national resource for all of Sweden in terms of catalysing the exploitation MAX IV and ESS and other infrastructures. It is also an increasingly international node dedicated to collaborative use of other large facilities to which Sweden subscribes.

– Even if Sweden is a strong research nation, to be competitive on the international scene, we need to become better at national collaborations. With the local access to MAX IV and ESS, we have a fantastic opportunity to make great things happen if we work together, says Martin Månsson.

– We see the establishment of our base at LINXS as the first step in making our presence more visible and our engagement activities more frequent.

Reflecting broadly on key factors to increase the academic use of the infrastructures he says that it is essential to raise awareness of their capabilities, especially in comparison to in-house labs.

– The need for clear and accessible information on how to apply for access (beamtime) is crucial. I also believe that some level of start-up funding can help support initial experiments, particularly to cover travel and logistical costs for the first few beamtime sessions.

– Finally, the availability of user-friendly and efficient data analysis software is also important for making the facilities more accessible to a broader range of researchers and to support high-quality scientific output.

Martin Månsson also hopes to be able to progress some of his own research interests through the closer proximity to MAX IV and ESS afforded by the office at LINXS.

– There are so many exciting things happening at the moment!

– I am interested in everything from nickelate superconductors, development around altermagnetism, high-entropy organometallic quantum materials, lead-free hybrid perovskites for photovoltaics, and non-Li-based rechargeable battery materials..... among many other things!