Innovation

Schneider Electric Innovation Center

July 13, 2018

Schneider Electric is one of the world's leading energy management and automation companies, with operations in more than 100 countries. In 2017 the company chose to establish an important innovation center in Lund to develop future solutions for building automation and connectivity.

Schneider Electric moved its research and development department from Malmö to the Mobile Heights Center in Lund in February 2017. There are now more than 350 employees in Lund, about half of whom work at the innovation center. There were many reasons for choosing Lund as a new base.

“The opportunity to work at the Mobile Heights Center alongside neighbors such as Ericsson and Axis was an important factor,” said Michaela Ahlberg, Sales Executive at Schneider Electric. “Being near Lund University also provides opportunities for both acquiring future skills and creating collaborations and research projects. We see great opportunities to work together on innovation projects.”

Many of the future’s technical solutions will be created by colleagues in Lund

Schneider Electric collaborates with other companies in Lund, including through the municipality's innovation platform Future by Lund, which brings together 77 partners in various projects.

Michaela Ahlberg also sees other benefits of moving to Lund, including Lund's geographic location and the new major research facilities.

“Our office is located within 30 minutes of the Copenhagen airport. It happens to be in the Öresund region, and the Öresund Bridge has meant that several large companies have moved to southern Sweden. It is also really exciting to be a part of everything that is happening with ESS and Max IV. People from many different backgrounds will establish themselves here, with jobs and housing at Brunnshög. There will be a dynamic in this region that I feel humble to get to be a part of.”

The innovation center is a “center of excellence” within Schneider Electric. Globally there are four such hubs in the field of building automation. Lund is a center for ecobuildings in Europe, but is also attractive to developers and customers from other parts of the world, such as Asia.

In Lund, Schneider Electric has developed a large portion of the hardware and software for the new generation platform EcoStruxure Building Operation, which supports both the Internet of things and cloud connectivity. The global solutions developed in Lund connect buildings and make them smarter, more efficient, safer and more sustainable.

“Every day at the innovation center in Lund, 180 very smart people are working on how to make our platform for building systems even better,” explains Michaela Ahlberg. “It is quite cool to know that many of the future’s technical solutions will be created by colleagues in Lund!”

Schneider Electric is a global specialist in energy management and automation. In 2016, its turnover was 24.7 billion Euro. The company has 144,000 employees in over 100 countries and more than 100 brands in its portfolio. In conjunction with the 2015 COP21 climate conference in Paris, Schneider Electric created its own ten commitments for a more sustainable future. One of these is to invest 10 billion Euro over a ten-year period in sustainability research and development.

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