The Swedish Research Council (VR) and Vinnova are jointly leading a national initiative to establish Clusters of Excellence in groundbreaking technologies.
In the initial phase of the action (Fall 2025), 85 planning grants for possible future Excellence Clusters have been funded. MAX IV was listed as a relevant research infrastructure in many of those, and the VR views the facility as an integral part of Clusters, when it is aligned with their themes. The Call for submission of Cluster applications is opening on April 1st 2026.
A team of MAX IV colleagues is engaging with Cluster representatives to explore tailored collaboration models. Collaboration schemes can vary, depending on the maturity level of Cluster participants as (possible) users and partners. MAX IV considers this an opportunity to position itself as an indispensable part of the world-leading research Clusters that will be created, strengthen bonds with Swedish Universities and other actors nationally, and broaden the user community along the way. Collaboration schemes include joint technical developments, joint staffing (including joint postdoc positions), beamtime access modes, educational activities, etc.[1]
Moreover, MAX IV coordinated a Network planning grant for future excellence clusters in partnership with SciLifeLab, entitled ‘IXBI-Integrating X-ray and Biomedical Imaging for Multi-Scale, Molecularly Resolved Medicine. The IXBI Excellence Cluster seeks to achieve an end-to-end pipeline for biopsies by uniting Sweden’s strengthens in clinical imaging; X-ray imaging and tomography; spatial biology; and AI-driven multimodal analysis. If integrated, these technologies will allow for precise identification of disease-relevant microenvironments and quantitative characterization of their architecture and molecular composition, transforming our ability to study human pathology.
Sweden has a unique position in the world to build something disruptive and ground-breaking for our capacity to understand and treat future pathologies. The networking grant has been used to connect the various infrastructures, host workshops and to select five flagship projects which will be used to establish the integrated imaging technologies and data tools. A report has been submitted to VR which will be used to help plan for the upcoming call.
MAX IV engagement offer
MAX IV is offering its state-of-the-art X-ray capabilities through 16 beamlines and corresponding experiments to the user community and the Excellence Clusters. The facility provides its users with globally leading opportunities for spectroscopy-, scattering/diffraction- and imaging-based materials characterisation, where the term ‘materials’ is broadly defined, covering hard and soft matter and research spanning, among others, physics, chemistry, materials science, geology, environmental science, and life sciences. The exceptional brightness of the MAX IV source enables record short acquisition times, dynamic studies on timescales from femtoseconds upward, and spatial resolution across many orders of magnitude. MAX IV aims to significantly strengthen Cluster research and its quality, through close, long-term collaboration.
MAX IV prepared a set of packages that define more concretely possible engagement schemes. Please find details here:
Common to most of the packages is that MAX IV provides long-term access to beamtime and the opportunity for the Clusters to get deeply involved with the scientific opportunities and activities at the facility. Typically, the involvement is based on the continuous presence of the Clusters at MAX IV, thereby giving the Clusters the opportunity to advance both experiments and data return to a level not quite accessible to standard users. Included in this is both access to specialist knowledge and the education and training of new specialists.
MAX IV welcomes participants from all Cluster to contact us and discuss a possible collaboration!
Contacts
1 The contact person, in case of any questions is Doriana Orbanic (doriana.orbanic@maxiv.lu.se).
2 The contact person for IXBI related questions is Claire Lyons (claire.lyons@maxiv.lu.se).
Links and further reading
https://www.vinnova.se/en/m/Cluster-of-excellence
Integrated-X-ray-and-biomedical-imaging-for-the-future-of-pathology-IXBI.pdf