Vision: An Institute Excellence Centre for applied Process Integration in the direction of advanced process design, raw material and energy supply for sustainable production of value added steel products is established at MEFOS – Metallurgical Research Institute AB (MEFOS). The Centre is internationally renowned with researchers who are internationally recognised and produces outstanding results.

In a 10–15 years perspective, Process Integration research at MEFOS has played an important role for the competitiveness of the Swedish steel industry in terms of product quality, production costs and environmental impact. Upgrading of iron ore products has generated new production plants in northern Sweden, supplying the special steel industry with virgin iron units, necessary for their quality development. Improved profit margins have contributed to retain jobs and to enlarge the economic feasible iron ore reserves in the region.

Objectives: The intention is to create a well-functioning Institute Excellence Centre located at MEFOS that, at the end of 2012, fulfils the following conditions.

- The centre leads in the application of process integration for the steel industry and coordinates national as well as international research.

- The centre is considered by the metallurgical industry as the Swedish focal point for process integration related to metallurgy.

- The centre is a new competence area at MEFOS with five full-time experts.

- The centre has a contract research volume of SEK 5 million per year.

- The centre has fostered at least three PhD exams within the programme.