STOCKHOLM, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Sweden is investing 70 million SEK (8 million U.S. dollars) in developing new innovations using forest materials.
Speaking at a launch on Wednesday for the new national research platform Treesearch, Sweden's minister for rural affairs, Sven-Erik Bucht, said it is important to develop new, climate-smart materials in order to handle the transition to a fossil-free and bio-based economy.
"The green gold has played an important historic role in lifting Sweden out of poverty and building our prosperity and it will continue to do so in the future, too," Bucht said.
Sweden's minister for enterprise and innovation, Mikael Damberg, was also present at the launch for Treesearch, whose researchers in the future hope to develop things like batteries, windows and medical implants using forest materials.
Damberg said the Treesearch project is a "good example of academia, the business and private sectors getting together in order to strengthen innovation".
The 70 million SEK funding, which is to be distributed over a four-year period, comes from Vinnova, Sweden's state innovation body.
The initiative is part of the Scandinavian nation's major research and innovation program that is aimed at turning Sweden into a carbon-free society by 2050. If Sweden reaches that goal, it would be the world's first fossil-free welfare state. (1 U.S. dollar = 8.7 SEK)
