The University's investment in smart textiles has become a successful concept. The interest in the intelligent fabrics of the future, from businesses, investors and the media, is great. Meet the prominent figure behind the winning project - project coordinator Susanne Edström.

It was a whole new world that opened up for Susanne Edström when she, a little more than a year and a half ago, assumed the task of working with the research platform Smart Textile. It is an arena for uniting researchers, technicians and representatives from companies in a network, for the purpose of developing new smart products and thereby strengthening the region. An organisation that is hard to grasp - we are talking about a hard-to-control mass of people of various persuasions. In other words, a not entirely simple task. But that doesn't intimidate Susanne Edström, on the contrary. She like challenges and reveals that one of her advantages is that she is not easily put off.

Interwiev with Susanne Edström

The University's investment in smart textiles has become a successful concept. The interest in the intelligent fabrics of the future, from businesses, investors and the media, is great. Meet the prominent figure behind the winning project - project coordinator Susanne Edström.

It was a whole new world that opened up for Susanne Edström when she, a little more than a year and a half ago, assumed the task of working with the research platform Smart Textile. It is an arena for uniting researchers, technicians and representatives from companies in a network, for the purpose of developing new smart products and thereby strengthening the region. An organisation that is hard to grasp - we are talking about a hard-to-control mass of people of various persuasions. In other words, a not entirely simple task. But that doesn't intimidate Susanne Edström, on the contrary. She like challenges and reveals that one of her advantages is that she is not easily put off.

"Being given the opportunity to participate in a new project attracts me." She has to admit though, that the biggest change for her was entering the academic sphere, despite just having been the principle of a high school.

"The educational way of thinking is different here. You have got to be more specific with decisions and mandates here, for example."

"I have a hard time saying no and setting limits to how much and what to do. In that area the big advantage that I just spoke about, making decisions, has not been involved at all. Now my job is mostly about uniting wills that pull in different directions," smiles Susanne Edström pungently.

Sees a New Era of Textiles

In all, some fifty people are involved in the research environment, but despite that level of involvement she is alone in the office in one of the towers of the School of Textiles. The view of the city, which has already begun to see the dawn of a new era of textiles, is breathtaking.

"I hope that we will expand soon, so that we are able to build the organisation that is required for delivering. We will be forming groups to make the operation as efficient as possible." Susanne Edström is firm when it comes to giving directions, which brings to mind the leadership course in the Armed Forces that she mentioned briefly.

"We now have money and will execute," she says and continues:

"I like to maintain a high ceiling and a low level of prestige, an environment where we are all working towards the same goals. That is the path toward success."

Bubbling Ideas

The investments have been raining in as of late. This spring the big breakthrough came when the project secured VINNOVA's continued confidence in the Vinnväxt competition. That means seven million SEK per year for a period of eight years, plus an additional finance scheme which guarantees at least the same amount, and possibly more. There is talk of 112 million, but that might just as well be 150 or 200 million plus.

Susanne Edström likens the commitment with both companies and researchers to a boiling kettle.

"There is so much steam underneath that we have to relieve some. Had we not received the investments now I think a great deal of the interest hade been lost. Now the group is strengthened and given all the opportunities in the world."

"At the same time, one has to keep in mind that it is all about innovative systems in the early stages. Developing prototypes takes researchers a few years. It might be three to five years before we see any concrete products," continues Susanne Edström.

Simplified, one might say that smart textiles are fabrics that react to their surroundings. Textiles with brand new functions: fabrics that glow in the dark, change patterns when they are heated, grow or shrink, or monitor breathing frequency or muscle activity, even nanofiber cloth that stimulates the healing of wounds. Susanne Edström didn't know a whole lot about textiles before she started at the School of Textiles.

"I have picked up the knowledge as I've gone along. Talking was something I already knew how to do."

A Packed Schedule

Interest in the new products is great. The phone rings several times during our conversation, there are texts incoming and Susanne Edström glances at the phone.

"I've got to take care of this."

The text is about a booked presentation. She quickly types a response. Her long hair is brushed aside in a gesture that bears witness of some experience.

"Our aim is to become a world-leading region when it comes to research and development, and therefore we have to be seen. It may not always feel like the right target group, but in the long run we profit from inviting new partners that might generate brand new ideas. Businesses are created at meetings and by people giving and taking. That is what legitimizes me being seen and heard all over."

But Who is this Woman Who's Become Something of a Figurehead for the New Smart Textiles?

Born and raised in Borås, attended elementary school in Daltorp and the science programme at the Bäckäng High School, she admits without hesitation. Between now and then though, she toured Sweden, since her father was training as an officer in the army. Then she went abroad. Susanne Edström has an MBA in International Economics at the School of Business in Göteborg, and has studied in both Canada and France.

"But nowadays those times feel very distant. A philosopher once said that 'knowledge is not worth anything if you aren't wise enough to use it correctly.' That is why I am hard at work trying to become a wise woman."

Education and development of people has been in focus during her multifaceted career. She has worked at the Education Centre, for the City of Borås, the Sjuhärad Municipal Association and two private education companies, all of them jobs that have given her a large network, experience and also thoughts about learning.

"Learning and the individual, biological conditions for learning, in combination with learning environment are interesting factors. If you look at all research and all the philosophers, educationalists and didactics, then I'm speechless in amazement at the fact that the school system of today and the contemporary perspective on learning and students haven't been more adjusted to how people really learn in different ways," ponders Susanne Edström.

"I also think it is important that we, as early on in life as possible, gather how we ourselves best learn, and thereby affect out own learning experience," she adds.

For a year she has been doing what she's wanted to do for a long time. Between homework and the kids' sports she has managed to squeeze in a course in NLP, Neurolinguistic Programming.

"It is the key to communication," I believe. "It is about people's development and their happiness. I really look forward to learning more about it."

But not today. Susanne Edström lives alone with two kids, and today her daughter is sick. Susanne glances at her watch.

"I will have to work from home. Puzzling it all together is hard, but nobody said that life's easy."

On the way out of the interview room she puts up a few posters in the elevator, advertising an upcoming sale .

"A friend asked me to put them up."

Another request she couldn't say no to.

By (with photographs): Annie Andréasson