Tomas Åström

Associate Consultant

Offices: Sweden

Email: tomas.astrom@technopolis-group.com

Tomas Åström was born in Sweden in 1960. He holds an MSc in Aeronautical Engineering and a PhD in Lightweight Structures, both from the Royal Institute of Technology (Kungl Tekniska Högskolan, KTH) in Stockholm. He is fluently bilingual in Swedish and English, but also works in Norwegian and Danish.

Dr. Åström was full professor in Lightweight Structures at KTH and subsequently chief executive officer of IFP SICOMP AB/IFP Research AB (research institute in polymer material science) in Mölndal, Sweden. He was then engaged in his own consultancy, mainly on issues relating to research and innovation, as well as on R&D project finance and management.

Dr. Åström joined Faugert & Co Utvärdering (Technopolis Sweden) in January 2006 and has in this capacity mainly worked on programme evaluations and impact assessments, as well as on national and regional research and innovation policy studies. He has also evaluated organisations active in the knowledge triangle and has provided process support to clients in the form of for example R&D strategy development, project management and development of calls for R&D proposals. Between 2009 and 2019, he was Managing Partner of Faugert & Co Utvärdering; since 2020 he is Senior Partner.

Moreover, Dr. Åström has ample experience in the fields of materials and manufacturing and has worked extensively with manufacturing industry, in particular in the following sectors: automotive; aerospace; rail; paper, pulp and forestry; polymers; textiles; and composites. He has also conducted a number of energy-related assignments.

Dr. Åström has long experience of the EC’s framework programmes and participated as active researcher and subsequently as manager in FP3–6, as independent consultant in FP5–6, and as expert evaluator and reviewer for DG Research in FP6–FP7. For Technopolis, he has carried out a number of studies and evaluations of various aspects of the framework programmes, both for the EC and for clients in Norway, Sweden and Finland.

Since joining Technopolis, Dr. Åström has been involved in the assignments listed below. In most assignments, he has been the project leader.