Mar. 5 – Tuscany, Pisa and Sweden are closer today than ever before not thanks to Ikea (which opened a new store in Pisa today), but thanks to joint patents, research projects and collaborations between the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and Sweden’s research institutes. Ruth Jacoby, Swedish Ambassador to Italy, highlighted these achievements, noticed during a recent trip to Pisa for Ikea’s opening, when she also visited the Sant’Anna. Jacoby was welcomed by the Dean, Pierdomenico Perata, the International Relations delegate, Pietro Tonutti, and general director Luca Bardi. She then met with the teachers and researchers working with Sweden in the 10 projects and 6 activities that brought home 10 joint patents in the fields of telecommunications, IR, biorobotics and genome studies among others. The Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna was one of the first Italian academic institutes to promote active partnership with Swedish centers for excellence. The Tecip Institute kicked off in the early 2000s a partnership with Ericsson focusing on optical communication that is still going strong thanks to a dedicated facility within Tecip in San Cataldo. This collaboration brought about joint patents, common activities and spectacular results.