SINTEF

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The SINTEF Group, headquartered in Trondheim, Norway, is the largest independent research organisation in Scandinavia. Every year, SINTEF supports the development of 2,000 or so Norwegian and overseas companies via its research and development activity.

The acronym SINTEF means "The Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research" at the Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH). SINTEF was established in Trondheim in 1950 and expanded rapidly in the following years. The largest expansion came in 1993 when the "Centre for Industrial Research" in Oslo merged with SINTEF and created the SINTEF Oslo campus.

[edit] Locations

SINTEF has approximately 1700 employees, 1300 of which are located in Trondheim and 350 in Oslo. There are also offices in Bergen, Stavanger and Ålesund, in addition to overseas offices in Houston, Texas (USA); Skopje, F.Y.R. of Macedonia; and Hirtshals, Denmark (the Hirtshals location being a laboratory installation).

[edit] Structure

The SINTEF Group consists of the SINTEF Foundation and five limited companies. On 1 January 2004 the SINTEF Group was restructured into six research divisions, which have been defined in terms of value chains and industrial market clusters:

SINTEF Health Research
SINTEF ICT
SINTEF Marine - consists of MARINTEK and SINTEF Fishery and Aquaculture
SINTEF Materials and Chemistry
SINTEF Petroleum and Energy - consists of SINTEF Energy Research and SINTEF Petroleum Research
SINTEF Technology and Society

The fifth limited company is Sinvent, in which the Group's commercial activities and its shares in start-up companies are placed.