PIC history 

The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) published a report in 2006 stating the importance of the Swedish process industry and the need for continued investments and skilled staff. The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) followed up the report with a workshop with participants from academia and the process industry with the goal to identify areas for future development which would strengthen the competitiveness of the Swedish process industry.  Three core areas were identified: availability, flexibility and controllability. 

Following the workshop SSF set aside funds and issued a call for a process industry centre which would conduct research and competence development in this field. To ensure a close collaboration with the process industry and industry-relevant activities, partner companies were asked to match the funds contributed by SSF. Two centres were finally approved: PIC-Lund and PIC-Linköping. PIC-Lund focused on process technology and control while PIC-Linköping was centered around higher-level issues as production economy and management. Together the two centres covered the whole area of interest. Today, the two centres act together as PIC and have also branched into a joint project called PIC-opic.