Background
An application signed by representatives from the universities of Lund, Umeå, Uppsala, Linköping, Gothenburg and the Karolinska Institute, to build-up a National 7T facility was submitted to the Swedish Research Council in April 2010. The application was granted and in April 2011 and after funding contract had been signed between the Swedish Research Council and Lund university, a nationally composed purchase group was formed.
In February 2012, a purchase contract was signed between Lund University (equipment), Region Skåne (building) and Philips (vendor) and the facility was finally opened for research in October 2015.
The facility has office an building, which in 2020 added a second floor where research groups using the 7T facility can rent offices. This floor is intended to be a hub where researchers from different fields can exchange ideas and experiences.
In November 2020, the 5-year anniversary of the national 7T facility was celebrated with an online symposium. It consisted of three sessions focused on “The Nordic 7T community”, “Facility status and developments” and user presentations, respectively. The symposium was attended by about 90 participations from all Nordic countries and beyond.
In 2019, the Science Council opened a needs inventory for national infrastructures, and the proposal of National 7T facility was rated in the highest category (A1), " considered as having potential to become an infrastructure of national interest and is ready for a call". The call following the needs inventory closed in February 2020, and the facility submitted a proposal built around three pillars: “Increased accessibility”, “New hard- and software” and “Building a research community”. The results of this call will be published in the end of 2021.