VI industry partner Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) received an Industrial PhD grant from the Research Council of Norway. The project will be closely connected to Visual Intelligence's "Earth observation" innovation area.
VI industry partner Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) received an Industrial PhD grant from the Research Council of Norway. The project will be closely connected to Visual Intelligence's "Earth observation" innovation area.
By Petter Bjørklund, Communications Advisor at SFI Visual Intelligence
"Receiving this grant is a great recognition of the high-quality ongoing collaboration between KSAT and Visual Intelligence (VI). It gives us opportunities to further strengthen our already high competence and impact in earth observation and solve new and interesting challenges."
This is what Kristoffer Wickstrøm says about the Industrial PhD grant, which VI partner KSAT received on June 3rd. The Industrial PhD scheme—established by the Research Council of Norway—aims to boost research efforts and long-term competence-building for Norwegian trade and industry through the recruitment of doctoral candidates.
The scheme also seeks to promote closer cooperation between industry and research organizations as a step in promoting knowledge transfer from researchers to society at large.
The Industrial PhD project will focus on using satellite imagery and machine learning for sustainable oil spill monitoring. Early detection of spillage is important for minimizing its negative environmental impact on the marine ecosystem—both at sea and the shores, Wickstrøm says.
"However, the vastness of the ocean makes monitoring difficult. Satellite imagery is key to monitor large areas effectively but requires labor-intensive analyses. Automated solutions based on machine learning can help alleviate the need for manual labor—thus improving the monitoring procedure as a whole," he explains.
While formally a KSAT project, the PhD project will be conducted in close collaboration between the industry partner and the UiT Machine Learning Group. It is also closely tied to VI's "Earth observation" innovation area.
"KSAT and Visual Intelligence has a longstanding and tight collaboration that has led to cutting-edge fundamental and applied research that tackles real-world problems —with direct links to improved products. Working with KSAT—an internationally leading company—is highly beneficial due to the diverse and interesting problem settings that often require completely new technology to tackle efficiently. This leads to interesting research questions and new fundamental research, which in turn leads to improved products and applications," says Wickstrøm.
"This tight collaboration is a win-win situation—both for KSAT and Visual Intelligence as a whole", he adds.
The project is estimated to begin in September/October 2025.
Centre Director Robert Jenssen represented Visual Intelligence at Svarte Natta 2025 – North Norway's journalist and media conference organized by the Norwegian Union of Journalists.
Congratulations to PhD Candidate Preetraj Bhoodoo, who recently won the Best Poster Presentation Award at the PRESIMAL Autumn Reserach School 2025.
We happily welcome Sigurd Almli Hanssen and Adrian Duric as new PhD Candidates at SFI Visual Intelligence's hubs in Tromsø and Oslo respectively.
AI expert Eirik Agnalt Østmo explains that the law is intended to make AI technology safe for everyone (Popular science article on sciencenorway.no)
Aitor Sánchez is a PhD candidate at the Intelligent Systems Group of the University of the Basque Country in Spain. He visited Visual Intelligence in Tromsø from March to June 2025.
We happily welcome Nicolo Grometto as a new PhD Candidate at SFI Visual Intelligence in Bodø, Norway.
Visual Intelligence hosted a hybrid meeting with researchers from the Alan Turing Institute at UiT The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø, Norway.
Visual Intelligence researchers participated in this year's Forskningsdagene: an annual national research festival which aims to stimulate the general public's interest and curiosity in research.
Norge arbeider med å få på plass en egen lov for kunstig intelligens. Loven skal passe på at vi bruker KI på en trygg måte (Norwegian news article at uit.no).
85 researchers from the Visual Intelligence consortium convened for the Visual Intelligence Days: the annual workshop where researchers, user partners and invited guests convene to share knowledge and updates on the latest research and innovations within the centre.
Registration for the Northern Lights Deep Learning Conference 2026 is officially open. Early bird fees are available before December 1st 2025.
Det skal eksperter på kunstig intelligens, cybersikkerhet og juss fra UiT Norges arktiske universitet diskutere på Verdensteatret Kino den 17. september. Arrangementet er gratis og åpen for alle (Norwegian news article at uit.no)
The presentations from the Visual Intelligence Workshop on Foundation Models are now available on the Visual Intelligence YouTube channel.
Congratulations to Nikita Shvetsov for successfully defending his PhD thesis and achieving the PhD degree in Science at UiT The Arctic University of Norway on August 27th 2025.
Det sa digitaliseringsminister Karianne Tung (Ap) da hun besøkte UiT Norges arktiske universitet i Tromsø for å lære mer om utdanning og toppforskning på kunstig intelligens ved universitetet (Norwegian news article at uit.no)
A new study shows how deep learning can achieve human-level performance in estimating uncertainty when classifying foraminifera (News story at EurekAlert.org)
Congratulations to Iver Martinsen and Durgesh Kumar Singh, who successfully defended their PhD theses at UiT The Arctic University of Norway on August 20th and 21st respectively.
Visual Intelligence brought together academia, industry, the institute sector, the Research Council of Norway, and Norwegian politics to discuss why and how Norwegian academia and industry should collaborate more closely to develop innovative artificial intelligence.
João Campagnolo is a PhD Candidate in the Neuroscience Department of the University of Copenhagen (KU). He visited SFI Visual Intelligence in Tromsø from April to May 2025.
Students from EUGLOH partner institutions can now apply for an exclusive mobility scholarship worth 2 900 EUR for the NLDL 2026 Winter School. Application deadline October 3rd 2025