European Study Group with Industry (ESGI) is Europe’s leading workshop bringing together mathematicians and industrial companies. These week-long workshops have been held annually since 1968 and were previously known as the Oxford Study Groups with Industry. These events are now spreading across Europe (indeed to other continents) where they attract leading mathematicians to work on industrial problems.

The first ESGI in Norway was organized by mathematicians from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology supported by colleagues from the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby. It took place at the NTNU campus Ålesund, June 11-15, 2018. More than 30 participants from six European countries, Saudi Arabia, and New Zealand worked on 4 challenging problems.

A report summarizing the results of this study group can be found here. We envisage that the achievements will pave the way to further collaborations between academia and industry. All in all the event was so well-received by all participants that we have decided to organise another study group in Norway in 2020.

We would like to express our gratitude to our sponsors, NTNU and the COST Action TD1409 Mathematics for industry network for their financial support. Our thanks go to Anniken Th. Karlsen, head of Department of ICT and Natural Sciences at NTNU Ålesund for her encouragement and support of the event. Finally, we would like to thank Mark McGuinness for the beautiful pictures taken during the study group.

On behalf of the organizers

Poul Hjorth, Dietmar Hömberg, and Siebe van Albada