This paper introduces a special session on results of the Swiss competence center on energy research FURIES that has been established in coordination with the Swiss Energy strategy 2050 with the specific aim to develop, promote and deploy power grid-related innovative solutions toward the im-plementation of the Swiss Energy Strategy 2050. This contribution will report on activities within WP 3, "AC/DC multi-terminal grids and power electronics". This WP includes three subtasks with contributions from the major Swiss technical universities: Multi-terminal HVDC system design, fault detection and clearing in multi-terminal HVDC, enabling component and converter technolo-gies and applications. The spectrum of the center's activities is briefly introduced and as an illustra-tive example, the contributions of the SCCER FURIES in relation with HVDC grids are summa-rized. These contributions include: new high power DC testing methods and laboratories, new DC breaker principles and fault location techniques, AC/DC grid resonance analysis and novel converter technologies.