Anna Kågesten awarded funding for Assistant Professor position
Anna Kågesten is among the eight candidates that has been awarded funding within Karolinska Institutet's recruitment program for Assistant Professors.
The awarded candidates, selected following a competitive process with 117 qualified applicants, will receive up to SEK 1 million per year for six years to be used for their salary. In addition, SEK 1 million will be available to the awarded candidates as a start-up grant for research.
How did the process and selection take place?
I found it to be a long, but very structured, selection process. Following written applications in April last year, 30 (out of 117 total) were sent for external review during the summer. The 16 highest ranked applicants were then invited for interviews by an internal panel at KI in October, where we got to present our proposed research project. Finally, in January the Committee for Research selected 8 candidates who were awarded funding, based on the external review (2/3 weight) and interview (1/3 weight) scoring.
How does it feel to be one of those selected?
I was of course very happy (and quite surprised!) to hear that I was among those selected. It feels like a small victory for junior researchers in our field given that this type of faculty-funded career positions are rarely awarded to global health and implementation research. Overall I am extremely grateful for the mentorship and support that I have received from colleagues and friends at the Department throughout the selection process.
What are you most looking forward to in your new role?
As I am just back from maternity leave, I most of all look forward to continuing my existing projects and collaborations together with brilliant colleagues and students both at KI and globally. I also hope to engage more in teaching over the coming years.
How will you use your start-up grant?
This start-up grant comes at the right time given the recent cuts in funding for development research. Most of it will be devoted to the project that I applied with, the “ENGAGE” study, which seeks to optimize prevention of vertical HIV transmission among pregnant and breastfeeding adolescent girls and young women in Tanzania. I feel fortunate to be able to develop this project further together with Elin Larsson, Anna Mia Ekström and our fantastic co-investigators at Management Development for Health in Tanzania, where we have just enrolled a new doctoral student.