Annika Östman Wernerson: A lot is happening at KI right now
The hearings with the candidates for the positions of Dean in the areas of Higher Education, Doctoral Education and Research in the direct election to advise the president, are now over and the voting has concluded. The voter turnout was high, with 57,8 per cent of KI taking the time to cast a vote for their chosen electable candidates.
The next step is for me to interview a number of candidates for each area and decide who will be taking up the positions of Dean and Deputy Dean (the current Academic Vice President and Committee Chair) on 1 July.
Nominate faculty members
2026 is quite manifestly an academic election year, because running alongside the decanal election is the nomination process for members of the Faculty Board and its three committees.
What we are out to achieve, as in the decanal election, is strong and representative academic leadership – people who can help to grow our university.
All staff and students are welcome to put forward candidates until the nomination period expires on 8 March.
The spring 2026 staff survey
This year’s employee survey is due to be circulated on 30 March for the first time since 2022. The aim of the survey to give us a status update on how everyone is doing and how we can develop our working environment together.
For me, the survey is an important starting point for dialogue, learning and joint initiatives, and since this year’s survey is comparable to the previous one, your feedback will be particularly valuable as it will show us what areas require further strengthening and improvement.
Other ongoing recruitment drives
Last summer (2025), we carried out our largest ever international recruitment drive for assistant professors – 20 positions at as many departments. Over 2,700 researchers from almost 90 countries applied. We sent out offers to all the top candidates in January, and some have already been taken on.
This year, in response to the Swedish Research Council’s targeted call for career support for assistant professors, we will be operating an internal nomination process to allow the departments to put forward candidates. The aim is to giresearchers,ly promising young researchers the opportunity to build robust research environments early in their careers.
With all this work – from collegial elections to strategic recruitment and research environment initiatives – we usher KI, step by step, into the future.
It is here and now that we continue to grow KI, together.
Latest updates from the President
Annika Östman Wernersonwrites regularly about issues that are important to the university under the heading "Latest updates from the President". The articles are published on KI's website and found at News and updates from the University Management. She also contributes regularly to the internal newsletter KI News. Previously published texts can be read in the news archive.