Annika Östman Wernerson: We want to meet you!

Save the dates, 3 December in Solna and 5 December in Flemingsberg! No need to register. We set the agenda together and switch between Swedish and English depending on the participants. Hope to see you there!

Meetings in Uganda on global health challenges

Last week, I was part of a delegation from KI on a visit to Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda to learn more about the long-standing collaboration between our institutions and the progress of the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health (CESH) – a partnership that has been set up to pursue the sustainable health agenda. The week’s discussions focused on research, leadership programmes and initiatives at the CESH and were both valuable and future-orientated in terms of the global health challenges that we share, including how the environment and climate impact health.

KI has a new environment policy

Given the all-too evident impact that climate change has on human health, the importance of KI’s role as an education and research institution cannot be overstated. Consequently, we also need to work on reducing our own climate footprint , and to this end a new environment policy has been produced to clarify our efforts towards a greener future. The environmental perspective needs to be integrated into the entire organisation and we all need to be involved in making it happen. Let me also take this opportunity to praise the Department of Dental Medicine, which has demonstrated yet again that their environmental management system meets the ISO 14001:2015 standard. Congratulations!

Sweden’s new life sciences strategy

The national life sciences strategy has been updated, marking an important milestone in the government’s aim to bolster Sweden as a life sciences nation. KI has made its contribution to this strategy, in part through my seat on the government’s life-science advisory group. I was also present when the strategy was presented by four ministers in The Cell on Thursday 7 November.  It is crucial that the necessary resources now be put into implementing the strategy and that it is done through the joint efforts of the academic, healthcare and industrial sectors. It goes without saying that KI will be a driving force in this regard.

New presidential advisor on cooperation with the healthcare sector

I have now appointed Maria Eriksdotter, professor at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, as presidential advisor on cooperation with the healthcare sector. The position involves coordinating KI’s relations with healthcare providers and developing internal and external activities within the field. 

Martin Bergö will be passing certain healthcare-related issues on to the advisor but will remain in the KI-Region Stockholm management group, where he will be taking greater responsibility for matters relating to quality improvements and internationalisation.

With all this we see progress for KI as a medical university, something to which all of you contribute in your various ways, as do our important partners in Sweden and around the world. I hope that as many of you as possible will take this opportunity to bring more ideas to the table, so – again – put the dates of the dialogue meetings in your diary and I’ll see you there!