Four Wallenberg Academy Fellows at KI in 2025
Another 27 promising researchers will now receive five-year basic research grants from Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. Four of these researchers work at Karolinska Institutet. This funding provides young researchers with the opportunity to contribute groundbreaking new knowledge by tackling long-term and difficult research questions.
This year’s Wallenberg Academy Fellows will be tackling innovative research questions.
“The program is long-term and very attractive. One measure of this is that very few researchers have left the program to pursue a career outside Sweden. The aim was precisely to retain talented Swedish researchers in Sweden and to attract foreign talent, as well as allowing them the space they need to tackle difficult research questions in the long term,” says Peter Wallenberg Jr, chair, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences assist the foundation by reviewing the applications and helping with the selection process. The Academy also manages the mentorship program in which the selected researchers can participate.
The funding covers research in natural sciences, medicine, engineering and technology, humanities, and social sciences. It was established in 2012, in partnership with the royal academies and 16 Swedish universities. An additional five years of funding may be applied for after the end of the first period.
Selected researchers at KI
Enric Llorens Bobadilla, researcher at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology
Camilla Engblom, researcher at the Department of Medicine, Solna
Amanda Andersson Rolf, researcher at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics
Charlotte Thålin, professor at the Department of Clinical Sciences, Danderyd Hospital
In total, 288 researchers have been appointed Wallenberg Academy Fellows since 2012. All were younger than 40 when the grant was awarded and their applications all underwent rigorous evaluation by a large number of international evaluators.
Including this year’s round, so far Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation has allocated just over SEK 3.2 billion to the program.
The news article is based on a press release from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
Background
The program, funded by Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, has been established in close cooperation with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, the Swedish Academy and Swedish universities.
The universities nominate researchers to the program, the academies evaluate the candidates and present the most promising researchers for the Foundation, which then makes the final selection. Since the program started in 2012, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation has invested a total of just over SEK 3.2 billion in the program.
Source: The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation