Karin Röding appointed chair of SOF Steering Group for Odontological Research
The chair of the SOF steering group, Peter Lönnroth, has retired. The management team at KI and Region Stockholm has appointed Karin Röding as the new chair, effective 1 January 2026. Read the interview with her here.
Tell us briefly about your background. Who are you?
“Dental degree from KI in 1981. Specialist in endodontics in 1993. I left operational dental practice, including my position as director of studies for dental education in 1996, to work with overarching educational issues at KI headquarters. In 1999, I became a senior official – Director General - at the Ministry of Education with responsibility for all universities and colleges except SLU and some other central authorities.
I obtained my doctorate at KI (LIME) in 2005 with a thesis on admission to higher education through tests and interviews. This was an alternative form of admission that KI introduced in the early 1990s for medical and dental programmes.
I was university director at both Uppsala University and KI from 2006 to 2010 and then Vice-Chancellor at Mälardalen University from 2011 to 2015.
From 2016 to 2018, I was State Secretary with responsibility for higher education, research and space at the Ministry of Education.
From 2018 to 2020, I was Director General of the Swedish Council for Higher Education.”
How do you view your role as chair of SOF?
“I look forward to leading this competent steering group, which is so important for dental research. This is a significant investment by the Region to support dental research. Swedish dental research has been a leader in several disciplines, but without earmarked funds, it has been difficult for dentistry to compete with other scientific fields. This is despite the fact that the WHO, for example, states that caries is one of the most expensive non-communicable diseases in the world and one that can be prevented. Caries also continues to increase among younger children in Sweden.
I hope that together we can continue to develop the Steering Group and its mission.”
What experience do you bring to the chairmanship of SOF?
“I have worked with research issues in leading national positions for many years, and I also have experience of working with several research funding bodies. For example, I have been chair of The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies, which funds research related to Eastern Europe and the Baltic Sea. Since 2022, I have been a societal representative in one of the preparatory groups within the remit of the state research funding body Forte.
I have experience from a number of boards in both Denmark and Norway, and I am still a member of the Norwegian Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education (NIFU).
Since 2022, I have been a member of the University Board of Linnaeus University, and prior to that I have served on a number of other university and college boards.”
Karin concludes:
“Basically, I have never lost touch with dentistry, despite many other pursuits over the past 30 years. I look forward to bringing these experiences to my work with SOF.”