Published: 10-10-2014 15:10 | Updated: 10-10-2014 15:12

KI and KTH meet the future with a joint doctoral programme

Karolinska Institutet (KI) and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) are currently initiating a joint doctoral programme for doctoral students in the field of medical technology.

“This partnership enables a unique multi-disciplinary education based on KI and KTH's common competencies within an area that promises a very exciting future,” says Anders Gustafsson, Dean of Doctoral Education at Karolinska Institutet.

Part of the background for this new collaboration is that quality requirements within health and medical care have been raised, new technologies are required, and that new professional categories may be needed to better utilise both medical and technological expertise in research, education and care. In order to meet healthcare challenges and enhance the level of knowledge at both universities, a joint doctoral programme is currently being initiated with the opportunity for a joint degree from the two universities.

This eliminates the disadvantage of a one-faculty university that cannot possibly accommodate the entirety of the comprehensive knowledge required to create successful research and innovation within medical technology. For KI's part, there is a need for increased technical and scientific know-how, and at KTH, researchers require more knowledge on the technological needs of healthcare.

“At present, expertise is isolated at each university. Now, when we are offering a joint doctoral programme, better conditions are being created for new innovations in the interaction between medicine and technology,” says Birgitta Janerot Sjöberg, Professor in Medical Technology at Karolinska Institutet.

Doctoral positions within the collaboration will be advertised according to normal procedures. The doctoral students will be admitted to both universities and have supervisors from both KI and KTH, but will be based at one home university. Public defence of theses will be conducted jointly after the equivalent of four years of full-time studies and 240 earned higher education credits. The idea is for those graduating doctors to be attractive within the health and medical care sector, the universities and industry.

“My hope is for the new doctoral programme to increase collaboration between different research groups and for future healthcare to benefit from tools from the field of medical technology which are more adapted to care,” says Birgitta Sjöberg Janerot hopefully.

Within a few years, it is estimated that some 20 doctoral students will be active within the framework of this new educational collaboration between KI and KTH.