KI take part in the Sweden-China Innovation Week
Karolinska Institutet, is one of the world's leading centres for medical research and education. The university´s unique innovation system means that researchers achieve their results for the benefit of society at large more quickly. With the new master programme in bioentrepreneurship, creativity and innovation are also encouraged within education. Examples of links between education, research and entrepreneurship will be given today by the President of Karolinska Institutet, Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson, at the Sweden-China Innovation Forum in Beijing.
This year Karolinska Institutet celebrates its bicentenary. Many of the university's scientific advances have changed the world of medicines. One of the advances to have attracted most attention is the mapping of the structure of prostaglandin, a discovery that was also rewarded with the Nobel Prize. In Sweden, Karolinska Institutet accounts for more than 40 per cent of medical academic research and offers the widest range of medical education programmes. There are programmes at bachelor/first level, master/second level and doctoral/third level throughout the biomedical field.
The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has chosen the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine since 1901. This is something that obliges research and education to maintain top quality at all times.
"We have succeeded in creating a stimulating academic environment for researchers, teachers and students," says Professor Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson, President of Karolinska Institutet, referring among other things to the university's research on neuroscience and stem cells, which today is at the leading edge of international research.
In addition, Karolinska Institutet has built up an organisation relating to innovations to which researchers can turn and where they can make contact with professional expertise to obtain assistance for example with business plans, patents and also venture capital. As a result, the commercialisability of results can be evaluated more quickly, basic research is converted to more practical application and new, successful companies are formed.
The university's objective is to encourage innovative thinking among students, employees and researchers at the same time. The aim is for all education programmes to contain an element of entrepreneurship. It is important to understand the innovation process and have it in mind at all times when studying or conducting research. A good example of this is Karolinska Institutet's new interdisciplinary master programmes, where knowledge of medicine, health care and technology is supplemented for example by the study of education and information. The Bioentrepreneurship Programme has proved a success, for both Swedish and foreign students.
"Skills in which innovation and creativity are closely interlinked are in great demand in the labour market at present, both in health care and in industry. This also means that the programmes are highly popular today" says Professor Wallberg-Henriksson.
"By continuing to develop new technology, new technologies and new products, we hope to continue to be key players in the medical arena and a future choice for researchers as well as students," she says.