KI withdraws application for recruitment of top scientist

Karolinska Institutet has withdrawn the application to the Swedish Research Council approved last month for the recruitment of Professor Nils-Göran Larsson from the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne, Germany.

The application did not meet the formal requirements, a mistake that the university discovered just before receiving and signing the contract.

On 15 January, the Swedish Research Council (VR) decided to grant Karolinska Institutet a total of 100 million kronor to finance the recruitment of Professor Larsson; this sum has now been retracted since KI drew attention to the fact that the formal application requirements had not been met.

Since 2007, when Professor Larsson was appointed director of the Max Planck Institute in Cologne, he has been on 80 per cent leave from his duties at KI in accordance with the Max Planck Institute’s regulations for side-line occupations.

VR allows temporary employment of up to 20 per cent of full time at KI (as a visiting professor) under the current programme for the international recruitment of outstanding researchers, but not permanent employment (even if the employee is on 80 per cent leave).

KI has therefore withdrawn the application in question and regrets having failed to fully heed VR’s regulations at the time of application.