News archive

During the year, the Swedish Research Council will carry out a comprehensive national evaluation of the quality and importance of preclinical research in basic medical and pharmaceutical sciences. KI is one of seven Swedish higher education institutions that are being audited. The Swedish Research Council's evaluation refers to the results of research published during the years 2018-2024.

Nobel laureate and former president of Karolinska Institutet, Bengt Samuelsson, passed away at the age of 90. Bengt Samuelsson was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1982, along with Sune Bergström (1916–2004) and John R. Vane (1927–2004), for their discoveries related to prostaglandins – hormone-like substances that regulate several important processes in the body. Bengt Samuelsson also served as president of Karolinska Institutet from 1983 to 1995.

On 26 June, the President decided to repeal previous regulations and establish new guidelines for employment after reaching the LAS age (69 years, the age for the right to remain in employment).

The activities of the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition has been wound up and merged with the Department of Medicine, Huddinge. This means that the Department of Medicine, Huddinge is growing and that the activity at the department broadens.

Following a presidential decision that comes into effect on 1 July, the roles and mandates of KI’s deans are to be amended. The change is an outcome of the development of KI’s strategic focus areas.

In a debate article, President of Karolinska Institutet Annika Östman Wernerson and other leading representatives of the board of the Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions call for continued and strengthened activities for the researcher, doctor, KI alumnus and Swedish citizen Ahmadreza Djalali. Since 2016, Djalali has been imprisoned on fabricated charges in Iran, in the prison that the Prime Minister recently described as hell on earth.

This spring, we embarked on an important and comprehensive change process to optimise our internal resources and to create even better conditions for our core activities and departments. This work is now entering a more concrete phase.

The proposal discussed with affected staff is that five offices will cease to exist and three new ones will be formed from 1 January 2025. The aim is to equip KI's operational support to meet increased demands and rapid changes in the outside world through more effective coordination, and to contribute to a stronger sense of unity throughout KI.

As Israel continues its military campaign in Gaza, students in Sweden and around the world have been staging protests on their university campuses, calling for all ties with Israeli universities to be severed. KI itself has seen smaller, peaceful demonstrations in which individual students have protested against Israel’s actions.

A reinterment ceremony for Christina Larsdotter, the famous Sami woman whose remains were rediscovered in KI’s anatomical collection in 2022, was held in Malå on Saturday, 25 May. KI’s request to repatriate Larsdotter’s remains to Malå’s Sami Association and Malå Sami village was granted by the government last September.

It’s time once again to vote for faculty representatives for the Karolinska Institutet Board, the university’s supreme decision-making body. All staff, students and affiliates of KI are invited to nominate candidates between 14 and 28 May. Here, sitting faculty representatives give some tips on what to expect and hope to inspire their successors.

Last Friday, 150 new KI doctors and two honorary doctors were presented with their academic awards at a formal ceremony in Stockholm City Hall. The evening was one of stirring entertainment, academic tradition – and an academic vice president in a Barbra Streisand wig.

On 25 April it was eight years since Ahmadreza Djalali, Swedish citizen and doctor of disaster medicine at Karolinska Institutet, was arrested while on a visit to Iran. Karolinska Institutet’s president, Annika Östman Wernerson, and vice-president, Martin Bergö, have written an open letter to Sweden’s minister for foreign affairs and minister for education, calling on them to use all means available to increase the pressure on Iran to free Dr Djalali and other Swedish citizens.

The Swedish Government has decided that Karolinska Institutet may return the Finnish remains in KI's anatomical collection. The issue of returning the Finnish remains was raised by the committee for the return of Finnish remains in 2018. KI has been working towards this possibility for a long time.

During Kulturnatt Stockholm (Culture Night) on 20 April, The Cell opened to visitors. The Cell is a place where art helps to explain the complex world of life science. The National Museum of Science and Technology is responsible for the initiative and Karolinska Institutet is involved as a knowledge partner and a bridge between the world of research and the public events at The Cell.

Last Friday, 12 April, the internal investigators looking into the freezer malfunction that occurred in the Neo building over the 2023 Christmas break presented their report. The researchers and personnel most affected were invited to a staff meeting where, among others, Dean of KI South Matti Sällberg and Chief Security Officer Magnus Håkansson, who led the investigation, gave an account of their findings.

Swedish Minister for Migration Maria Malmer Stenergard and Minister for Education Mats Persson visited Karolinska Institutet on 8 April to present a forthcoming investigation about the opportunities for foreign citizens to work and study in Sweden. KI welcomes the investigation, whose mission is in line with previously expressed views by the university, however KI emphasizes that changes are urgent.

The Swedish government has appointed an advisory group in the field of life science. The group includes experts from academia, industry and healthcare. KI's President Annika Östman Wernerson is one of the members of the group, whose purpose, among other things, is to contribute to the implementation of the national strategy for life science.

The internal team investigating the freezer malfunction in Neo is entering the final phase of compiling its incident report. The report has taken time in order for it to be as complete as possible, as all aspects of the malfunction, from organisational causes to the technical failure, need to be included. The report must be ready by 27 March as IVO (amongst others) has issued a request to receive it. [Following the publication of this text, the finalisation of the report has been postponed.]

On Wednesday, March 6, the university management, President Annika Östman Wernerson, Vice President Martin Bergö and University Director Veronika Sundström visited the Department of Global Public Health, to gain a better insight into the department's activities. Key issues discussed included global awareness, the department's strengths and how dialogue can strengthen cooperation. In addition to the university management, the department's management team and Dean Carl Johan Sundberg participated.

Last week, the University Management visited CNS as part of their tour to meet all of KI’s Departments.

The government has decided to appoint Sophia Hober as chairman of KI's board effective 1 February 2024. She replaces Göran Stiernstedt, who becomes chairman of Karolinska University Hospital's board.

A decision taken on 20 February has given KI its first language policy, which will provide guidance on general matters relating to language and its use for all Karolinska Institutet employees.

Karolinska Institutet is to be an engine driving the realisation of Sweden’s potential in the field of life science. As an important step in this direction, Professor Anna Martling has been appointed Scientific Director Life Science at KI. Professor Martling has spent the past three years leading KI’s efforts to implement precision medicine in healthcare, a remit that is now being expanded to cover KI’s overall work in life science.

The internal investigation into the freezer malfunction at Neo on 22 December is expected to deliver its report in early March. A priority concern for the investigative teams has been ascertaining both the immediate and the underlying technical, organisational and other causes of the incident in which the automatic refilling of the cryo tanks with liquid nitrogen was interrupted, causing the temperature in 16 of the 19 tanks to rise and destroying decades of biological material.

Today, the president decided that the University Administration (UF) will change its name to Professional Services (GVS).

This spring, the university management will be visiting KI’s departments in a series of meetings, and the 6 March the university management will visit GPH for a departmental meeting with the GPH management group. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss how to strengthen dialogue and collaboration and work forward.

January is already turning into February, but I’d still like to take this opportunity to welcome everyone back to a new year at KI! 2024 began with our first departmental meetings with the departments of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics (LIME) and the department of Clinical Sciences, Danderyd Hospital (KI DS) on 17 January.

Now you can read the 2024 operational plan for the professional services at KI in Swedish and English. It is a new model that the departments within professional services, the University Library and the units Teaching and Learning, and Medical History and Cultural Heritage are the first to test for 2024.

This spring, the university management will be visiting KI’s departments in a series of meetings, the focus of which will be not only their activities but also how we at KI can strengthen dialogue and cooperation going forward. The meetings series kicked off with KI DS and LIME on 17 January.

Minister for Health Care Acko Ankarberg Johansson had a busy schedule when she visited Karolinska Institutet, where she spent an afternoon discussing research conditions and how to create sustainable infrastructures that can increase the interaction between education, research, development and healthcare today and tomorrow.

The year is ending, and President Annika Östman Wernerson, University Director Veronika Sundström and Vice President Martin Bergö express their gratitude in a filmed Christmas greeting.

As the year draws to a close, I would like to join Vice President Martin Bergö and University Director Veronika Sundström in taking this opportunity to thank all our staff and students for the important work you have done in 2023.

In the fall of 2023, the university management presented nine focus areas for KI's future development, major issues that affect all employees and students at KI. "Our conscious strategy has been to try to listen to and understand what Karolinska Institutet needs here and now," says President Annika Östman Wernerson.

Starting next year, all employees of Karolinska Institutet will be entitled to a higher wellness allowance. The wellness allowance is a tax-free grant that staff can use for different kinds of exercise and is set to be increased from SEK 1,500 to SEK 3,000 per year.

KI has appointed three new deans who will take office in January 2024. The three deans have been selected from a group of about ten applicants.

The Ministry of Education and Research has recently tasked Bertil Lindahl with producing source material for a renegotiation of the national ALF agreement (ref. no U2022/02845). The ALF is a national agreement entered into between the government and certain regions on collaboration on medical education, clinical research and healthcare development.

His mission is to lead and develop the IT Office and contribute to KI’s continued digitization journey. Mattias Nordström has been the acting IT director since his predecessor Joakim Winter left last summer.

The nomination assembly has, through electronic voting, appointed three new members to KI´s faculty council.

Karolinska Institutet has recently defined nine strategic focus areas to support the university’s growth, with the long-term objective of realising our vision. Work is now underway to concretise each focus area. Track the progress on a new page of the Staff Portal.

KI’s residential management conference in October among deans, heads of department, administrative managers, academic vice presidents and heads of office proved as conducive to healthy debate as it was to pleasant socialising. Our discussions were based on the nine focus areas that have crystallised out of our dialogue with students, staff and managers about what KI needs to focus on in order to attain the goals and vision set out in Strategy 2030.

Next spring, the National Museum of Science and Technology will be opening a branch – called The Cell – in Stockholm’s Hagastaden, with KI as knowledge partner. The Cell will be a venue where science meets art through fascinating and inspirational activities designed to educate and engage more people in the development of tomorrow’s life science field.

Last Wednesday (11 October), the Research Funding Commission presented its report to Minister of Education Mats Persson. Its findings are likely to inform a forthcoming bill reflecting the government’s research and innovation policy.

When the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine were announced last Monday, what was being rewarded was their far-sighted basic research, the discoveries they made that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.

As of January, next year, a new term of office for KI's Deans will begin. Deans have a line assignment and are appointed by the President. The role is undergoing change and development - an important task for the new Deans will be to participate in this process. As a Dean, you are part of the Faculty Board. It is the university management's intention to clarify the Dean's assignment in KI's line organization.

We’re now a few weeks into the term, and our students - both freshers and those who have returned after the summer break – have been welcomed to Karolinska Institutet. We were once all at the start of our student careers – we need to remember this, to inspire the coming generation and include them in an enjoyable student life.

The university management has decided that the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition (BioNut) is to be wound up and its activities merged with the Department of Medicine in Huddinge (MedH). The reorganisation is scheduled to be completed by 30 June 2024.

Students and employees have now the opportunity to nominate candidates for the academic election of three new members to the Faculty Council.

Lifestyles, the pandemic and dental care were some of the topics under discussion when Minister for Social Affairs and Public Health Jakob Forssmed visited Karolinska Institutet on 28 August, the same day as the autumn term kicked off.

On August 22, Magnus Håkansson took office as head of security at KI and as head of the security unit at the university administration.