News archive

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.

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.]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Welcome to a new academic year! Even though many of you have already returned to work after the summer break, it’s certainly when students start returning to our campuses that Karolinska Institutet becomes the gloriously vibrant place that a university is meant to be.

On 17 August the Swedish Security Service raised the terrorist threat level from 3 (elevated) to 4 (high) on a five-point scale on account of the increased threat of terrorism in the country. The Security Service believes that the threat will remain for the foreseeable future, and has raised the level as a signal to all public bodies that they must continue their efforts to reduce the risk of an attack.

I trust that many of you are already heading off on a nice, relaxing holiday and I too will soon be taking a few weeks’ break. But the spring term is an intense one even up to the last minute, and there are a few events and impressions I like to share before sun and sea take over.

The time for a welcome and well-deserved summer break is quickly approaching. It’s a welcome period of recuperation and relaxation, and I myself will be spending it with my family at home and in the Stockholm archipelago, which offers the time and space I need to relax and think creatively.

On 26 April it had been seven years since Ahmadreza Djalali, a Swedish citizen with a PhD in disaster medicine from Karolinska Institutet, was arrested during a visit to Iran.

Together – and with our partners around the world – we perceive the issues that enable KI as a university to generate the most effective societal benefit in everything we do. We cannot contribute in this way alone, we the university management are now inviting all KI staff to dialogue meetings.