News archive

A new research initiative at Karolinska Institutet aims to understand how chronic pain arises and how it might be switched off at its source. The project, “A Game-Changing Therapy for Lasting Pain Relief”, has now received support from the Promobilia Foundation.

The Centre for Health Crises and the research group Global Disaster Medicine will deepen their educational collaboration with Médecins Sans Frontières over the next three years thanks to new support from the Kamprad Family Foundation. The focus is on pre-deployment training that provides skills and tools for delivering healthcare in resource-limited settings, humanitarian disasters, and health crises both globally and locally.

The Cancer Research Funds of Radiumhemmet is to donate SEK 102 million kronor to point-of-care cancer research at KI. The grant is the largest in the history of the Funds and will finance diagnosis-specific research, infrastructure and research positions.

The Cancer and Allergy Fund (Cancer- och allergifonden) is awarding a total of SEK 3,3 million to 19 research projects in the field of cancer and allergy. Of these, eleven researchers at Karolinska Institutet will be awarded SEK 2 million. Several of these projects focus on cancers with poor prognoses, such as pancreatic cancer, where more research and knowledge are needed.

The Promobilia Foundation is donating SEK 25 million to enable four research groups from Karolinska Institutet and Lund University to join forces in a major research project designed to develop new treatment strategies for the fundamental causes of Parkinson’s disease. The quartet will be using innovative methods, including advanced gene therapies and target-specific vectors, which are able not only to reach but also to protect the most vulnerable cells in Parkinson’s disease.

The Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation (Barncancerfonden) has granted SEK 35,3 million to KI for childhood cancer research. This year, the Foundation distributed a total of SEK 145 million to relevant research projects.

Bahira Shahim, researcher and cardiologist at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital, has been awarded the annual SEK six million Prince Daniel’s Grant for Promising Young Researchers by the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation. Her work has the potential to change the way of treating a common heart valve disease, which can cause sudden cardiac death and heart failure.

The Torsten Söderberg Foundation recognises outstanding achievements in medicine through its annual grants. Two researchers from the Department of Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet have been awarded grants in medicine to support their innovative research into brain health and infectious diseases.

The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) is investing SEK 120 million in the development of instruments, technology and methods that will enable scientific breakthroughs. Four researchers at Karolinska Institutet have received a total of almost SEK 35 million for projects that improve diagnostics, develop new therapies and provide researchers with advanced analytical tools.

This year's decision from the Swedish Cancer Society's Research Board means that just over SEK 1 billion will go to new cancer research. It is the largest investment in the history of the Swedish Cancer Society. KI is granted SEK 447.8 million to 104 research projects and 3 planning groups. This year, a special investment is also being made in the area of early detection of cancer.

The Swedish Research Council has decided on a number of calls for proposals in medicine and health for 2025. A total of just over SEK 1.2 billion will be awarded for the years 2025–2031. KI will receive just over SEK 526 million for 102 grants. KI is also being awarded four grants in natural and engineering sciences, and humanities and social sciences, totalling approximately SEK 18.7 million.

Every year, the Swedish Asthma and Allergy Association's Research Fund awards the Kerstin Hejdenberg Scholarship to doctoral students in paediatric allergological research. Four of the recipients of this year's scholarship are researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

Pete Williams, senior lecturer and research group leader at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, has been appointed professor of visual science. The professorship is funded by the Ulla and Ingemar Dahlberg Foundation and has the full name “Ulla and Ingemar Dahlberg's professorship in visual science with specialisation in ocular neurobiology”.

The Swedish Brain Foundation (Hjärnfonden) is making its largest donation to date to Swedish brain research. This year, SEK 152.8 million will be awarded to research projects in neuroscience. A total of 112 research projects in Sweden receive funding, and 39 of these are run at KI.

The Kamprad Family Foundation awards SEK 5 million to Elisabet Rydwik, researcher at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, for her research project on home rehabiltation for the elderly.

A donation of SEK 10 million from the Promobilia Foundation is to provide crucial funding for a project designed to help children, adolescents and adults with motor impairments identify more as physically active and included in sport. The project is led by Ferdinand von Walden, researcher at the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, and Jessica Norrbom, researcher at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Karolinska Institutet.

The Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund (Barncancerfonden) has decided to grant funding for paediatric oncology research over the next one to six years. Diagnoses in focus include brain tumours and leukaemia, the most common childhood cancer diagnoses. Together, 29 researchers will share SEK 64 million. Seven of these researchers work at KI.

A four-year grant from the Bergling Foundation will provide support to Karolinska Institutet’s digital training initiative to help medical students be better at identifying and responding to suicidal children and young adults. The aim of the project is to give prospective doctors the tools they need to deal with young people in the risk zone.

This year, the Swedish Rheumatism Association (Reumatikerförbundet) is awarding almost SEK 14 million to research into rheumatic diseases. What unites many research projects is a clear focus on personalised diagnostics and treatment. Of the total of 87 research projects in this year's allocation, 32 are conducted at KI.

This year's awarded research grant from the Swedish Kidney Foundation (Njurfonden) was a record amount, seven and a half million SEK for kidney research. About half, SEK 3,450,000, goes to projects at Karolinska Institutet.

The grant for ALS research is awarded over a three-year period and pertains to the project ”Validation of PET camera tracer for the examination of motor neurons in ALS and related motor neuron diseases.”

Fellow-KI researchers Anders Kvanta and Fredrik Lanner have been awarded a grant of SEK 10 million from the Promobilia foundation to develop a treatment for inherited retinal diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa (RP), and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). There is currently no effective therapies for these diseases, which are the main cause of blindness in the developed world.

This year, the Asthma and Allergy Association's Research Fund is distributing SEK 8.8 million to important asthma and allergy research. Eight of the researchers who receive grants work at Karolinska Institutet.

Cancer- och allergifonden (the Swedish Cancer and Allergy Fund) is awarding a total of SEK 3.6 million to 21 research projects in the field of cancer and allergy. Of these, twelve researchers at Karolinska Institutet will be awarded SEK 2.3 million. The grants aim to promote groundbreaking research that improves the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cancer and allergies.

The Mats Paulsson Foundations award Jan Johansson, professor at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet, SEK 10 million for research into new innovative treatment methods for Alzheimer's disease. The aim of the research project is to create a new drug that can achieve a breakthrough in the treatment of the most common dementia disease.

Emma Eliasson at the National centre for suicide research and prevention (NASP) has been awarded an establishment grant of 3,744,000 SEK from Forte. This grant will finance a research project aimed at evaluating supportive follow-up calls —Uppföljningssamtal — as a method to reduce suicides in Sweden.

The Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation is awarding more than SEK 80 million to Karolinska Institutet for paediatric oncology research in 2024. The allocation includes 29 projects run by researchers at KI.

Professor Camilla Björkegren at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Karolinska Institutet, is awarded a distinguished professor grant within natural and engineering sciences by the Swedish Research Council. Out of 83 applications, four grants are awarded to four different universities.

The Swedish Research Council has awarded seven different grants, including doctoral programme grants within register-based research and project grants for research on antimicrobial resistance. The grant decisions apply to eleven researchers at KI.

The Swedish Heart Lung Foundation (Hjärt-Lungfonden) has awarded Jonas F. Ludvigsson a 3-year-grant for the project ”Inflammatory bowel disease, inflammation and risk of cardiovascular disease”.

The Swedish Research Council has decided which applications have been awarded grants in clinical therapy research. In total, more than SEK 233 million will be granted for the years 2024-2027, of which SEK 98.5 million will be awarded to 13 researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

Aortic aneurysm involves a risk of the large body artery rupturing, which is directly life-threatening. Hanna Björck, docent at Karolinska Institutet, has now been awarded Prince Daniel's grant for promising young researchers of SEK 6 million to develop future individual treatments.

We congratulate the eleven researchers at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology who have been awarded grants from the Swedish Cancer Society (Cancerfonden) for the period 2025-2027. Together, the CMB researchers are awarded grants of over SEK 40 million.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the foundation Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. In this year's major round of research funding, the foundation's board of directors has decided to fund a total of 77 projects in the humanities and social sciences for a total of just over SEK 370 million. Five of these projects are run by researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

SSMF (Swedish Society for Medical Research) is aimed at researchers in all medical fields and supports basic research as well as applied research. In the autumn of 2024, 21 researchers at Karolinska Institutet have been awarded SSMF Consolidator Grants, Starting Grants and Postdoctoral Grants, respectively.