News archive

In today's complex world, ethical issues are particularly important. Marie Chenik, senior advisor, monitors a wide range of sources, including leading newspapers from around the world, to gather the latest news on ethics in areas ranging from politics and religion to healthcare. "The ethics newsletter" is distributed free of charge once a week to anyone interested in the subject. A report on the first 350 newsletters is now available.

There is a large discrepancy between the number of human ethics applications submitted to the Swedish Ethical Review Authority by KI researchers, and the number of applications registered at KI. Applications and decisions by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority for human research at KI need to be registered at KI (diarieföring), according to the KI guidelines for recordkeeping. We therefore need to see to that this is done and create a process for this at FyFa.

We have room for three more participants on the doctoral course “3073 Philosophy of Science and the Concept of Health” (1.5 credits).

Several high-profile cases of intimidation, harassment and imprisoned researchers demonstrate that academic freedom is under considerable pressure. In May 2022, KI highlighted the situation during the seminar "Academic freedom and international collaboration in a turbulent world."

In May, KI held a seminar on academic freedom and international collaborations. The event explored the question of how research is impacted by a world that is characterized by war, conflict and democratic decline. It is not enough to develop new guidelines; actions need to be based on personal responsibility, says KI President Ole Petter Ottersen.

Collections of human remains were once a common feature of medical universities, where they were used for both education and research. Karolinska Institutet itself was home to some 800 skulls and other bones, which were kept in boxes stored in specially designated places – where they have remained untouched for decades. This – and more besides – was the subject of a seminar arranged by KI’s Ethics Council on Tuesday.

The KI Ethics Council has issued a statement condemning the increasingly hostile tone of debate, especially in connection with COVID-19.

The global shutdown during the pandemic is particularly harmful to children and teenagers in the poorer parts of the world, said Professor Anna Mia Ekström during an ethics seminar held at KI in November. Also participating at the seminar was state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell.

Karolinska Institutet’s president Ole Petter Ottersen has set up a resource team for research ethics in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. The team comprises four experts from KI, one of whom is Niklas Juth, senior lecturer and docent of medical ethics and group convenor.

Professor Claes Frostell has been named scientific representative at KI for a period of two years starting September 1, 2019.

[This article has been revised] On 21 March 2017 the paper “Experimental orthotopic transplantation of a tissue-engineered oesophagus in rats”, published in Nature Communications, was retracted by the authors due to technical flaws in the article that was discovered in an investigation.

2016 saw a dramatic increase in the number of cases of misconduct in research, says Jörgen Svidén, Administrative Director at the Central Ethical Review Board (CEPN). Many cases concerned Karolinska Institutet and Paolo Macchiarini’s research.