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A delegation from Karolinska Institutet (KI), led by KI President Annika Östman Wernerson, travelled to Uganda and Rwanda in November 2024. The delegation visited Makerere University in Uganda and met with representatives from the University of Rwanda and the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda, emphasizing Karolinska Institutet’s commitment to global collaborations, which rely on strong relationships, contextual knowledge, and robust infrastructure.

Makerere University in Uganda and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have been collaborating for nearly 25 years. On November 11th 2024 they celebrated their successful partnership during an alumni event at Makerere University's College of Health Sciences in Kampala, Uganda. The event highlighted their achievements, including a joint doctoral program that has supported nearly 50 Makerere doctoral students, many earning double degrees, and the publication of over 500 peer-reviewed articles.

During the month of December, food waste management will be introduced in all of KI's buildings. When the food waste is sorted out from other waste, it can be recovered and used as, for example, biogas and biofertilizers. It reduces the burden on the environment and contributes to sustainable development. This has been mandatory for all households and businesses in Sweden since 1 January 2024.

Karolinska Institutet has produced a new environmental policy to tackle present and future environmental and sustainability challenges. The environmental policy describes the intentions and directions of KI’s work with environmental sustainability. In integrating the environmental perspective throughout the organisation, KI will make an active health-focused contribution to addressing society’s key environmental and climate challenges.

On 23 October, the Stockholm Trio University Alliance hosted a seminar at Karolinska Institutet on how interdisciplinary research and education can contribute to sustainable development. The seminar was organized by Stockholm Trio for Sustainable Actions, an initiative within the alliance that supports Karolinska Institutet, KTH and Stockholm University in their work to contribute to the UN's 17 global goals.

This call aims to facilitate new and existing contacts as well as increase research collaboration with the University College London and Karolinska Institutet.

We all recognise the scene from countless horror movies and thrillers. A new, unknown virus is spreading. Panic ensues! Suddenly, the streets of New York are filled with people in yellow hazmat suits with big helmets, carrying stretchers where people lie writhing in terrible agony. But what is does it really look like when we prepare for and manage communicable diseases? The Centre for Health Crises’ expert coordinator knows more.

Some health crises occur suddenly and intensely, for example in the event of an armed attack or an earthquake. Others come more stealthily. One of the clearest and most worrying examples of an insidious health crisis is antibiotic resistance, which will be addressed at a high-level meeting of the United Nations in September.

Correct and functioning diagnostics are a basic prerequisite for knowing what is happening and what it is we are dealing with, both in everyday life, but not least in a health crisis. Therefore, the need for adaptable and scalable laboratory and diagnostic capabilities is central to rapid and adequate management in many health crises, whether infectious diseases or chemical spills.

Healthcare is a societal function that needs to function both in everyday life and in a health crisis. In any health crisis, be it a natural disaster, war in an unstable Europe or a new pandemic, the number of patients in need of care will increase. Among them, a certain proportion will be critically ill in need of intensive care. This will require difficult decisions and prioritisation from their doctors.

Preparedness Week 2024 has started. The theme for the year is "Get started" and around the country, municipalities, regions, civil society organizations and many more are investing in information and communication campaigns. But what exactly is preparedness?

The KI fun run was a fantastic afternoon filled with community, joy and movement! With over 350 participants, 33 teams and 22 officials, we created a wonderful atmosphere.

KI’s ambition is to halve its emissions of greenhouse gases by 2030 and become climate neutral. In 2018, KI topped the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s list of the ten public authorities with the greatest CO₂ footprint from long-haul flights. It is gratifying to find that in its 2023 environmental management report, KI is no longer on that list.

The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) will be teaming up with specialists from KI again this year for a vaccinology course aimed at healthcare professionals and researchers from around the world. The course also now forms part of doctoral education at KI.

In the wake of the green transition, new risks are emerging in people's work environments, says Karin Broberg, professor at the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet. "It goes very quickly from a pilot to being scaled up to become the next generation of fuel or to become the next plant for how to recycle plastic," she says. At the end of the year, her research team will publish a study on the work environment in Sweden for those involved in recycling metals.

Unicef is launching a report written by two KI researchers that describes the devastating consequences of climate change for children's health globally. The report summarises research from the field and over 30 experts. It identifies the six main climate hazards and shows that they pose a serious threat to children's health and well-being.

In 2021, Makerere University in Uganda and Karolinska Institutet established the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health based on their strong partnership. The Centre aims to develop capacity and mobilise actions to drive the agenda for sustainable health. We asked the current and former Chairs of the steering committee about the Centre's significance and its impact.

KI has presented this year’s sustainability award to Assistant Senior Lecturer Emma Swärdh for her dedication and leadership in the field of sustainable development. Created in 2023, the award was presented at KI’s Sustainability Day on 22 May for the second time. “I hope that it will inspire more people to get involved in sustainability issues,” she says.

Today, 5 June, we celebrate World Environment Day. Fittingly, the 2024 report from the Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC) was completed a couple of weeks earlier. Since its publication in May, the KI students who led the work can proudly present improved grades for the medical programme and one new programme in the report: the physiotherapy programme.

The University Alliance Stockholm Trio, comprising Karolinska Institutet, KTH, and Stockholm University, is proud to announce the opening of a new call for interdisciplinary collaborations in education and research. To compete for funding, applications must include all three universities, address Agenda 2030, and involve research or education. Interested? Apply before September 30th!

Karolinska Institutet and Makerere University in Uganda have been working together for over 20 years. In 2021 they established a Centre based on their strong partnership to bring people together, recognize their health challenges and mobilize actions towards well-being. Today the Centre provides tools, resources and training programs for researchers, students, professionals and policy makers globally.

The EU Horizon Changemaker project, led by Kristi Sidney Annerstedt, on sustainable adolescent nutrition in Kenya, Tanzania and Burkina Faso, successfully completed the first Consortium meeting.

Nina Viberg and Tobias Alfvén have received funding from the Swedish Institute for a one year project to support Ukrainian PhD students and young researchers. The aim of the project is to build capacity for PhD student and young researcher so that they can effectively contribute to health systems strengthening especially for children and adolescents in deoccupied territories in Ukraine.

KTH, SU, and KI, also called the Stockholm Trio, have joined forces for climate action. Part of this collaboration has been a student competition with the overarching theme ”Climate and Health.” Over a two-week period, teams of students have collaborated to tackle challenges on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make the city more resilient to the effects of climate change.

In February, Vice President Martin Bergö visited Makerere University in Uganda, a long-term partner of Karolinska Institutet. As the chairman of the steering committee for the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health (CESH), a collaborative initiative between Karolinska Institutet and Makerere University, he met his counterparts at the university and the college of health sciences, toured research sites, discussed global health challenges, and met with alumni and partners.

Both programs have been running since 2020 at the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health - a collaboration between Karolinska Institutet and Makerere University in Uganda.

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.

The authors of KI's first Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC) are twelve students from KI's various educational programmes. The commitment comes from a common interest and concern for the environment, climate, and planetary health.

Counting down to Christmas, a calendar of delight,
Each day's a surprise, keeping you active and bright.
Jump, walk, dance - a festive move to unfold,
In this active calendar, warmth and wellness to hold!

With only six years left until 2030 when the Sustainable Development Goals are to be achieved, this year's Sustainability Forum was organised with a focus on the role of universities in sustainability work. The organisers were the University Alliance Stockholm Trio. 

Hanna Karlsson and Sara Widén are the first ever recipients of KI’s new Sustainability Award, which they have earned in recognition of their efforts to support the KI faculty on issues of sustainability.

We asked three managers at KI Biobank about the main lessons they take away from last year.

Vice President Anders Gustafsson shares his thoughts on leadership and working methods based on lessons learned from the pandemic.

Representatives from centres within Stockholm trio met at KI for a breakfast meeting and a chance to engage in conversations about activities and collaborations within the topic of climate and health. The collaboration group on climate and health creates spaces and opportunities for interdisciplinary cooperation in this wide and complex field.

Karolinska Institutet signs an agreement on collaboration with Huddinge municipality – the focus will be on equity in health and prevention, for a healthy life. On Tuesday, October 25, KI's President Ole Petter Ottersen and Huddinge municipality’s Director Camilla Broo signed the agreement.

Through the Horizon Europe programme, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have been granted large financial grants for approximately 20 different projects aimed at solving various societal challenges in health. One of the projects will explore the possibility of creating a common system for the reuse of already approved medicines to treat various diseases.

“Our planet, our health – an intergenerational dialogue” – the title of this year’s Rosling Seminar at Karolinska Institutet. The seminar, which was held 5 October, was jointly arranged by KI and the WHO with participants attending on site and online.

The students' association IFMSA runs the Vår hälsa brinner (Our health is on fire) campaign to raise awareness and educate about the health impacts of climate change. Students see a need to work concretely on the issue, not least during their medical training. They have made an alphabet series illustrating the impact of climate change on public health and hold educational workshops. During Politician's Week in Almedalen, they held a workshop and distributed posters with the alphabet.

About half of the Swedish population feels a strong climate worry. This is normal because the climate threat is real, says researcher Fabian Lenhard, who is starting a study on climate change. The research project will be attempting to channel worry about climate change into sustainable development.

Bringing together expertise, offering attractive training and providing a hub for collaboration. This is the vision for the Stockholm Trio for Sustainable Actions - a new initiative from Karolinska Institutet, KTH and Stockholm University to further contribute to sustainable societal development.

Partnership and cooperation are necessary to accelerate the work to achieve the global goals – and this is where academia plays an important role. This emerged during the seminar "New Partnerships for Human and Planetary Health" arranged by Karolinska Institutet, KTH and Stockholm University in May.

The day before the UN’s Stockholm+50 international conference in early June, KI, Stockholm University, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm Environment Institute are arranging a hybrid conference focusing on how scientists, academics and students can influence decision-makers and drive progress towards a sustainable society.

Many of society’s challenges, such as the climate issue, are too complex to be solved singlehandedly by different actors. Partnership and collaboration are necessary if the work of reaching the global goals is to be accelerated – and here academia plays an important part. This is the view of representatives of the Stockholm Trio, ahead of their May seminar showcasing how they mobilise to improve the health of people and the planet.

The organisation Climate Students recently published the report Climate Action Ranking, where they rank Sweden's higher education institutions according to their climate work. In this year’s report, KI came in third place.

Line Gordon and Tobias Alfvén participated in Nobel Calling Stockholm 2021 with a lecture arranged by Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm Resilience Center at Stockholm University. Focusing on the United Nations Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s latest report, the current state of knowledge about climate and environmental change and how this affects the world's children was summarized and discussed.

The COP26 agreement keeps the 1.5C goal alive and for the first time mentions the role of fossil fuels. The climate transition is about the future of humankind, but medical researchers say it can also have immediate health benefits here and now.

On 31 October, the 13-day UN climate summit COP26 began with the aim of accelerating measures to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Climate Convention. Shervin Shahnavaz, member of the climate network at KI, has in recent weeks focused intensely on climate issues as a result of the meeting.

As many as six photovoltaic power installations have now been put into operation on campus Solna. The installations are located on the roofs of, among others, Widerströmska huset, A Working Lab Innomedicum and the Berzelius Laboratory. Together, the solar cells cover an area of approximately 2,100 square metres and provide the campus area with renewable energy.

On Thursday 16 September the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health (CESH) was inaugurated. It's a digital competence center that has been established together with Makerere University in Uganda. The purpose of the center is to promote sustainable health and contribute to Agenda 2030 with the help of a long-term partnership.

Karolinska Institutet (KI) has been awarded a grant from Sida for a two and a half year capacity development project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Somalia. The project aims to support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.