News archive

In clinical studies, new methods and treatments are tested on humans under controlled conditions. However, clinical treatment studies are often very expensive to carry out and require resources that allow many different professional groups to work together. The Swedish Cancer Society has now decided on an extra allocation of grants to ten researchers for clinical studies. Six of these are researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

The Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund's allocation reflects the needs that exist in areas such as new technology and precision medicines. This year's call for proposals means that SEK 125 million will be allocated to 62 projects in the field of childhood cancer, of which SEK 35,400,000 will go to researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

The Swedish Research Council has awarded project grants for international collaborations in rare diseases (EJP RD). Of the seven researchers awarded grants, four are researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

We congratulate Daniel C Andersson, Johanna Lanner, Jon Lundberg, Carl Johan Sundberg, and Eddie Weitzberg, researchers at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology (FyFa), for securing grants from the Swedish Heart Lung Foundation in 2023. In total SEK 5,9 million has been awarded the researchers at FyFa.

Eight researchers at the Department of Neuroscience have been awarded project grants from the Swedish Research Council in the category of medicine and health.

A new laboratory for MRI examinations was recently inaugurated at Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge. The purchase of a new MRI scanner, following a donation from the Erling Persson Foundation, creates completely new opportunities for the Stockholm Region and Karolinska Institutet for both doctors and researchers.

The Swedish Research Council has decided on the applications to be awarded grants within clinical therapy research. In total, almost SEK 210 million is granted for the years 2023-2027 to 28 researchers. Ten of them are researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

In conjunction with KI's visit to Tokyo in February 2023, connected to a workshop within Stockholm Trio for a sustainable future, we hosted an alumni event for about seventy guests from KI, KTH and SU. The evening offered, among other things, a talk with KI alumnus Takeaki Dohda, currently director of investments at Google in Tokyo (left in picture). With alumni, students, researchers and university representatives on site, collaboration was the thread of the day.

Professor Gonçalo Castelo-Branco and Professor Jonas Frisén, Karolinska Institutet, are awarded distinguished professor grants from the Swedish Research Council, totalling just over SEK 62 million for the years 2024–2031.

KI researcher Goran Papenberg has been granted a project grant from the Swedish Research Council for his research on the brain's ability to produce new neurons and its relevance for long-term memory and depression in aging.

Of the 31 researchers appointed Wallenberg Academy Fellow this year, five will be active at Karolinska Institutet. The five-year grant is awarded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and provides young, promising research leaders with long-term research funding in Sweden.

KI-researcher Pauliina Damdimopoulou has been awarded a EUR 2 million ERC Consolidator Grant (European Research Council) for the SAFER project (SAfeguarding female FERtility-development of human-relevant in vitro tools for reproductive toxicity). The research will investigate the impact of commonly occurring environmental chemical contaminants on women's reproductive health. The grant is awarded under Horizon Europe, the EU's programme for research and innovation.

We wish to congratulate the six researchers at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition (BioNut) at Karolinska Institutet, who has received funding from Cancerfonden for the years 2024 to 2026. Together the researchers at our department received more than SEK 21 millions.

Congratulations to the researchers at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (NVS) who were awarded grants from The Swedish Research Council in the call for Medicine and Health 2023. Together they received in total 19,2 million SEK.

Neuroförbundet distributes close to SEK 14 million to three ALS research projects. The research should contribute to better nursing, new medicines and precision medicines.

KI researcher Stefan Skare receives funding from Barncancerfonden (the Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund) for the development of motion-robust MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) methods for examining awake children with brain and spinal cord tumors. The project receives a total of SEK 3.9 million over three years.

Congratulations to the eight researchers at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition (BioNut), Karolinska Institutet, who have received grants from the Swedish Research Council. Together they received more than SEK 27 million in total.

SSMF (Swedish Society for Medical Research) is aimed at researchers in all fields of medicine and supports basic research as well as applied research. In the autumn of 2023, seven researchers from Karolinska Institutet have been awarded grants.

KI researchers Anders Kvanta and Fredrik Lanner have been awarded a grant of SEK 10 million from the Erling-Persson Foundation for a clinical phase 1 trial on macular degeneration, a common age-related eye disease. By transplanting retinal cells from embryonic stem cells, the researchers hope to curb any further loss of vision and ultimately recover lost sight.

MedTechLabs has granted SEK 35 million for two new medical technology research programmes. One will develop a new method for monitoring foetal oxygenation during labour. The other will develop a new method for early diagnosis of brain diseases using MR-Elastography.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet are awarded close to SEK 93 million in Forte's annual open call for proposals. The projects, which will run until 2027, span all of Forte's areas - health, working life and welfare. This year, a total of 20 projects at KI have been granted funding.

The EPIC project (Eukaryotic Post-TranscrIptional Code) has been awarded a ERC Synergy Grant of EUR 10 million to be shared by Vicente Pelechano, Karolinska Institutet, and his two partners Kevin Verstrepen, VIB-KU Leuven, Belgium, and Julien Gagneur, Technical University of Munich, Germany.

The project CartoHostBug (Funtional cartography of intestinal host-microbiome interactions) has been awarded an ERC Synergy Grant of EUR 10 million, which is shared between four researchers, among them Eduardo Villablanca, senior researcher at Karolinska Institutet. The aim of the project is to map how disturbances in the gut microbiome can lead to inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer.

The project D2Smell (Digitising Smell: From Natural Statistics of Olfactory Perceptual Space to Digital Transmission of Odors) has been awarded an ERC Synergy Grant of EUR 11.8 million, which is shared between three researchers: Johan Lundström, Karolinska Institutet, Noam Sobel, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, and Jonathan Williams, Max Planck Society, Germany. The interdisciplinary collaboration aims to digitally transfer scents to recreate them in another location.

We wish to congratulate Professor Eckardt Treuter, at the Department of Biosciences and Nutriton, Karolinska Institutet, who has received the Novo Nordisk Foundation Project Grant in Endocrinology & Metabolism 2023, for a project on "Role of monocyte enhancers and silencers in inflammatory type 2 diabetes" (2 years, DKK 2 million).

New technologies open new possibilities for groundbreaking research. StratNeuro aims to support the development and dissemination of new technologies and therefore announces a new funding call.

Researchers at the Ageing Research Centre have been awarded a number of grants from Demensfonden, Stiftelsen Sigurd och Elsa Goljes minne, Stiftelsen Ragnhild och Einar Lundströms minne, as well as the SfoEpi Consolidator grant, for studies on the health and well-being of older people. In addition, ARC is involved in a project within preventive and health-promoting interventions that has been granted funding from Forte.

Two researchers at Karolinska Institutet have been awarded ERC Starting Grants, totalling 3 million euro over five years. Kasper Karlsson and Juan Pablo Lopez will each receive EUR 1.5 million for projects that aim to fight cancer in children and understand how psychedelic compounds can be used to treat psychiatric disorders.

According to UNICEF, approximately one in five young people suffer from mental health issues, which in turn often leads to risk-taking with alcohol, tobacco and drugs. In the long run, it can cause lifelong health impairments in adulthood. In a three-year project coordinated by Karolinska Institutet, a method used to improve young people’s wellbeing in India, Kenya, the U.S. and Colombia is being evaluated to see if it can work in other parts of the world.

StratNeuro awards a total of 15 MSEK to support Collaborative Neuroscience Projects.

Since the summer of 2022, KI has been granted approximately SEK 280 million for a total of 33 different projects. The funds come from several research programs within the EU, of which Horizon Europe, EU's framework program for research and innovation, is the largest.

Federico Iovino and his lab members have been awarded with a grant from the ItsME Foundation to enable their research on the prevention of neuronal damage caused by bacterial infections. The ItsME Foundation was founded in 2019 by Jur Deitmers and has its base in The Netherlands, with the goal to fight Meningitis and Encephalitis.

Jenny Mjösberg at the Department of Medicine in Huddinge at Karolinska Institutet, receives the 2023 Eric K. Fernström Prize for young, promising and successful researchers, for her outstanding research on the role of innate lymphoid cells in various diseases.

The European University of Brain and Technology, NeurotechEU, of which Karolinska Institutet is one of nine partners, is pleased to announce the availability of ten competitive funds for short-term travel for faculty, staff, postdoctoral fellows, students and/or trainees between the partner institutions to plan or conduct collaborative projects.

Professor Magnus Ingelman-Sundberg has been awarded an ERC Proof of Concept Grant, which is aimed at researchers who have previously been funded by the European Research Council and now want to explore the innovation potential of their previous project. The grant will be used to further develop a hepatic model for liver disease and identify potential new drugs and drug targets.

The StratNeuro Start-up Grant is intended to support outstanding Neuroscience researchers at the beginning of their careers, who have received a Vetenskapsrådet (VR) starting grant or a Karolinska Institutet faculty-funded assistant professor grant.

Three professors at Karolinska Institutet – Gonçalo Castelo-Branco, Maria Eriksson and Björn Högberg – have been awarded ERC Advanced Grants, one of the most prestigious and competitive EU funding schemes. The funds, totaling more than 8 million euros, will support the use of innovative basic research methods to further our understanding of disease mechanisms and the tiniest building blocks of DNA.

Katie Healy at the Department of Dental Medicine and Sebastian Ols at the Department of Medicine in Solna, receive the Sven Gard's scholarship 2023. Sven Gard's scholarship is awarded annually for the best dissertation in virology. The scholarship takes place as a result of nomination.

Mats Hallgren receives a grant of 3 930 000 SEK for the project “Post covid-19 as a threat to healthy ageing: a randomized controlled trial of yoga to improve quality of life”.

StratNeuro announces grants for Collaborative Neuroscience Research Projects.

The StratNeuro Visiting Scholars funding aims to attract outstanding scholars from non-Swedish universities for short-term visits (1-6 months long). This call aims to support new international collaborations and scientific exchange within the Karolinska Institutet Neuroscience community. We encourage applications for Visiting Scholars from our NeurotechEU partner universities. For the Visiting Scholar this is an opportunity to engage with neuroscientists at the Karolinska Institutet.

The StratNeuro Bridging Grant at the consolidator level is a funding initiative where StratNeuro awards outstanding researchers in the field of neuroscience at Karolinsk Institutet, who have not been awarded the KI consolidator grant or equivalent, giving them the opportunity to consolidate their research.

Two KI researchers – Simon Elsässer and Magda Bienko – have been awarded 2022 European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grants totaling four million euro (nearly 45 million Swedish kronor). The funds will support two ambitious basic research projects that aim to further our understanding of the complex nature of our cells.

Congratulations to Professor Marie Löf at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition who has received MSEK 4.9 from the Kamprad Family Foundation for Entrepreneurship, Research & Charity. Her research project is on "Promoting positive mental health during pregnancy with a digital tool (HealthyMoms4MentalHealth-app): Effectiveness and implementation in maternity health care".

The Cancer and Allergy Fund has awarded a grant of SEK 4.2 million to 23 patient-end projects on cancer and allergies. Of these, fifteen researchers at nine departments at Karolinska Institutet are to share SEK 2.5 million.

In its recent call, the Swedish Research Council has awarded in excess of SEK 19 million for six projects at KI. The project receiving the largest grant aims to study the long-term impact of the pandemic on the lifestyle and health of young adults.

David Marlevi, Enric Llorens and Onur Dagliyan have been awarded the 2022 ERC Starting Grant. Their projects concern multiscale imaging for cardiovascular diseases, self-repairing injured tissues in mammals and new molecular technology for cellular circuits.

In the latest calls from the Swedish Research Council, researchers at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition were awarded grants for the years 2023-2026.

We wish to congratulate the grantees!

Congratulations to all the researchers at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition (BioNut) who received funding from Cancerfonden for the years 2023-2025.

The StratNeuro Bridging Grant at the consolidator level is a funding initiative where StratNeuro awards up to two consolidator level grants to support outstanding researchers in the field of neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet.