News archive

STINT, the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education, annually publishes an index measuring the internationalisation of Swedish higher education institutions. It has now given the maximum of five stars to Karolinska Institutet.

Lifestyles, the pandemic and dental care were some of the topics under discussion when Minister for Social Affairs and Public Health Jakob Forssmed visited Karolinska Institutet on 28 August, the same day as the autumn term kicked off.

Karolinska Institutet has a long-standing collaboration with the global biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. In a recently published feature article in Drug Discovery Today, academic and industry representatives describe three success factors that help to leverage the strength of these types of partnerships: mutual collaboration, mutually beneficial science, and a mutual governance model with senior management involvement (3MCs).

The Government has appointed a new research committee - a group of experts - to act as advisors prior to their upcoming Research and Innovation Policy Bill. KI researcher Anna Wedell is one of the fifteen elected members.

Karolinska University Hospital's Director Björn Zoëga and Karolinska Institutet's President Annika Östman Wernerson have signed an agreement to establish a joint center for advanced cell, gene and tissue therapies.

Global Disaster Medicine - Health Needs and Responses is part of a consortium led by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, called IPA Care, that aims to address the needs of countries on Western Balkan, along with Turkey, to strengthen their ability to prevent risks related to earthquakes and other health emergencies.

Congratulations to Samer Yammine at the Department of learning, informatics, management and ethics (LIME), who received the award "Male entrepreneurship educator of the year", an award included in The Triple E Awards!

To bring Sweden’s presidency of the EU to a close, the government is arranging a European Life Science conference to be held at Karolinska Institutet’s Aula Medica on 26–27 June. The theme of the conference is precision medicine, and KI – along with Karolinska University Hospital – has helped to draw up the programme.

Almost a hundred experts from 27 countries took part in a hackathon on June 17–18 to identify diseases in 14 patients lacking diagnoses. “Four of them have now received an answer and we’re confident that more are to come,” says professor and consultant Ann Nordgren, who was one of the organizers of the event.

A new DNA-based COVID-19 vaccine is now being tested for the first time on healthy volunteers at Karolinska University Hospital. The vaccine has been developed at Karolinska Institutet and target multiple parts of the virus, making it less vulnerable to mutated strains and potentially effective against new variants.

Creative ideas were born when the NeurotechEU alliance arranged a hackathon at Karolinska Institutet. “Activities like this highlight the value of having people from other disciplines and countries – and at different stages of their careers – engage in cross-border innovative processes with each other,” says KI president Annika Östman Wernerson.

KI-Region Stockholm is the ALF region that best meets the quality criteria in the National Board of Health and Welfare’s evaluation of academic healthcare (USV). The results of the evaluation were compiled into a report published on 31 May. Research is the Stockholm region’s strongest area, but the report also comments positively on its innovation, pedagogics education and interaction with patients and their families.

The SiiUss project (Sustainability, Inclusiveness, Integration for University Support Services), is a collaborative initiative between Karolinska Institutet and the University of the Philippines Diliman. The project introduces the SiiUss course, a learning platform designed to enhance professional development and foster sustainability, inclusiveness, and integration within university support services. The course just started with participants from both universities.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a molecular method able to detect whether or not bacteria respond to antibiotics within minutes. The findings are presented in the journal Nature Microbiology and the researchers now hope to develop a simple test for doctors to use.

An important meeting was held on 11 May in Aula Medica for the KI-Region Stockholm management group. It turned out to be a packed strategy day that focused on common issues facing the group, including the work following on from the recently released Swedish Research Council audit, conducted under the ALF evaluation.

Biobank Sweden has teamed up with the Swedish regions and the National Pandemic Centre (NPC) at Karolinska Institutet to produce a new process that gives researchers access to 1.5 million COVID-19 samples. The samples are stored at the NPC and researchers applying to use them must first seek ethical approval.

Between 13 and 19 March 2023, neuroscientists around the world took the initiative to spread the word about the importance of brain science as part of the "Brain Awareness Week". The Strategic Neuroscience Research Network (StratNeuro) at Karolinska Institutet took the opportunity to initiate a recurring outreach event to spark enthusiasm and raise awareness for neuroscience research, which was also part of the global campaign.

Alone, remotely, in the middle of a pandemic – this is how life in the Brussels office of the University Alliance Stockholm Trio began for the EU veteran Dan Andrée. It went at half-speed at first, but now, two and half years later, the office in the EU’s political cradle is bursting with activities.

Close on 500 colleagues in the cancer field from Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institutet gathered in Aula Medica during this year’s Karolinska CCC conference on 30–31 March. Also attending were Sahlgrenska CCC and Skåne CCC.

“We’re delighted, and the VR’s rating gives us even more leverage for our work,” says Anders Gustafsson, former vice president of KI, who has helped lead the work on the national evaluation of the quality of clinical research that has now been published by the Swedish Research Council (VR). The ALF evaluation is based on the agreement that regulates KI’s collaboration with Region Stockholm on medical training, clinical research and care development.

Region Stockholm has been given a high-quality rating by the Swedish Research Council (VR) in its evaluation of the quality of clinical research and how it is transformed into patient and societal benefit. The evaluation is important in many respects, including to the distribution of government ALF (Agreement on Clinical Research and Training) funds.

Region Stockholm has launched a new action plan for precision medicine in the region. The plan, which was devised in consultation with Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital, will allow more patients to benefit from the research being done in the field of precision medicine.

Readership of news articles written by KI researchers for The Conversation jumped 62 percent on the year in 2022. Since KI became a member two years ago, 43 researchers have penned over 42 articles, reaching around 3.8 million readers worldwide. “I have never experienced such a response to my research before,” says postdoc Filip Gedin.

Minister for Education Mats Persson met researchers and students when he visited Karolinska Institutet on 1 February. Topics of discussion with the students included the conditions relating to clinical placements, student funding rules and the situation for overseas students and doctoral students. The researchers, for their part, talked about the progress being made in areas such as precision medicine and about KI’s preparedness for new health crises.

In September 2O22 the HoliCare project was launched under the coordination of KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and gathering 14 partners across Africa and Europe including Karolinska Institutet. The project’s ambition is to tackle the challenge of diagnostics, treatment and prevention of Respiratory Tract Infections (RTIs), the leading cause of death in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).

Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institutet are creating Sweden’s first innovation environment for the development of precision medicine technologies. The decision to establish a join innovation environment for healthcare, research and precision medicine technologies in Solna and Huddinge is a vital step in growing the field of precision medicine.

Karolinska Institutet and Cancer Research UK’s innovation engine, Cancer Research Horizons, have announced a 5-year strategic partnership dedicated to accelerating the translation of academic cancer research into improved treatments for patients.

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.

During a visit to Sweden this week, WHO Europe’s director Dr Hans Kluge had time for a brief, but cordial, visit to KI. Dr Kluge met with Vice President Anders Gustafsson and the director of the Centre for Health Crises, Professor Johan von Schreeb, along with the centre’s strategic process leader Dr Anna Zorzet. The quartet talked about matters of common interest and about initiatives related to health crises in particular.

The two-day conference, Collaboration in Science 2022, is held on 6 and 7 October at KI’s Campus Flemingsberg. During the conference, participants will learn about the extensive research being conducted at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital.

EU-OPENSCREEN is a European network that provides infrastructure for high-capacity screening in chemical biology and early identification of drug candidates. As of July 2022, Sweden is represented in the network, through the Chemical Biology Consortium Sweden (CBCS) at Karolinska Institutet, one of two selected Swedish nodes.

Research at Karolinska Institutet in collaboration with the Swedish Armed Forces and NATO could lead to more people surviving gun violence and provide answers on how to stop severe bleeding.

Karolinska Institutet (KI) has been assigned the task of hosting the national node for data-driven life science in precision medicine and diagnostics. By developing and providing support and optimal conditions, the aim is to drive research in this area forwards regionally, nationally and internationally.

In the spring of 2022, the network Senior Faculty at KI conducted a survey on the activities of KI professors born in or before 1953. The results show that the professors are still heavily engaged in research and bring close to SEK 300 million a year into the university.  

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.

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."

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.

One of KI’s largest international collaborations is with Makerere University in Uganda. In time for Makerere’s 100th anniversary, the partnership is to manifest itself in a Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health. A delegation from KI travelled in May to Uganda to cement the relationship.

Two of this year’s honorary doctors, HRH Prince Daniel and Soumya Swaminathan, took part in a seminar on sustainable health arranged by Karolinska Institutet on Friday 29 April. The discussions centred around prevention and long-term health.

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.

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.

Almost 500 employees gathered in Aula Medica on 1 April when Karolinska Comprehensive Cancer Centre (Karolinska CCC) celebrated its second anniversary since accreditation by honouring its employees and the collaboration between Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital.

The Centre for Health Crises at Karolinska Institutet is now a member of the WHO’s network GOARN – Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network. Via the network, the Centre for Health Crises can contribute with staff and resources to health emergencies and crises around the world.

On March 16 the Minister for International Development Cooperation visited Karolinska Institutet to discuss current research about vaccination and development cooperation for health. The visit was made in conjunction with National Vaccination Week, which has the aim of achieving more people being vaccinated against Covid 19.

Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital have strengthened collaboration within precision medicine by establishing the Precision Medicine Centre Karolinska (PMCK) and have now entered into a unique cooperation agreement.

The February sun was glittering in the glazed facades when Karolinska Institutet welcomed Minister for Education Anna Ekström on Monday 28 February. Meanwhile, the situation grew gloomier in Ukraine, which was demonstrated by, amongst other things, a lecture in disaster medicine.

His excellency the Ambassador of Japan to Sweden, Masaki Noke, visited KI on 24th November, 2022, to explore the institution and world leading research ongoing at KI.

The EU-funded research network Vaccelerate has now opened a European volunteer-registry of study participants for research on COVID-19 vaccines. The aim of this initiative is to boost the capacity for clinical studies on COVID-19 vaccines in the EU, but also to support vaccine research in future pandemics.

Over the course of two half-days students, researchers, & implementers from a range of disciplines gathered online to examine matters of inequity and vulnerability in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Nordic countries. The event was hosted by the Nordic Pandemic Network, an interdisciplinary collaboration on COVID-19 & its impact in the Nordic region, which KI is a part of along with The University of Copenhagen, Roskilde University, University of Stavanger & Hanken School of Economics.