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Karolinska Institutet’s Election Committee has selected KI’s Professor Annika Östman Wernerson and Uppsala University’s Eva Tiensuu Janson as the two final candidates for the position of university president.

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."

Now that the application and nomination deadlines have passed, the recruitment process for KI president has moved on to the interview stage.

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.

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.

COMMENTARY Last night’s military aggression against Ukraine must be condemned in the strongest possible terms, comments the KI president Ole Petter Ottersen on the military aggression against Ukraine.

Johan von Schreeb, professor of global disaster medicine and director of the Centre for Research on Health Care in Disasters at Karolinska Institutet, has been named director of KI’s newly established Centre for Health Crises. The aim is to create a center based on KI’s knowledge and capability, that finds connections between groups and people, with the aim of increasing preparedness for a new pandemic or health crisis.

Karolinska Institutet (KI) president Ole Petter Ottersen’s term of office expires on 28 February 2023. The KI University Board (Konsistoriet) has therefore decided to begin an open recruitment process to propose a president and appoint a vice-president to take up office on 1 March 2023.

Following a thorough investigation and the collation of an internal survey, the president of Karolinska Institutet (KI), Professor Ole Petter Ottersen, has today decided to change the names of one of the university’s halls, propose name changes for one building and two roads on Campus Solna, and amend the naming principles.

COMMENTARY: Karolinska Institutet (KI) takes its historical legacy seriously and has therefore taken several initiatives and implemented several measures, to illuminate some of the dark episodes of our history. We take these to be pressing issues, as discussed in an article in Dagens Nyheter on 18 July (E-DN 17 July). KI's more than 200-year history contains aspects that, from today's point of view, would be considered unethical, unscientific, undemocratic and, in some cases, racist.

On 1 July 2021, a new virtual centre – the Centre for Health Crises – will be established at Karolinska Institutet. The COVID-19 pandemic has indicated that in the event of acute health threats and pandemics, universities and colleges must be able to quickly change their research, education, and other activities to help solve urgent needs.

On 29 May, the government announced that as of 15 June, higher education institutions may return to campus-based teaching. The recommendations issued by the Swedish Public Health Agency for containing the spread of the virus apply as much to HEIs as they do to general society, and require a responsible approach to the planning of a return to campus-based teaching.

Matilda Ernkrans, minister for Higher Education and Research, visited KI on 23 October. She met students, faculty, researchers and the university management, who described how they had adapted to the ongoing pandemic.

In a sense, Göran Stiernstedt will have come full circle when he takes up office as KI chairperson on 1 May 2020. He once took his medical degree at KI, and now he’s back.

On Monday, February 10, the government presented four collaborative groups that are linked to the government's strategic collaboration program. Karolinska Institutet's president Ole Petter Ottersen is a member of the collaboration group for health and life science.

Mushroom pickers and kite surfers who want to cure cancer and eliminate chronic pain – those are some of the 13 new professors inaugurated at Karolinska Institutet on Thursday in a ceremony in Aula Medica. Some 750 guests had gathered to welcome the new professors in addition to eight adjunct professors, four visiting professors, eight prize winners and four medalists.

The fall nomination period is now open - all KI employees and students are welcome to nominate representatives to the Faculty Board and Faculty Council between 18 September and 2 October.

Karolinska Institutet’s Vice President Karin Dahlman-Wright has today requested to be relieved from her assignment as vice president with immediate effect. Consequently, KI’s University Board (Konsistoriet) agreed to relieve her from the assignment at an extra meeting today.

A complaint was filed in July 2018 against the vice president of Karolinska Institutet (KI), Karin Dahlman-Wright, for suspicion of research misconduct. In order to avoid conflict of interest, in August 2018, KI reached an agreement with the University of Gothenburg to manage the investigation.

On August 22, the Government appointed Carin Götblad as a new member of the Board of Karolinska Institutet. Carin Götblad replaces Liselotte Højgaard who has asked to be dismissed.

The expectations are high. Everyone, externally as well as internally, are asking themselves how Ole Petter Ottersen is going to lead Sweden’s most talked-about university once he takes up office as vice-chancellor of Karolinska Institutet this August.

The Consultative College gave the Nomination Committee strong support for proposing to the government that Ole Petter Ottersen be appointed as Karolinska Institutet’s new vice-chancellor. Following discussion and a secret ballot, the voting results were 85 in favour of Ottersen, two against and three abstentions.

[Edit: This text was written in 2017. Prof. Anders Ekbom passed away on July 29, 2024.] Professor and physician Anders Ekbom has been appointed acting Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Karolinska Institutet from 1 January 2017. He succeeds Henrik Grönberg, who has been acting Pro-Vice-Chancellor since 7 March 2016.

Mikael Odenberg took over as Chairman of the University Board of Karolinska Institutet on 1 December 2016 and has two urgent matters to attend to: recruit a new vice-chancellor and clean up after the Macchiarini case. The minister responsible, Helene Hellmark Knutsson, says that the partly new board is expected to restore confidence in Karolinska Institutet and Swedish medical research.