SEK 100 million for Karolinska Institutet's medical research
[PRESS RELEASE 2010-08-27] Karolinska Institutet has received a donation of SEK 100 million from the Torsten and Ragnar Söderberg Foundations. The donation will make it possible to create four professorships in strategically important fields of medical research.
The increasing proportion of the elderly in the population and an increasing incidence of lifestyle-related diseases have led to a change in character for the needs of the health and medical care system. Medical research must therefore be organised in fundamentally new ways if it is to be able to satisfy the needs of the care system in the future.
"If research is to keep pace with the requirements of the healthcare system, it must provide results not only on a large scale, but also of extremely high quality", says Professor Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson, president of Karolinska Institutet. "Not least of this is the need for expert research leaders, and the generous donation from the Torsten and Ragnar Söderberg Foundations will provide us with the resources needed to attract such leaders."
One of the four new professorships at Karolinska Institutet, to be known as the Söderberg Jubilee Professorship in Medical Research, will be directed towards large-scale biomedical research. The professorship will be based at the newly opened Science for Life Laboratory at the Karolinska Institutet campus in Solna, where it will play a strategic role in the development of this national centre for biomedical research.
"Cutting-edge expertise along the complete chain from molecule to patient is required when carrying out world-leading research in health and lifestyle diseases. The Söderberg Jubilee Professorship will be a crucial link in this chain at Karolinska Institutet. Three further Söderberg Professorships in Clinical Medical Research will form additional critical links in the chain", says Professor Martin Ingvar, dean of research.
The Söderberg Professorships in Clinical Medical Research will focus on powerful leaders within clinical research.
"Karolinska Institutet has held a unique position within Swedish medical research for 200 years. We at the Torsten and Ragnar Söderberg Foundations are proud to celebrate the bicentenary of the university with a donation that is clearly focused onto its research for the third century", say Tomas and Ragnar Söderberg, chairmen of the foundations.
The Foundations
The Torsten and Ragnar Söderberg Foundations were formed in 1960. They awarded a total of SEK 259 million for scientific and other purposes in 2009. Karolinska Institutet received SEK 58.4 million of this. The aim of the foundations is to promote scientific research, teaching and study beneficial to Sweden, whereby the fields of economy, medicine and jurisprudence are to be favoured.
For more information about the Torsten and Ragnar Söderberg Foundations, visit:
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For further information, contact:
Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson, President, via Press Officer
Sabina Bossi- Phone:
- +46 8 5248 6066 or (mobile): +46 70 614
- E-mail:
Martin Ingvar, Dean of Research
- Phone:
- +46 8 5248 6787 or (mobile) +46 70 484 1
- E-mail:
Mikael Horal,Director, Development Office
- Phone:
- +46 8 5248 6513 or (mobile) +46 70 824 2
- E-mail:
Press contacts for the Torsten and Ragnar Söderberg Foundations:
Tomas Söderberg, Chairman, Torsten Söderberg FoundationTel: +46 31 795 0133Kjell Blückert, Managing director, Ragnar Söderberg FoundationTel: +46 8 402 1821- E-mail: